The
first 10 days have been extraordinarily enlightening. I've
experienced many firsts.
We
started out 10 days ago on Sunday from Galesville, Maryland; having
been at the Hartge Yacht Harbor for a couple of weeks, curtesy of my
sister and brother in law. We had made several trips in
November on the weekends to close on the boat (November 13),
in Crownsville near Annapolis and take the boat with the help of
Captain Rob to Annapolis for a week. Captain Rob gave us two days of
training on the boat. Quite challenging, Roland has a PhD in boating,
and I started out in daycare. Not my first boat, but my first and
only other boat was in my life almost 50 years ago..
With
the help of Chris and Charlie, dear, dear friends, we did the final
provisioning on Thursday and Friday, and had planned to cast off for
our trip down the ICW on Saturday. Unfortunately the weather on
Saturday was not good, so, this was our first, of what will probably
be a number of weather related, changes in plans. We used
Saturday to get the boat organized (Capt Roland is also a chef so the
galley is incredibly well equipped), and I took advantage of being on
land by running for 3 miles. I did not know when I would get another
opportunity to run.
We
left early Sunday, December 6, 2020 at 7:43 AM. We said goodbye to
Hartge Yacht Harbor in Galesville
Maryland and started our
journey.
So
far, all steering is from the pilot house as it is still too cold to
steer from the flybridge. We are looking forward to getting further
south and spending our travel days on the flybridge which is outside
and at the top of the boat.
We
anchored out the first night in the Solomons, MD, arriving at 1:43
PM; it took us six hours and we had a beautiful anchoring but we did
have a challenge with the generator. Our ignorance was showing. We
scrambled for an hour and a half to try to figure out why there was
only a small dribble of water coming out of the exhaust which would
indicate that the generator isn't being cooled properly and therefore
we would have to do something different. Roland tried everything:
replacing parts, testing parts, reading the manuals (8 huge loose
leaf binders). We frantically texted and called the Krogen mechanic,
the seller, and anyone else whom we thought could give us guidance.
(back up plan: nearby, excellent marina with skilled folks to help).
Luckily,
while I was doing nothing helpful, (googling), I came across an aside
mentioning the exhaust may be under the waterline. Sure enough that
was the case; the generator temperature remained steady; all was
well. The next morning, the responses confirmed that yes of course
the exhaust is under the waterline and all is well. Roland never had
a generator so the first of our educational opportunities. It called
for an early happy hour at our first anchorage. It was beautiful!
It
was a warning to us that our ignorance may cause problems in the
future, hopefully not every day but probably more than once a week.
This turned out to be true of course because we had the next
challenge with our ignorance about the heater in the main cabin. But,
I would be rushing ahead to share that story.
Day
two, we left our Anchorage, Roland easily pulling up the anchor
cleaning it off while I steered out of the creek into the river. It
was a rather cold day and we used the generator so that we could have
heat. This continued on and off for the next week using the heater as
we motor south.
Over
the 10 days we have enjoyed enchanting sunsets and attractive
sunrises. All of our anchorages have been lovely and peaceful. Of
course this is after the season so very few boats around and so far
we haven't had to share an anchorage. Cold on day three when we
anchored at a small cove on the Piankatank
River near
Deltaville, MD. We stayed put as the wind, the winds were too heavy
to move on. Sunny but rather cold; the view was great. Our second
weather delay.
On
day four, Wednesday, December 9, at 8:30 AM, we departed the cove
heading south and had a fun experience with the Coast Guard. We had a
radio request from the Coast Guard identifying us as “fishing
vessel Magic Moments”. Roland was entertained and thought that
there was a fishing vessel nearby with the same name as ours. I was
extremely doubtful of that, and when the second call came over the
radio I suggested that the Coast Guard is confused and that we better
answer. Sure enough the Coast Guard apologized for the error wished
us a happy and safe voyage, recreational vessel Magic Moments, and
then turned their attention and boarded the nearby fishing vessel.
The
direction we were going was opposite of the waves and winds and the
trip was very choppy. I got sicker and sicker what started out as
uncomfortable ended up pretty bad. I was very happy when we cut the
trip a little bit short and motored into Mobjack bay near Yorktown
Virginia to anchor for the night.
I
did take some pills that Roland had given me and that I had used
previously in Antarctica. I recovered quickly and fortunately was
able to enjoy a fabulous dinner. I hope never to experience this
again. It has been over 50 years since my last seasick experience and
I hope not to experience seasickness again over the next 50 years.
Day
Five, Thursday, December 10, 2020.
At 6:45 AM we pulled up the anchor and returned to the Chesapeake
from Mobjack bay; cold but calm (thankfully).
I
gathered all my various medications and items to protect myself from
seasickness, and my sister offered to send me some patches which I
will pick up in Charleston when we connect with her
younger daughter, my niece. My
sister and brother-in-law have been fantastic in this entire journey
from looking at boats when we first hatched the idea (not mine), and
until today. I cannot thank them enough.
We
crossed from the Chesapeake Bay at 11:48 AM, around Norfolk, to start
the ICW, Mile Zero, at Hospital Point, passing
the entrance to the Dismal Swamp, to
follow the Albemarle Chesapeake Canal.
Right
before Chesapeake City we went through my first lock. Roland
dutifully trained me on lock procedure, including a quick rehearsal,
so I would be able to do my part helping the lock tender secure the
boat as the water level increased. Unfortunately the lock tender
left us to our on devices and Roland had to jump off the boat to
catch the lines. Last minute; be prepared, anything can happen. We
made it through, called ahead for the nearby bascule bridge (the
bridge is operated by weights and rises and separates in the middle,
after the traffic is stopped). There is a great variety of bridges on
the ICW. It is fun to talk to the bridge tenders and see how each
operates. Requesting a bridge tender to open a bridge on the radio
requires info as to our direction and boat name. Often the boat names
are strange to the tenders and require repeating the name several
times and finally, in desperation, spelling the name. There is
usually a sigh of relief when we announce: “Magic Moments”. Yes,
Engish, a name the tenders understand.
We
ended day five in Chesapeake, Virginia at the Atlantic Yacht Basin
Marina. Our first marina. All went well although I must say that I
have never experienced a fuel pump working as slowly as this pump
pumped nor water as slow as this water. We had to use a different
technique that is, use the water from the tank and refill the tank
after hours and hours because it was so slow. The water pressure was
so slow that it was hard to wash off the boat which we needed to do
because our first fuel up and first holding tank pump out, had a
couple of glitches, shall we say. The boat very much needed to be
washed off. Ignorance mistake number two: turn off the suction
before removing the holding tank pump out hose. Yuck!
We
had a wonderful stay in Chesapeake, Virginia it is the site of the
Battle of the Great Bridge.
I
am going to share a little bit about Chesapeake, Virginia and the
Battle of the Great Bridge a little later so just skip those
paragraphs if that part of history is not of interest to you.
We
had to stay two nights in Chesapeake, Virginia because we were
expecting a repair person to help with what we thought was a broken
heater. This is ignorance event number three, of which we are aware.
It
turned out that nothing was wrong with the heater; operator error. It
was a less expensive error than it could have been. Only a little
over $100. But apparently we have to be prepared for this learning
curve. Fortunately, we had a small portable heater I brought from
home at Roland's suggestion (brilliant), so we were able to heat the
cabin at night. We learned a lot from the repair guy and his
assistant, about these heaters. They aren't really good at heat; they
are primarily air conditioners, and require different fan settings
for heating and cooling. Where is that written in the library of
directions and manuals?
We
did a lot of food and wine shopping in Chesapeake, there was a strip
mall within walking distance. I ducked into a Tuesday Morning and
bought a couple of Hanukkah gifts for Roland; he loves his galley and
all of its special equipment, so I found wooden cutting boards and
oven mitts,,,highly needed items to start the Hanukkah celebration
that evening. And, Chris and Charlie had left us with a
Hanukkah/Christmas gift bag with all kinds of goodies in it including
white Hanukkah lights for one side of the salon, and multi colored
Christmas lights for the other.
Day
seven, December 12, I was up really early, before 5 AM, thinking
about our first three errors: generator exhaust, pump out technique
and heater operator error. Hopefully we will cut down the frequency
of our errors as we proceed on this adventure.
It
was extraordinarily foggy and very hard to see as we left Chesapeake
VA., and followed a narrow part of the canal. We went under or passed
several bridges (a swing bridge, railroad bridges that are lowered to
let the train pass but otherwise raised like a large, flat elevator,
and a floating turnpike bridge).
At
1:45 PM, we anchored in a small cove on the North river near Point
Harbor, North Carolina. It was cloudy and mild and we were both
really tired. The anchorage felt like the wilderness, as we were in
the middle of a swamp. Peaceful and still. We had a great dinner.
Roland made delicate squash with brussels sprouts, rice and scallops
and we went to bed early.
Day
eight, December 13, 2020, Sunday.
We
got up early. Started all
the standard preparations getting ready to pull up the anchor: start
the engines, heaters off, microwave off, generator off, checking that
the engine exhaust was functioning,
and before first light we were on our way; Captain R in his foul
weather gear, to bring up the anchor. Visibility was low, so we
proceeded along in the fog slowly.
We
approached the Alligator River Swing Bridge in the dense fog. We
couldn't see the bridge until we were almost touching it. The bridge
tender wanted to see us before opening the bridge. A little close for
comfort.
We
entered at 12:30 PM, the 20 mile, Alligator Pungo Canal, which is 20
miles long, narrow with lots of debris on both sides. Thankfully,
there was not a lot of traffic. This canal is known for fast
powerboat speeding by and “waking” slower boats (us). It is late
in the season, so it wasn't that bad.
The
motor vessel following us, HAU˜ OL I, which, in Hawaiian means,
happy, cheerful, joyful, a lovely name, was recently purchased, as
Magic Moments was. The captain had damaged his prop (we don't know
whether this was error number one or not),was limping along. We have
sonar maps, he did not, and because of the “deadheads” in the
water (submerged logs), we suggested he follow us. He gratefully,
followed us with Roland on the radio coaching him from time to time
when we were aware of any submerged obstacles.
Late
afternoon arrival in Belhaven NC, at River Forest Marina. Henry the
dockmaster helped us dock. He asked us to dock on our port side not
knowing that we did not have a walk around on our port side. This was
our first port side dockage. A little challenging. No need, I hope to
do that again!
December
13, 2020, Magic Moments' one month anniversary. Belhaven is an
adorable town, population 1500, and the River Forest Marina and Henry
the dockmaster were terrific. We took a ride around town, going
through the main intersection which is the only traffic light in
Bellhaven, on a loaner golf court cart from the marina. Stopped and
had delicious oysters, outside, and interestingly enough met the
captain and crew, husband and wife, from Venezuela, living in
Orlando, of Hau' oli, the boat we coached through the canal. It was
really cool after the time on the radio to see them in person. They
were going to be off the next day, the weather was not really good so
we stayed an extra day in Belhaven.
The
extra day in Belhaven was a joy to me. I got to run 3 miles all over
town. We had a lovely breakfast in the morning and then an hour
following the historic home walking tour. Got back just in time to
take cover for the next 4 1/2 hours of gale force winds driving our
boat against the dock. Roland had to go outside three times in the
storm, to move the fenders around to protect the boat from smashing
against the pilings as the wind clocked around. I am told that
clocking winds is typical of a storm. This I needed to know??
Caught
up on my email during the storm. Thrilled that we decided that a
weather delay was perfect, and we were not out in this weather.
After
my social zoom monthly meeting, Roland returned with takeout from
Spoon River restaurant, which is, as Henry, the dockmaster, says, a
destination restaurant, well-known up and down the ICW. We had
flounder and duck and brussels sprouts and a smoked fish appetizer
salad; it was extraordinary followed by chocolate cheesecake and a
bottle of wonderful wine. It was quite a joy and our first take-out
meal since we cast off from Galesville, Maryland.
Day
10, December 15, 2020, Tuesday, up early 6 AM, read Joe Biden's
speech from last night after the electoral college voted and got
ready to cast off to Oriental which is 41 miles from Belhaven. We
were expecting iffy weather so the night before I applied the patch
and hopefully all will be calm and it will turn out to be
unnecessary. After my event a couple days ago, I'd rather be safe
than sick. lol Terri...
