Our plan was to pass through the Great Bridge lock and bridge then stop at Atlantic Yacht Basin, but they told us they were iced in with solid ice across the canal. So we stopped just short of the lock at Top Rack marina. We were the only ones there, traveling south in January.
Turns out we aren't the only travelers though. Two other sailboats and a power boat departed Great Bridge on the 26th. We waited till the 27th to let the ice clear out and didn't see any ice until just north of Coinjock.
Its a 6hr transit to Coinjock so we took an early morning walk then left the marina at 9am to pass through the 10am lock opening.
Great Bridge is an easy lock to pass through. The water only comes up 1 foot (depending on the tide level in the Chesapeake), so its easy to lasso the cleats ashore by ourselves. The right side has large and relatively clean rubber bumpers to tie up against.
Once out of the lock its onto the bridge. Its timed to open as traffic comes out of the lock southbound.
No ice in sight, glad we waited an extra day.
There are two more bridges to pass through down the Virgina Cut canal but no problems motoring along and no ice.
By noon we were into the Currituck Sound and actually able to deploy the genoa and get a little push from the wind. Only for a short while though as the wind slowly shifted from the west to the south and on the nose.
Oh no, shades of the Titanic, ice ahead. Just 2 miles north of Coinjock, the wind has blown a patch of ice into the ICW channel. The channel is relatively narrow through here so I was unable to maneuver around the ice completely. I was able to get way over to the side of the channel, with the depth alarm blaring, but we only had to cut through just the tip of the patch, about 30ft of ice.
You can see this ice is no joke. It was all broken in pieces that we could push out of the way but, those pieces have sharp edges. We could see bits of bottom paint on the flows as they passed down alongside.
Now I'm really glad we didn't go down the canal yesterday when there was lots of this ice. We only had this short 30ft stretch, so no damage except some chipped bottom paint. Should be no problem as we have to paint the bottom when we return to the Chesapeake this summer anyways.
We were soon through the ice patch and onto Coinjock, just a few minutes away. Now all tied up and heater turned on and ready for a walk, then dinner. The next challenge is crossing the Albermarle Sound tomorrow into some wind and waves.
