After we visited Mallory and left Wilmington, we spend 5 days at anchor. It isn’t that there weren’t places to stop and see but they were off the beaten path and we didn’t feel like spending our marina dollars in other places. We are finding there is so many place to stop that it is overwhelming. We are feeling a little pressure to get north further so we have plenty of time to enjoy the Trent Severn, Georgian Bay, North Channel and Lake Michigan’s islands etc. We have already decided that this life is pretty good and once we cross our wake, we plan to head south again. We are planning a much longer trip to the Bahamas and want to see so many of the places we missed along the way. We aren’t sure if we will complete the loop a second time or not. We are going to head north quicker than if we were not coming back. We will hit things like Washington DC and spend more time in the Chesapeake next year.
We anchored right outside of Camp Lejeune along with about 15 other boats. It is a big anchorage and popular because it is close to the area the military cuts off at times to do artillery firing drills. We were told that if you get up and get moving through that area early you can get through before the drills start. We called ahead and found out they weren’t doing live drills the next day so we slept in a little later as everyone else made the mad dash out of there. One sailboat came in later and anchored next to us. The wind was blowing and their anchor was obviously dragging. We were watching them. After a while something didn’t look right. His anchor line was underneath his boat. Scott called him on the radio and asked if he was alright or if needed help. He quickly accepted the help. His windlass battery ran out of juice because he had already tried to re anchor twice. He was fearful that he would hit the cement boat ramp and dock behind him, so he had his motor running pushing into the wind. He had already call the Coast Guard and Sea Tow but they were both an hour out. Scott got on board and stepped on the windlass button and it came right up. He had a wind generator that gave just enough power to get up the anchor. But obviously the claw anchor he was using wasn’t holding at all in the mud. Scott helped him get out his Danforth and he lowered it while the guy drove. It stuck but good. crisis averted. He and his wife were older than us and were very frazzled. They were so thankful for the help. Scott’s still the hero. (we always teased him about firemen being the hero)
As we got out of the Cypress Swamps we noticed a change in the scenery. You could swear you were in Michigan or Wisconsin. We even saw a loon at one of the anchorages. Not a pacific Loon but the loons you see up north. That was a first for us.
We were on our way to Chesapeake, VA where we planned to stay a few days to visit friends. As we motored along there was a lot of chatter about North Landing Bridge stuck in the closed position. It was close to our marina. Boats that zoomed passed us were now zooming the other direction. Warning us the bridge was out. We are like “No Biggie, we’ll just anchor” Which is exactly what we did we went up the Blackwater river as far as we dared knowing that others will be following behind. We double anchored because it was a bit narrow. We were right there were a lot of boats that followed and anchored behind us. We of course dropped the dinghy and found cool stuff. Later in the day there were a lot of vintage planes flying. We found out there is a WWII vintage air show in Virginia Beach that weekend. We got to watch them practice for hours right above our boat. We had entertainment with our docktails that night.
We had plans to have dinner with our friend Alexandra and Michael the next night in Chesapeake, VA. The bridge master thought the bridge be would be fixed the next day. At about 3 we heard radio chatter that the bridge is fixed. Off we went. We were so focused on the broken bridge that we failed to look at the next bridge right before our marina. Guess what? It stays closed between 4 and 6 pm for rush hour. We and many other boats did what we call “the Dance” Floating and navigating as little as possible. Once that bridge opened there was a huge collection of boats AND a a barge needing to go through after all the boats went through. I bet the traffic was really backed up. Of course by now a storm has blown in and the dockmaster is swamped. We did The Dance again and finally docked in the pouring rain. We luckily had reservations because the place was jammed. We are halfway into the fuel dock. Alex was there by the time we docked and whisked us home for dinner.
More about our visit in the next blog.
Thanks for reading,
Karen and Scott
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