The journey begins!

We have officially begun our journey south! Two days ago we brought in all the lines and left Herrington Harbour.  We were happy, sad, anxious, READY!

We managed to sail for a few hours in the Bay, but when the wind left we fired up the iron gennie.  With a hefty blow forecast for Thursday we had a choice to make—anchor each night and hang out in Norfolk or Coinjock for the weather, or do an overnight run to make it to Elizabeth City.  We chose EC!  Frank is from there and we had planned to stop and visit with friends anyway so it just made sense.  How did we do it?  We stood four-hour watches overnight and were at mile zero of the ICW at 0415 and through the Gilmerton Bridge by 0500.  Getting there was exciting as it was really tough to make out the unlit marks and I don’t like to navigate heads-down in the electronics.

Then our plan started to come apart a little.  After a few hails and a phone call, we got into the Great Bridge Lock.  As we left at 0605 and called the bridge tender, we were very firmly informed that they keep to their schedule!  We were denied a 0600 opening and had to wait until 0900.  With nowhere to tie up on the free wall, we were stuck station-keeping for three hours.  It sucked, but with no wind it really wasn’t that bad.  At 0830 a half dozen giant motor yachts came through the lock to join us for the bridge.  One got right alongside us and basically wedged in front of us so we called and asked WTF.  Oh, he was just cutting in front of us.  Look, I get it—powerboats go faster than we do in the ICW and eventually all six went around us—but just a quick radio call would have been nice.  And after waiting for three hours, maybe we were a little eager to get out of there!  

The rest of the day down the ICW was pretty uneventful.  We stopped at Coinjock to top off fuel, then worked our way down the North River, around Camden Point, and up the Pasquatank River.  The Coasties welcomed us with a fantastic air show, complete with a C-130 Hercules taking off right over us!  The kids kept an eye out for crab pots and we dropped the hook in Forbes Bay about 15 minutes after last light.  We decided to just anchor for the night and tie up in the free slips in the morning before the winds picked up.

All in all, a great start!  The kids kept up with their schoolwork, we got great air shows at Pax River, Oceana, and Elizabeth City, and we are safely tied up.  And I was reminded that it’s honestly ok to be at the end of the line if power boats are there, too! 😁