A beautiful morning greeted us on our maiden voyage into the Chesapeake Bay.

Goodbye Atlantic Yacht Basin, Chesapeake, VA.

You remember from the last posting that we will have the Great Bridge Bridge and Great Bridge Lock to go through on our way out of the Norfolk area.  We left the dock around 6:45am for the 7:00am bridge opening.  As we were idling in the channel, a duck and 6-7 ducklings scampered from one side to the other.  Barely making it before the horns blew and the barricades went down for the few Sunday morning automobile travelers.

The Great Bridge opened for two trawlers and two sail boats.  I am on the bow of the boat waiting for passage under the bridge and into the lock.  I have the lines ready to a port side tie where the fancy new black rubber bumpers are located.

Interestingly, the two trawlers parked on the nice protected side of the lock.  The two sail boats went on the other side with the concrete and steel.  I don’t know why.  Just thought it was curious.  Especially, since there was room for all of us on the the same side.  Even with the goose protecting her nest there was room.

We will be traveling through Portsmouth and Norfolk on our way out to the Chesapeake Bay.  There were at least 2 rail road lift bridges that we expected to be open.  The fixed bridges were of no concern to us being that they are higher than what we are worried about.  Norfolk Southern #7 Railroad Bridge is usually open or it may be a rather lengthy delay if a train comes by of at least 30 minutes for more.

These lift bridges look simple and complicated all at the same time.  This one is over 135 feet when open.  Straight edges against blue sky – pretty.

Just how big would the boat have be that couldn’t go under this bridge?  As we wove our way through the harbors, we just saw

Then a bunch of military boats.  I have no clue what they are.  Wayne got nervous with me taking pictures of this military gear.  I figured if they didn’t want the public to take pictures then they wouldn’t put the boats on display in public.  They would be within a building like Building 51 or is that Area 51?   There was a security boat hovering around most of these boats so that the public wouldn’t get too close.  Besides, we saw a “tour” boat filled with people go down the row of grey painted boats.  No secrets here!

 

 

Earlier when we were still in the ICW, we heard over the VHF radio broadcasts like ” to all marine concerns, this is Battleship 5 performing maneuvers between some gps coordinates.  We cannot deviate from our course.  All marine craft must stay over 3 nautical miles from our location.”  Something like that.  There were discussions from the Battleship and sailboats because the sail boats didn’t get out of the way or keep their distance.  Fascinating.

Then we see a tug boat hauling, pulling, a big orange flat bottom boat.  I couldn’t read the side of the boat until it got closer.

The question I have…. was it tugged/ pushed all the way from Staten Island??  And if so, why here in Norfolk?  Aren’t there boat yards big enough to handle this sized boat in NY?

We actually picked a good day to drive through the busy bustling harbor of Portsmouth and Norfolk.  Hardly any boats on the water for an early Sunday morning.  Until this behemoth drove by.  We were NOT expecting it to be going so fast, for one.  The wake it caused was the worst ever.  We tipped over and back.  Wayne tried to mitigate the roll as much as possible.   I thought we were going to go all the way over on our side.  We heard a couple crashing noises downstairs.  Things moved in the salon and lower rooms.  Nothing Broke, thankfully.  Unexpected.  Not delightful.  We will give these gargantuan boats a wide berth!!  OR they should give us pleasure craft more space.  ugh!

We are finally out of the harbor.  It took over 2 hours to get out of town and into the Bay.  We are approaching big water.  Where’d the “ICW” go?  The ICW starts in Norfolk with a number 1 buoy and goes south.  I saw  2A Red and 3Green.  No Number 1.

There is no magenta line from here north.  No real canal or path to follow.  Wayne got concerned.  I told him we just go north!  Follow a heading and go north.  Hahaha  He was not happy at first.  Then he realized that the paper charts do have a magenta type line.  A heading of sorts.  Channels for commercial traffic where the deepest waters are located.

We took a heading north to Deltaville, VA.   Captain Dana mentioned that we might have to do this during our training.  She was so right!  We rounded the “Thimble Shoal Light” marker.  It did look like a little can in the water.  If you can see the light for 18 miles at night, it is bigger than it appears.  From here we turned north.

 

The water was reasonably calm during the morning hours.  It was cool in the mid 60’s.  Not bad for a morning drive on “The Bay”.  This is an image of our boat and you can see the words… “Chesapeake Bay”.  Proof we are here.  😉

The Chesapeake Bay.  Didn’t see too many boaters at 12:29pm.

Off in the distance you can see a couple of freighters going north.  Far far away from us!!

Into the afternoon, the waves were higher.  The wind picked up and it was rocking and rolling again for us.  Wayne swears the seas were 4 ft tall.  He saw completely different waves than I saw.  Mine were closer to 2ft.  The wind was coming from the south so it should have helped push us up the Bay.  It must have been tides or underwater unidentified objects that kept the water moving.  We were delighted to see the next marker “Wolf Trap Light”.  This meant that we weren’t lost.  We were actually on track!

It does look like we got a little too close, don’t you think?

After arguing about exactly where we are as we were rolling and pitching from side to side, we finally found the channel into the marina.  Just take a left after “Stingray Point” and look for the markers to get into the protective cove for the night.  Mind the shallow waters. Keep in mind “Right Red Return” so you are on the correct side of the markers.  Mind the go-fast boats and sailors taking advantage of the wind.  It was gusting up to 15 mph or higher.  Don’t tell Wayne.  Within that little cove at the top of Stingray Point are several marinas.  We found ours and they gave us a slip in quiet water.  Whew!

A successful day.  A beautiful day.  The seas were not 4 ft.  Okay, maybe 3ft.  Maybe.  😉