SV-Baila: North Carolina!

Brad:
Just a quick update before we lose connectivity in the backwaters of North Carolina:

After transiting the "Virginia Cut" from Norfolk, VA to Currituck Sound (Coinjock, NC.), we then crossed the Albemarle Sound to the Alligator River (still NC). We tied up at the Alligator River Marina- more on that below.

Norfolk is a really interesting place; anchoring in an urban environment (Hospital Point, Portsmouth, VA) with the city sounds and lights in the background was a first for us. We dinghy'd into Portsmouth- pretty hip little historic town - in search of a playground for Avery. When we returned to Baila another boat was anchored nearly on top of us... guess we'll have to get used to that!

Another sign that we had left the Chesapeake Bay was the water color: tea brown! The tannins from decaying pine needles in the lowland waterways that comprise the ICW stain the water (just like tea). It was such an abrupt change; the first tell-tale sign was when we flushed the head (toilet) and noted the incoming brown water. Suffering a disturbing flashback to college pranks by friends, I was quite relieved to discover the benign cause of this feculent-hued water.

We awoke early the next morning to start the slow and serpiginous trip down the ICW. Leaving Norfolk at sunrise was awesome- see the pics below. On the ICW there are a bunch of bridges, many of which are "fixed" and tall (Baila's mast is 62' and most of the bridges are 65'). Imagine us holding our breath as we skimmed under one fixed bridge that read 63' on the tide-board! We were elated to note that our VHF whip antenna didn't touch. The lower bridges open on schedule and the trick (as we were coached by more experienced friends) is to line up your speed with bridge openings to avoid arriving too early and being forced to wait with all the other boats. I must say that for ICW newbies we did pretty well! It was fun to have impatient people fly by us only to find them anxiously circling around as we rolled in just minutes before opening.

The lock was neat too. After entering the lock and loosely tying up to the wall, the massive gates closed behind us as their counterparts on the other side opened. While the water level equalized for twenty minutes the girls took the opportunity to hop off the boat and do sprints on the adjacent grassy field.

After a brief stopover in Coinjock, we are now on the Alligator River. One could write a phenomenal novel about this place. The marina is a gas station (as in a gas station) situated at the base of the Alligator River Bridge with a tiny harbor and ample dockage in back. Ms. Wanda runs a tight ship here and there are signs all over: "turn out the lights," "no dogs in this area," etc. It's beautiful with a gorgeous view, but it is remote. This marina is known for their southern cooking (of course there's a kitchen inside the gas station) and it's pretty hilarious to see people arrive in big yachts and proceed up to the Shell station for dinner. Ironically we stopped at this gas station on our drive to the Outer Banks in 2013.. little did we know! Lynn recalled the replica of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the property.

Lynn: The highlight of the day was celebrating Avery's 6th birthday. We (not including Brad who fell asleep) decorated the salon with all of Avery's toys, cards taped to the ceiling and gift bags hanging over the galley like icicles - we were going for a Frozen/Paw Patrol theme. Avery waited patiently to open presents until after we were underway and had breakfast. We waited to have cake until we arrived at Alligator River, but it was still too windy to keep the candles lit. Avery was so sweet all day and thankful for all her little presents.

Brad again: We stayed at Alligator River today due to really high winds and a kid with belly pain. But we did get some boat maintenance and other chores done which is hard to do when hopping from place to place every day. We hope to take off early tomorrow and from here on out we will be fairly unconnected- so we will update when possible.

Here are some pics:

Baila looking over to Norfolk

Baila staring at the Love Boat (seriously- when it left port it blasted its massive horns and with all the people waving on the decks I was instantly back in a 1981 Friday night watching Love Boat with my siblings)

Not our usual dinner backdrop!

So neat to pass these guys on our way out at sunrise. Awe-inspiring actually. We saw a Zumwalt-class destroyer.. whoah! So futuristic appearing.

Weaving our way out of Norfolk Harbor; amazing how busy it is even that early.

Our first scheduled bridge opening. You can see the line of boats making their way through.

This is the lock at Great Bridge- here we hold the boat against this wall while the gates are about to close behind us. We rose a few feet to equalize. It was really fun!

Girls returning from their lock sprints

Though this body of water is massive (Currituck Sound), it's super shallow and the channel is very narrow. So despite the strong wind we had to motor right into it and couldn't sail. This was not particularly awesome but the girls had a blast on the bow getting sprayed!