Portsmouth and Norfolk - Awesome!

We are staying at Tidewater Water Yacht marina (http://www.tyamarina.com/) in Portsmouth, Virginia for over a month; on arrival we have a never ending list of Magnum maintenance! One of our first jobs is for Mark to take a look at the saildrive and propeller to see why we are struggling in reverse.  So on goes the wetsuit, the water is not very inviting firstly because it is in the marina which is never pleasant, it is also very dark and murky plus we have seen a number of jelly fish! But he bravely ventures in.

Initially Mark is not even able to locate the saildrive/propeller as visibility is so poor he doesn’t know which way is up and down but on his second dive  he appears with culprit, a piece of plastic sheeting was wrapped around the propeller, which is great news as we thought it was going to be an huge expense.

Propeller wrapping!

Mark has also had a trip up the mast to fit a new VHF antenna, good exercise for him and some superb views over the empty marina, the Elizabeth River and Norfolk.

It hasn't been all work and no play, we have explored Portsmouth, the town was established in 1752 by Colonel William Crawford who was an America Soldier but from Scottish/Irish decent.  The Gosport shipyard was built here in the 1700’s which was later renamed to Norfolk Naval dockyard, it has built many US navy ships and is the oldest facility belonging to the US Navy, Norfolk is actually America’s largest naval base.

The Portsmouth Lightship was built in 1915 although stationed in Virginia she was not in Portsmouth but now proudly is stands between 2 apartment blocks.

The historic district of the town is very pretty and contains lots of houses dating back to the 1800s which have been beautifully maintained.

Many properties have the stars and stripes flying, they are pretty patriotic.

We have also had a few visits across the Elizabeth River to Norfolk on the paddle steamer, unfortunately the paddle is just for show but it is a convenient and cheap way ($3 return) to cross the river.

Elizabeth River paddle steamer

With such a huge naval presence they have a great naval museum, “Nauticus” this is a naval museum but there is also other sea related exhibitions, we enjoyed being able to stroke a shark! It was only a small cat shark in a tank, he was a bit rough and squishy but weren't we brave!  You also have access to the Battleship Wisconsin which has seen active service in World War 2, the Korean War and more recently when it was updated to fire Tomahawk missiles in Dessert storm, it was an action packed day and we were a bit “navy ed” out by the end of the day. But look what fun we had!!

 

Mark is a sailor!

Amanda is a mermaid

On deck of the Wisconsin

Disappearing down the hatch

Mark standing to attention

How huge is the ship - 58,000 tonnes

We also love the mermaid theme in Norfolk, they are everywhere, this is 3 of many.

There always seems to be something going on in the area, Harbour Fest took place one weekend with entertainment both sides of the river, we spent Friday evening at an Arts centre listening to some local acoustic musicians, again very friendly we were given a special welcome! On the Saturday we visited Norfolk where there were Tall Ship, stalls, music and water demonstrations – we enjoyed the tug demonstration and some of the local musicians.

We have been so warmly welcomed in Portsmouth, the people have been exceptionally friendly and helpful, Patty and LT on the boat opposite have been kind enough to run us around to the supermarket and other place, they also invited us to cocktail night on the dock (every Thursday at 5!) when we meet lots of other friendly neighbours. We met Tom and Paula at one of these evenings and they have been kind enough to provide various cruising advice, as well as inviting us to a social on their boat to watch fireworks – our rum jelly shooters went down well.

There were many more

Another exceptionally nice couple are Neil and Dot who went out of their way to pick up information  on the countryside we were planning on visiting on the Blue Ridge mountains and provide lots of advice on where we might enjoying visiting as well as offering us a bed, very kind of people to go out of their way to make your stay enjoyable.

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

Intracoastal Waterway - Dolphins and Bear!!!

For us to satisfy our insurance company we have to be north of Cape Harratas by the 1^st of June which is the official start of the hurricane season. Our initial landfall at Morehead city is not north of this point but from here we can head North on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) which is a series of rivers, creeks, canals and sounds which run along the east coast from Virginia to Florida all protected from the atlantic ocean.  We had 200 miles to transit in this way to reach Chesapeake although once halfway we would be north of the imaginary hurricane safe zone.

Day 1  – We were not quite sure what to expect, we had some paper charts which were kindly given almost a year ago in Corsica (thanks Peter and Sue) and had spoken to a few people about their trip but our knowledge was limited. We also had a problem with a brand new memory card which contained all our electronic charts for this area, it was blank! So we were doubly grateful for the paper charts and also to a Canadian guy (think he was called Alan) we met in Sint Maartin who decided to hop aboard one day to copy a navigation program, charts and software to allow my handheld GPS to interact with our PC. We never did find out his name, he just asked if we had the program and charts, we said no, so he returned and gave them to us. Whoever you are, many thanks they have been invaluable.

As we left Morehead City to join the first canal we were slightly surprised to see a stream of sail and power boats already heading in the same direction! 

Start of ICWon a grey May morning

It was a grey day as we entered the Adams creek canal which was about a quarter of a mile wide surrounded by marshland. As we motored along the heavens opened but this couldn’t dampen our spirits as it was such a new adventure!

An excited Mark

We were still of the outskirts of Beaufort and they were some impressive properties lining the canal, they even looked lovely in the rain!

We motored along the canal hoping from buoy to buoy for 15 miles before reaching the river Neuse which was a large expanse of water but still there is a very clear channel that you need to follow as even the river is often too shallow for Magnum but there was slightly more room to manoeuvre and we were even able to sail for some of the 25 miles.  The shore here is still lined with some spectacular properties dotted in the woodland and there is  the town of Oriental is on the north shore but generally it still feels like you are in the wilderness with the shore lined with hundreds of huge trees which look like they go on for miles.  Although we had left in a flurry of boats we only passed a handful of boats and apart from the annoyance of the engine it was amazingly peaceful.

Following the river the channel again narrowed off into Goose Creek.  Here we had our 2^nd surprise visit of the day from dolphins! This really was the last thing we expected in the shallow, very murky water of the ICW, they were bottled nose dolphins and were happy to pop over to say hello.

This made for a nice end to the day, a few miles up Goose creek, we found a small deep pool where we could pull out of the channel to anchor for the night, we were still a little concerned about depths and the accuracy of the chart which we were using from our laptop, so we edged over a much as we dared and threw the anchor over.  It all felt very remote with just a few houses on the shore but just as we were off to bed we heard a noise and Mark popped his head out of the hatch to see the biggest/longest barge we had ever seen less than 100 feet away motoring down the canal, wow glad we were out of the channel!

Day 2 – Up anchor by 7.10 as the wind was forecasted to increase in the afternoon, we were joined in the early morning by the fishing men visiting their buoys – we assume they are crab pots.  

Little fishing boat in middle of photo, lovely surrounding houses

A few mile along Goose Creek we were out into Pimlico River, this seemed huge, it was probably around 5 Miles across, to the west we could see a road bridge crossing the river but still the majority of the shoreline is lined with trees and no sign of civilisation.  Good news was we were able to sail some of the river as we had force 3 although we had to stick to our buoy hopping as there were various shoals and even the area in which we were sailing was only around 5 metres deep.  We sailed for 20 miles on the river before entering Alligator River –Pungo River Canal which is suddenly very narrow, at only about 100 metres wide but it is also lined with fallen trees and tree stumps where the shoreline is obviously eroding.

The boating traffic had been relatively quiet all morning suddenly we were inundated by power boats wanting to pass us.

Surrounded by powerboats

But it soon became quiet again as we continued to motor down the middle of canal on the constant look out for debris in the water.

There seemed to be a constant stream of giant butterflies almost bumping into Magnum on their flight across the canal and we were both feeling a bit itchy from being so close to the bugs! There were very few properties along this stretch of canal and even when Mark stood on the boom to get a better look it was just wilderness far into the distance.  We saw many birds of prey and the for us the best bit of the day was seeing a bear!!! We never even realised that there were bears in this area but there he/she was stood on the canal bank completely undisturbed by us even as Amanda shrieked with excitement.

An amazing Black bear

The day ended with a little too much excitement as we emerged from our 90 yard wide canal in the trees into a large expanse of open water and 35knts of wind which threw waves and spray at Magnum. It was a bit tense for a while because although we had miles of water all around the ICW is only a 90 yards wide channel dredged through the middle and the water either side is sometimes less than 2ft deep. Magnum is 7ft, so staying in the channel that we couldn’t see was very important !

We managed a couple of miles and then spotted, on the chart, a slightly deeper pool just off the channel (8ft) this offered some shelter so we inched our way in and dropped anchor.

An hour later the wind had calmed and we were serenaded by frogs in the swamp and the buzz of flying things……………

Bahamas to USA - Back into the Atlantic Swell

480 miles of open water to cross, passing through the Bermuda triangle, crossing the gulf stream and reaching America via the “graveyard of ships”

It all sounded a bit dramatic, but with a good long range forecast we set off. We didn't want to make landfall in the US in the dark so we tried to estimate our passage time, this was complicated by the unknown factor of the Gulf Stream which flows from Florida across the Atlantic to the west coast of the UK. Some predictions showed we may pick up 3-4 knts of favourable current if we could find it but it was quite a big IF.

Day one was a nice downwind sail in a F3/4, sunny and warm with a gentle swell. A slightly frustrating adverse current of about 1knt but the main issue we had was the amount of weed in the water which kept fouling our generator which we tow in the water, I was clearing it every half hour.

Day two and the wind steadily increased and we had some fast sailing, right up to the point we ran into a 2knt adverse current. We were obviously pretty near the gulf stream but so far had only picked up counter currents not the main event. Oh and more weed !

Day three we finally hit the warm water of the gulf stream, the water temperature was over 30 deg, but all that really happened was that the giant hand causing the current stirred and splashed at the water making in very uncomfortable but with very little in the way of positive current, very disappointing.

Our forth night at sea was pretty busy, we were approaching land so shipping increased, sandbanks and shallows had to be avoided and then as a finally we had 30knts of wind appear from nowhere and last couple of hours. Always in the dark at 2 in the morning and approaching land……..the law of sod !  But we were joined by some dolphins in the final hours.

Anyway we arrived at the Beaufort inlet in the morning, had a couple of interesting hours motoring slowly in against an ebb tide and were very grateful to tie up at the marina, hot showers, courtesy car for shopping and as much free fresh water as I wanted to finally rinse months of salt water from Magnum.

Clearing in was easier than expected, the marina let us use their phone and I gave details of passports, last port of call, cruising permit etc and then they arranged to come to the marina to finish the formalities. An hour later they were there, very efficient and friendly and we have been allow to stay until the end of the year.  

Final memories from the West Indies - a wonderful 4 months

Turtles – we had only ever had a brief sighting of a turtle in the past and there were many places that we were seeing turtles every day, how amazing! Each sight was as exciting as the first and to be in the water with one swimming beneath you is really cool.

Rum – Yep we have consumed a fair amount, dark rum, light rum, golden rum mmmm all yummy. Rum punches, Ti punch, dark and stormy, pina colada, killer bees, pain killers always up for trying something new.

Hummingbirds – Always wanted to see a hummingbird, so tiny and fast, after our first sighting in Guadeloupe we then saw regularly in the Lesser Antilles.

Snorkelling – There are some wonderful spots to snorkel on lots of the islands and once Amanda had overcome the fear of sharks we could enjoy the coral reefs. We must have seen over 50 species of reef fish, huge barracuda (as big as Amanda), giant stingrays and even a shark plus brightly coloured and delicate corals, it was like a garden under the sea!

Bananas – On arriving in Guadeloupe after almost 3 weeks at sea we made the most of our supermarket trips and were so impressed by the fact that we could eat local bananas, we thought how wonderful it would be to eat lots of fresh exotic local fruit but we soon realised this was not to be the case. As we transmitted the islands we realised that produce was not imported from local islands, so you could not find Guadeloupe bananas in Antigua even though they are neighbouring islands, you would get more variety of fruit and veg in the UK though all imported – how can this be right!

Rain Forest – Neither of us had every visited a rain forest, we were amazed by the size of the trees, the variety of plants, the vastness of the coverage and were still surprised when we were caught out in a huge downpour!

The colour of the sea – on many occasions we commented on the beautiful colour of the sea, turquoise, deep blue, green, aqua every shade of blue and green and often amazingly clear.

The people – we meet some really lovely people and mostly people were very friendly, not that often in the UK do you walk down the road and everyone say hello to you. It was often in the most remote and often poor locations that people made you feel this most welcome, funny that in the more touristy areas this is where you felt people tried to take advantage of you.

We have many special memories from our 4 months in the West Indies, not all the islands were the same and we enjoyed lots of different experiences.

Abacos Cay - Marsh Harbour and Hope Town

We were back into the Atlantic rolling swells for our trip to the Abacos Cays which was fine for the first 5 hours but as the wind dropped off our sails started to flap, so it was engine on for the rest of the day which was a bit frustrating.  Even the tankers were suffering in the swells.

Big tankers bobbing in the swell

Next day the plan was to head for Man o War Cay, knowing that a strong northerly was on its way, so we needed to get shelter. This was not much more than 10 miles away but we had to motor most of it as we were weaving around sand banks, also we wanted to stop on route to attempt to get some wifi.  After around 5-6- miles we stopped close to a marina in the hope we would pick up wifi. We did and thanks to their generosity, unlocked broadband, Amanda called her mum and dad before they went on holiday.

So we upped anchor and headed back out to deeper water, but in under a minute we slid to a halt. Mark came running up from below to see what had happened. We had driven onto an unmarked sandbank and Magnum liked her new resting place as she seemed very reluctant to let go of her hold on the sand.
Quick action was required as the tide was falling and we could be marooned here until the next high tide about 9 hours later.
We tried reversing off the way we had come......nope,
we tried going forward hoping it was a small raised patch of sand........nope
we tried putting the helm hard to port and pivoting the boat using wash from the propeller, this did turn the boat but we were still stuck...
In a final last ditch effort we span Magnum to starboard until we had a good angle to the wind, we then unroll d the foresail and sheeted it tight. We drove the engine hard in forward and held our breath as Magnum healed over, reducing our draft. Slowly we slid off into deeper water (2.6m!!)......we were off!

We resumed our journey to Man o War but the day was conspiring against us and we a strong westerly wind meant we had to change our plans so more difficult navigation across another very shallow sand bank to get into Marsh harbour, we were relieved to arrive in one piece and find space to anchor.

Marsh Harbour

Marsh harbour is a reasonably large settlement and is good for supermarket, fuel, laundrette, all our essentials.  It is also quite touristy with some nice little gift shops and some lovely looking restaurants.   From here various ferries run to some of the smaller islands, we were really keen to visit Hope Town as we had heard it was very pretty but it was also very shallow so we took a ferry, was nice to be on someone elses boat,

Hope Town is on Elbow Cay and is a beautiful little place, it was one of the original loyalist colonies and has lots of picture postcard houses that line the tiny lane, most of which seem to be holiday lets.

Even the school is quaint.

There are also some beautiful beaches.

Amanda alone on the beautiful beach at Hope Town

It was a lovely place to spend a day exploring, but in typical West Indies style, the museum which was supposed to be open every day, was not open and there was no explanation :)   Hope Town is a beautiful place and glad we had an opportunity to visit even if it was not on Magnum.

Mark taking in the world at the entrance to Hope Town

The friendly curly tail lizards

Entrance to Hope town harbour

One final sunset in the Bahamas and we were off to America, wow that seems like another big adventure.