Today was a mixed bag of a variety of landscapes. We started off in Norfolk with the aircraft carriers, working docks, and tug boats doing their things. We encountered our first bridge with a height of 65 feet of which we needed 63.5 feet to clear. This was going to be stressful for me but all went well. On our first day, we encountered five opening bridges, two fixed bridges, and one lock. The “opening bridges” only open at specified times due to traffic so timing is important and at one of the earlier ones we had a boat traffic jam! Due to the number of boats traveling south our group was not able to get into the lock as we had hoped we would and had to wait for the next opening. We all had to stand by for over 40 minutes. Once in the lock we had a bow and stern line hook up to the wall about four feet above our heads. We never went through a lock before and were not sure what to expect. We saw the doors close behind us and we waited. The doors then opened ahead of us allowing us to exit. Surprisingly, we found out that it was only a four inch rise! I’m told there are times it can be a six foot difference. The lock is used primarily to control the tide height difference between the Albemarle Sound and the Chesapeake Bay. As we were arriving at one of the opening bridges and I just happened to see a sign on the road reading “Welcome to Virginia Beach”. I thought we really are going south!
The landscape went from Navy ships to a dense forest type setting. It was a long narrow channel that we followed and there were a parade of boats. We saw many hunters zipping up and down the channel in small open boats and also on the water’s edge. They all had orange caps on so they could be seen. We saw one boat with a dead deer on the bow.
Colorful fall colors
The landscaped changed again and we were in open waters with a narrow channel. We had beautiful water on both sides of the channel but it was only three feet deep. We had to be very careful to stay in the channel!
We stopped at the Midway Marina in Coinjock, NC for the night and to celebrate Pete’s birthday aboard Pekabu. Maureen on Sevilla was the baker for the party and she made a delicious cake. It was a wonderful way to end the 50 mile day.
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