Monday morning with blue skies and light winds and we're heading home on the last leg. We were first in line to head through the 0800 Great Bridge lock opening. We have to stop for diesel fuel then on to the Gilmerton and Norfolk Southern #7 bridge openings. There is construction ongoing at the NS#7 bridge and it is not scheduled to open until 0915 so we should be right on time.
Arrived at the Gilmerton and RR#7 bridges at 0940. All open and no delays passing through.
That's great as the past Friday the railroad bridge was broken in the down position for most of the day and 30 boats were stuck waiting to pass through.
Lots of interesting industrial sights along the passage from Great Bridge to Norfolk. The Elizabeth River passes through a 10 mile long industrial area full of boatyards, construction yards, gravel and sand depots, grain depots, salvage and scrap metal breaking yards, and then past the US Navy repair yards.
USS Eisenhower, CVN-69, is in the Portsmouth Naval Repair Yard. This is the same pier location where I reported for duty to the Theodore Roosevelt, CVN-71, in 1989. Aircraft carriers spend a few months in short term repair status at Portsmouth after returning from deployment. The extended duration refueling overhauls are performed at the Newport News facility up the James River.
Always something new to deal with on the waterways - as we were coming up to the Norfolk Naval Station carrier piers, a pipeline on floats extending from two dredges, was stretched completely across the channel. We had to deviate out of the channel around the pipeline.
As we passed by the carrier piers, the USS Wasp, LHD-1, announced they were preparing to get underway for sea. We stayed on the edge of the channel heading towards the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel to stay out of their way.
Awhile later, the USS Wasp came past our starboard side. By then we had cleared the constricted bridge/tunnel area and were proceeding up the Chesapeake Bay past Fort Monroe.
Once out into the Bay we unfurled the sails and got a couple hours of sailing in but, soon the winds shifted astern and died and it was back to motoring.
It takes us a few hours to work our way northward around the Poquoson Flats before we can turn to the southwest and proceed up the Poquoson River towards our marina on Chisman Creek. Once we finally made the turn to the southwest we were able to sail again with the easterly winds on the beam.
With the light winds it was near the end of the day when we finally arrived at our marina. It turned out the tides were unusually low and the current was coming in strong and we could not make the tight turn into our slip. We had to tie up to the fuel dock for a couple hours waiting for the water level to come up and current to ease. But, that gave us the opportunity to walk down to the slip and put our dock lines back on the poles to prepare for our arrival. Meanwhile, Sue walked home to our house and retrieved our car.
After a couple hours we successfully made it to the slip and securely tied up. After three and a half months, it was back to home base.
Another safe and successful trip to Florida for the winter. The boat did exceptionally well this trip with the only issue being our windlass stopped working the last week. We'll check that out now that we're back home.
