Making a Break South

Well, the Dismal Swamp route has been closed for about a week now.  Announcements could be heard daily on the VHF radio that the "South Mills Lock is closed due to high water levels". We decided to take the more heavily traveled Albemarle-Chesapeake canal route.  While we wanted to stop at the Dismal Visitors center, the real highlight of that route is Robert. We have always enjoyed visiting with the lock and bridge tender at the Deep Creek lock. If you ever decide to give the Dismal a try, coffee and a chat with Robert is not to be missed.

We left the marina at York River on Sunday. We were actually able to sail...for a little while.  A close reach, then beam, then broad before the winds finally calmed and we were left motoring the last bit into the Hampton Roads area.  One more time by the big gray military ships at the military docks and Naval Shipyard in Norfolk and Portsmouth.

Ships of old and new in Norfolk.

We stayed at the free docks in Portsmouth once again.  Although the wooden docks of the north landing are not in as nice of shape as the south location, we chose it. The north landing docks are a couple inches higher so don't tend to go underwater as often at high tide.  The north landing is also closer to the public restroom at the visitors center, the water spigot, and free pump out.  It amazes me that more people don't take advantage of this dock.  The only reason I can think of is that they are scared off by the "No overnight mooring" signs at the entrance...that I think only apply to the dolphins and structure around the entrance to these locations (newer signs with the rules about overnight docking are now posted in various locations inside the basins of each of the free docks). The only negative is that all the local hotels have finally secured their WiFi so we only had limited internet access via our phones.

The Portsmouth North Landing free dock. Plenty of
free space at this location while we were here

The next day was a very short trip with the goal to re-position for better timing of the next few legs and to give us plenty of time to make it through the gauntlet of bridges south of Portsmouth and Norfolk. I remember my first time through here I overlooked the Gilmerton bridge and arrived there sometime around 5 pm. I didn't know the name of the bridge (I still don't understand why they are not posted in charts or on the actual bridge, but they usually are not) and it was just dumb luck that there happened to be a commercial tug with an opening reservation. Monitoring the name during the radio conversation, we were able to get through with the opening for the tug.

We left the free dock late enough that we wouldn't have an issue with the typical urban area rush-hour closures. But the craziness in Norfolk didn't disappoint.  Not long into the trip we came across one of the "normally open unless there is a train" bridges.  Was it open...nope.  Was it closed....nope.  This was a lift bridge that was about half-way up.  Now, I know some pretty large boats come through here and there is a good chance that half-way up was over the 60 feet of clearance I would need...but from the boat it can be really hard to tell, particularly when everything around the bridge is of a larger scale than you are used to (remember those big, gray, military boats). I had to look up the name of the bridge (in a list I had downloaded from Blue Seas a while ago) and try to hail them.  I was successful and found that the bridge was at 80 feet...plenty of room to pass.

Not a lot of clearance under one of these when closed.

Two bridges later I found another lift bridge that was not completely closed.  But this time it was only a few feet from the closed position.  I definitely could not get through it.  So, once again, the search for the bridge name in my list of all the bridges of the ICW and give them a call.  No response. Then I remember reading somewhere that one of the bridge operators doesn't tend to respond to current name of the bridge, but instead responds to it's old name.  I look it up in my offline Active Captain database and find that sure enough, the "Norfolk and Western" bridge was the one that apparently prefers to be called "Old Virginia" so I give it a try.  They immediately responded that they were running some tests and the bridge would be opening in a few minutes.

The final bridge issue was my old friend the Gilmerton.  Funny how I don't need to look this bridge up, it has been ingrained in my memory since that first encounter. As we approach, I see a boat waiting but it is farther away than most usually wait.  I give the bridge a call and they tell me to come to the closest day marker and they would open up.  Of course, about the time we get the mark I see the railroad bascule bridge that is just on the other side of the Gilmerton start to close. I knew what was next before the bridge tender even made the radio call.  She said that the railroad bridge was closing and she would open once the train bridge went back up (no point to raising the Gilmerton if you cannot pass due to the train).  No train, just a railroad work pickup crosses.  I guess it must be maintenance time for all the area railroad bridges.  Oh well, it was only another 20 minute delay or so.  Once the railroad bridge and the Gilmerton bridge opened, we were on our way.

The last obstacles are the Great Bridge lock and bridge.  A short wait for the lock to open (and only one powerboat that had to push his way past everyone else to be at the head of the line) and we were in the lock.  The Great Bridge lock is the least eventful of the locks and it seems sometimes it only raises or lowers a boat by inches. So, before you know anything happens, the gates at the opposite end of the lock open and you are on your way...the few hundred feet to the bridge.  Fortunately the lock operates in concert with the bridge so there really isn't much of a wait.

The free dock at Great Bridge.

There are two free docks at Great Bridge.  One is on the south side between the bridge and the lock.  It was empty.  The other is on the north side just past the lock.  We couldn't see it before we passed under the bridge, but once through, we found that it was pretty full.  There was enough space for us, but only if a boat that was already there moved down a bit.  So, after pulling over toward the dock, I spin the catamaran around.  I think a large boat spinning 180 degrees in a channel gets a little attention, and the owner of the one boat figured out I wanted to dock and offered to walk his boat down a few feet so we would fit.  After getting our boat tied up, I went down and thanked him for moving down.  There was still enough space for about a 25 foot or smaller boat, but otherwise the dock was full.  I can understand as this new dock is definitely the nicer of the two.

Boats at the Free Dock and Atlantic Yachts at Great Bridge.

Tomorrow the plan is to make our way south, past Coinjock, and then on to an anchorage just north of the Albemarle.

Too Dismal for Dismal

Well, at the end of my last post I mentioned that we were waiting out a little bad weather.  It's not a lot of fun to sail in the rain without a cockpit enclosure and there didn't seem to be any reason to do it when sun would return in a few days.

The sun returned and we were making plans to head out on Friday.  Then late Thursday I saw a notice posted on Facebook that the ICW south of Norfolk was closed.  Both the Dismal Swamp Canal and Albemarle-Chesapeake Canal routes were closed.  If you follow my Facebook page, I did re-share the post on the closure. I tried finding confirmation that evening and wasn't able to confirm the closure until I called Robert, the lock and bridge tender at Deep Creek, the following morning.

Image accompanying the Chesapeake Bay Magazine's
Facebook post on the closures.

That rain that we were waiting to pass was apparently worse just south of us and caused a bunch of flooding.  Now, you would think that flooding wouldn't be a big issue for a boat, but it apparently is for the various draw bridges and locks along those routes. The Dismal Swamp route locks couldn't be operated with waters as high as they were. Apparently the already problematic North Landing bridge, and possibly one or more others along the other route, could not be opened for fear of damage due to the flood waters.

Image from the Dismal Swamp Welcome Center's
Facebook page.

So, we continue to wait.  The Albemarle-Chesapeake route has been re-opened, but the Dismal swamp route remains closed.  Given how we often encounter floating logs and other issues in the swamp, we are rethinking taking that route as I can only imagine what flood waters have washed up (not to mention it isn't expected to be reopened until next week).  We are altering our plans to take the more heavily traveled route.  In order to try and avoid some of the heavy weekend traffic (and hopefully let that traffic help clear anything that might be in the way), we hope to continue our trip south tomorrow.

Three Days in Portsmouth

The primary goal of our stay in Portsmouth was to determine where we would be taking the boat in order to get some work done.  In addition to the hard top bimini replacement that I've been wanting for a long time, the trip has demonstrated a few more items that could use some attention. We had hoped that our extender would find a WiFi signal we could use from the boat, but that wasn't the case, so we ended up spending a little time at coffee shops and other places that had the access we needed.

Rover's home for a few days in Portsmouth

One big help was having the Active Captain companion application on my tablet.  Since you can download the database and use it in an offline mode, we were able to search through a large number of marinas and boatyards in Virginia and Maryland and contact them without internet access while sitting on the boat.

Oh, did I mention that the neighbors at the High street dock can be a bit noisy?  I guess it takes a lot of noise to build or maintain battleships and aircraft carriers. It seems like they run crews nonstop while working on these big gray boats.

Noisy Neighbors across the river.

It wasn't all work though.  We managed a couple of touristy things as well.  Adjacent to both free docks are tourist information centers, and I've found those can be great resources for finding things to do.  We got a self-guided walking tour pamphlet and wandered around some of the Portsmouth historic district, later going back and riding more of it with our bicycles.

The Portsmouth ferry just steps from our door

There is also a ferry service that goes between the docks in Portsmouth and downtown Norfolk, and for $3.50 you can get a round-trip ride.  Or better, for $4 you can get an all day pass that works for the ferry as well as the local buses.  On Sunday, after exhausting the limited possibilities for boatyards open that day, we took the ferry over to Norfolk to check things out.  I'm not 100% sure why, but we ended up taking a rather expensive tour of the battleship Wisconsin.  It was interesting to see some of the areas not open to the regular tour, but I'm not sure the price is justified.

The Battleship Wisconsin from the bow

...and from the side.

Don't want to be captain...but the chair is pretty comfy

The tour guide looks nervous with Anja as Tactical Officer

After the battleship, we had a late lunch and returned to check on our furry crew (since we figured they wouldn't be allowed on the tours).  We ended up taking them on the ferry back to Norfolk so they would have the experience of riding on a public transit ferry.  In Norfolk we decided we were thirsty and the mission there was to find a smoothie shop...which we did after a little effort.  I think the dogs liked getting out and checking out the area.

As for our goal...well...we think we found a place to get some of the work done, but it doesn't tick all of the boxes so we are reworking the plan again.  We need to get up to Maryland to retrieve my car (unless my friend has sold it...which at this point I could only hope would be the case) and we need to find a "stable location" where family can finally come visit and see the boat.