ICW - Motoring, bridges and more wildlife

Day 3

After a day at anchor sheltering from the bitter cold northerly in Alligator River we were underway again, as we left at 7am it was pretty chilly, the oillies were on along with our thermals! This was a bit of a shock. We had 2 large open stretches of water to  transit, the first was  in the Alligator River and as the river opened up the wind was between 15-20 knots and really cold, the brown murky water looked particularly uninviting!

We had our first encounter with a bridge which we needed opened for us to pass through, we called the bridge operator and he kindly stopped the traffic on what looked like a busy road and opened the bridge for us.

Alligator River bridge

Opening Alligator Bridge

The cars cursing us for closing the bridge

We continued up the river, sounds easy but even through the river is wide here we had to stick within the dredged channel which is 90 yards wide and shallow outside this, the markers for the channel are around 1 mile apart so it can be difficult to get your bearings especially without a chart plotter.  At the north end of the river we entered  the Ablemarle Sound, which is wide and open and relatively deep, 4-5 meters, so we were able to get the sail out and motor sail for the next 20 miles to save some fuel. We still stuck within the channel although potentially in some places we could have sailed outside but there are a huge number of crab pots littering the sound even in some place within the channel.  We also dodged the seabirds which seemed content to sit in our path, it was nice to see Cormorants again, they always remind us of home.

Cormorants enjoying a rest

As we left the Sound and entered north river we manoeuvred out of the channel and into the maze of crab pots to anchor for the night.  Another 40 miles of motoring behind us.

Day 4

We were greeted in the morning by the sight of the nesting Osprey on the channel marker, they were a little concerned when we had to motor close to them.

The mist was rising over the river as the motor was on again for another day.

Beautiful morning

We had an early start but even at this time it was bank holiday and there were small boats whizzing past us, mainly on their way fishing.  The day continued as it had started and all along the North River into the North Landing River and then the Arblemarle and Cheasapeake canal with Osprey nesting on every available channel marker.

In addition to the Ospreys there we a number of other very large birds of prey and we also saw a terrapin sunning itself.

Terrapin enjoying the sunshine

As we reached the Currituck Sound the water was the shallowest we had experienced in the ICW and down to 2.1m, which is our depth, we were pretty slow and expect dragging Magnum’s keel through the mud.

As the day warmed up the river got busier and busier with boating traffic, after 3 days of very few boats they were passing from every direction all with a friendly wave. 

It was not long until the bridges began, we had 14 bridges and 1 lock over the course of the day, some of which we could pass under but many we had to wait to open.  They started small with the north landings bridge which opened on request.

Bridge in distance

The Great Bridge was bigger and only opened every half an hour, this was followed immediately by the lock, we even stopped for a cup of tea which waiting  - take a close look at Magnum’s bow and you can see the brown stain which had was now moving up her hull.

Magnum with her ICW moustache

Great Bridge opening and the tug we were to share the lock with

Amanda holding lines in the lock

The bridges increased in size as we entered the outskirts of Norfolk and the industrial activity. The novelty of the bridges soon wore off and as we neared the end of our journey any waiting around became frustrating especially when rail and road bridges seemed to struggle to co-ordinate open at the same time.

Approaching the Gilmerton Highway Bridge and preceding rail bridge

Road and rail at same time

Was quite scary as we were the last boat passing under the railbridge and the warning for it closing started to signal. It had been open 2 minutes maximum!

We were over joyed when we actually saw bridges that we open for boating traffic without request.

The final couple of bridges were a relief as one was high enough and the other was open, hurrah!  Particularly as we were now running very low on fuel!

Almost there!

Canal barge

Our final approach was painless but a little odd to us as we had not sailed into a large city for a long time.

Norfolk is a large naval city which was very apparent

Norfolk Waterside