Sunday, 2nd May was another sunny day with light southerly winds. We were a motor boat again with no places to sail up through the ICW and with 2 opening bridges to pass through. We arrived at Great Bridge early in the afternoon without any problems. As we arrived at the Great Bridge bridge, a trawler pulled away from the free dock on the starboard side and we were able to pull right in 2nd in line astern of the large trawler you see ahead of us. Later in the day, two boats pulled in behind us.
Another interesting story about people you meet on the water. At just about dusk, a sailboat came up looking for a place to stop for the night. He wanted to pull in behind us in the space you can see in the photo. There was clearly not enough room for him to easily fit. We recommended that he go through the bridge and tie up at the free bulkhead on that side. Then Sue said we should go help him tie up since he was single handing, so off we went walking across the bridge and got him safely tied up. He was greatly appreciative since it is a challenge to safely tie up to that bulkhead without someone ashore to grab your lines and hold the boat in place as you get bow, stern and spring lines in place while the wind is blowing you aware from the shore.
When he was safely secured, we realized that he was a sailor from Turkey that used to keep his boat at our Dare Marina. We went out to the local restaurant that evening and swapped stories about sailing and politics, and sailing single handed because his wife and adult son are not enamored with sailing like he is. It made me appreciate what a great First Mate and cruising partner I have. It was a fitting end to our 4 month cruise showing how small the world really is.
