We spent the day in Elizabeth City visiting with our friend Carol. We tied up along the bulkhead by the town park with the light winds from the north. There were a couple showers in the afternoon, then cool and comfortable weather for a great dinner with friends.
Elizabeth City is a great place to stop for boaters.
Early the next morning it was time to bid adieu to Elizabeth City and start the long trek to home port in Yorktown. The weather is great today but turns unfavorable tomorrow so we will go the entire way to Chisman Creek today, expecting to arrive around midnight.
We have to depart before 7am to pass through the Elizabeth City bridge before it closes at 7am for morning rush hour and then make it to the South Mills Lock for the 1100 opening. We were up and underway at 0615.
The Pasquotank River between Elizabeth City and the Dismal Swamp Canal is another of the prettiest sections of the ICW.
Today the wind was zero and the sky was clear blue providing a mirror water surface that perfectly reflected the shoreline. Flip the photo and you probably can't tell which side is up without the bow of the boat.
We had a little fog at 7am but it quickly burned off for ideal conditions.
We got to the lock a little early but that's better than too late as it turned out the lock was eventually full with 8 boats. The ninth boat arriving had to wait for the next opening, two and half hours later.
Once out of the lock, the main danger in the dismal swamp is the overhanging trees. You have to stick to the middle of the canal and do a little maneuvering from time to time. If you hit a tree you are likely to damage the wind instruments at the top of the mast - a $500 mistake.
We made it all the way without any encounters with the trees, just a couple near misses.
The boats are rafting up at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center. Turns out there is a Trawler Meet-Up in Norfolk that all these folks are heading to.
We were able to squeeze by and continue our trip up the canal. We have to get to the Deep Creek Lock by 1530, the last opening of the day, to continue our trip homeward bound.
After 4 months of cruising, we're back in home waters. Making good time and we should be at the Deep Creek lock on time. Weather is still perfect.
Passing through the Deep Creek lock where we drop back down 8 feet to the level of the Chesapeake Bay. From here its 10 miles to Norfolk but, its a long segment as we can't get through the Gilmerton Bridge in Norfolk until 1730 after rush hour so we have to waste about 45 minutes getting there.
We're finally through all the bridges in the Elizabeth River and heading through Norfolk past the drydocks full of US Navy ships.
We got to the Gilmerton Bridge at 1730 but then had to wait another 30 minutes for the Norfolk Southern railroad bridge to open after a long coal train passed through.
Then we just made it through the next two railroad bridges before they had closures for trains. A busy evening of train traffic.
Finally, past the Norfolk Naval Base and cargo loading piers and into the Chesapeake Bay just as the sun is setting at 2030.
Its already been a full day but we have another 4 hours to go before we anchor in Chisman Creek by our marina. We need to do this nighttime passage up the Chesapeake today while the weather is good - tomorrow the wind will be blowing strong on the nose.
We were able to sail for a couple hours up the bay, then the wind died and it was back to motoring the final few hours. We used our radar during the night to back up our eyesight and, in what is very rare, it was very critical in two instances. Normally, in good visibility it is easier to see the lights of other boats with your eyes rather than the confusing blips on the radar screen. Our first issue was encountering a small fishing boat coming directly at us without proper lighting in the Poquoson River. He had just a white light on the bow which blended in with white lights from houses ashore. But I saw a fleeting reflection on the radar that made us closely check ahead and we finally picked him out as a "moving" white light coming at us. Then when we turned up Chisman Creek, again I noted a fuzzy reflection on the radar that popped up and then disappeared, right in the middle of the creek. Upon inspection with the search light, it turned out to be a small catamaran without legal anchor lighting. They just had a couple dim solar lights showing which also blend in with the shore lighting. So, using all the resources available, we successfully arrived just off our marina and anchored for the night. A long 19hr transit, but safe arrival.
Its morning and we are home, back to our home slip. Good thing we made the long transit yesterday as later in the day the wind and rain came up with a cold nor-easter wind coming off the ocean even stronger and colder than forecasted. But we were back home in our house with Tides Inn snug in her slip.
The end of another great trip to the Bahamas with no incidents - the best kind of trip.
