CT to GA Day 7
Layover in Hampton, VA
We will spend a couple of days here in Hampton, VA... four reasons...
1) Spend some time with our great friends here in the area.
2) Need to replace a freeze plug in the port engine turbo... has a small pinhole leak and is bubbling coolant when engine is running.
3) The Norfolk Southern #7 Railroad Bridge is undergoing maintenance and in the closed position. Only open before 0700, 1130 - 1330 and after 1730.
No maintenance on Saturday and Sunday and will be open as normal. We could easily make the mid-day hours when the bridge will be open but we have been through this same situation in the past and during the mid-day hours there are many boats trying to go north and south all waiting at the bridge... would rather just avoid it all together.
4) Two Bridges south of Norfolk... the Centerville Turnpike Bridge and the North Landing Bridge open on demand on weekends rather than their normal restricted schedule on the hour and half hour. The restricted schedule is a pain because of the distance between them and our speed... we cannot make it from one bridge to the other in 30 minutes... takes us about 36 minutes so we end up slowing way down and taking an hour between the two bridges... not an issue on the weekends.
Posted at 2:43 PM
CT to GA Day 6
Reedsville,VA to Hampton, VA
We left Reedsville this morning at 0645 with no wind... no waves and SNOW!!! Yep, it snowed for the last 2 hours of the day and was still snowing when we arrived.
Besides the snow surprise.. we did carry a favorable current the entire day which made for a shorter trip than planned. We arrived to our destination for the night and were securely docked at 1345... the home of Judy and Wayne McPhail in the Salt Pond Hampton, VA. Our position tonight is
N37°03.548', W076°17.052'. We traveled today for 7 hours covering 50 nautical miles averaging 7.1 knots.
Posted at 2:16 PM
CT to GA Day 5
North Beach, MD to Reedsville, VA
We left the dock this morning at 0635 moving about 300 feet north to the fuel dock... not for fuel but for water. The marina had a hose run down the docks from the main building for water. Dock water had already been shutoff for the winter. Topped off the tanks and departed at approximately 0750... hour and fifteen minutes... very low pressure hose.
Forecast today was for NW winds 10-15 knots with gusts to 25 knots... seas 2-3 feet. They were correct with the forecast and we experienced every bit of this plus some... crossing the mouth of the Potomac River the waves did get a bit higher... 3-6 foot and with the following sea the ride was not too bad. We did have a favorable current all day running 7.5 to over 9 knots.
Lots of commercial boat traffic today... commercial fishing and large ships and a couple of pleasure boats. Just past Solomon's and Cedar point there is a military gunnery range. It is typically not active... today we were hailed on the VHF by a Navy patrol boat to alter our course to the east to maintain a 1/2 mile distance from the range that the range was active today... so we moved to the east. Did not see any activity.
We arrived to our destination for the night and were securely docked at 1630... Fairport Marina Reedsville, VA. Our position tonight is
N37°49.949', W076°17.134'. We traveled today for 8 hours and 40 minutes covering 65 nautical miles averaging 7.5 knots.
Posted at 5:04 PM