Mile zero, visibility almost zero – Norfolk Virginia

Got here yesterday in teeming rain from Coinjock, the last 50 miles were a challenge, five low bridges and one lock, rained all day and windy too.

Spent the night on anchor opposite the “Largest Warship ever built” USS Wisconsin, that’s her but sticking out from the slip in the mist (sorry about the picture quality, the weather is worse than it looks).

Albermarle Sound and Coinjock

Across Albermarle Sound today about 25+ miles of open water.
I did take one picture off to the right side, it’s a famous place, two Bicycle making brothers from Dayton made history right there about 107 years ago, but you would never know it from this distance, just a line on the horizon.

Freezing on the Nuese River

“The Nuese River is another large body of water that can be as bad or even worse than Albermarle Sound in a blow”.

Thus spake the cruising guide, and today it was blowing hard and cold (the high was about 45F (7C)) not bad if you are in the backyard, but standing on a pitching boat, not fun. We made about 60 miles altogether across several other open stretches that were not photogenic. Just as soon as we ducked into a narrow man made channel around lunchtime we came up on a tug towing a whole menagerie, a dredge and seven barges followed by about a mile of bundled dredge pipe. A polite request to “Squeeze past on your port side” was answered with “Sure, come on up captain, there’s lots of room for both of us”
Lots is a bit of an exaggeration.

But we pushed past at our top speed (a blistering 10 knots).

Fear This.

Cape Fear, the name is enough to scare you, why call it that unless someone was really scared by it, anyway we have to get around it to head north so off we go.
It was a nothing, the sea was almost calm and the wind and tide were both with us, about two hours in open water and then back into “The Ditch”

Into Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – land of contrasts.

An interesting day, we started in Charleston, after an overnight stay at a city marina.

South Carolina

Into South Carolina today, across the Savannah River into Beaufort and through one of the remaining Bascule bridges on the waterway. The Savannah is a major maritime highway and we crossed between an outgoing cargo ship

Then a Thunderbolt.

In Thunderbolt, GA, yes such places do still exist, small, poor and not at all antebellum, but with a great restaurant “Tubby’s Tank House” and the freshest grilled Yellowfin Tuna I have ever tasted (Japan included).

Not much to see in the ditch today, a lot of tricky navigation, low tides and shallows, interspersed with wide open sound crossings almost out of sight of land.

Georgia Sweet Georgia

Into Georgia, just, had a few mechanical issues today, batteries, generator, invertor but all solved by suppertime.

Highlight of the day, took on 440 gallons of diesel so hammered a credit card for $1500.

Anchored overnight in Shellbine Creek, southern Georgia after an early start (7:00am) to make the tide, much grumbling from the first mate.

Only a few piccies.

The first one is “What is it?”

In “The Ditch”

The IntraCoastal Waterway runs from Brownsville Texas to Norfolk Virginia (Mile zero) via Southern Florida, known affectionately as “the Ditch” it is a mostly sheltered interconnected system of canals and waterways used primarily for recreational travel.
We joined the ditch at mile 803 in Palm Coast Florida heading North.

Taking the Plunge

I have bought another  boat, after thirty years of sailboats I decided to buy a power boat, we looked around at what is a huge selection of used boats (the economy here is not what it was) and found a friend of a friend who has a 44 foot trawler in fine condition and closed on it last month (Valentine’s Day).