Norfolk, VA
To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.
Another Jammie Play Day while waiting for weather.
We did essentially nothing. The hook stayed buried at 35° 40.4927′N, 076° 03.4876′W.
The weather wasn't awful during the day. It did rain. But the wind remained relatively light.
I worked on some software. And read. A lot …
Manteo is a lovely vacation place, with a delightful town, and a terrible anchorage for a big boat. Shallow Bag Bay is well-named. It's shallow.
This has a strong contrast with the Deep Point at the south end of the Alligator River.
While I could find 7′ of water coming …
There are tricky anchorages and there are ill-advised anchorages. A bad anchorage transcends mere trickiness. And, there are dumb-ass approaches to ill-advised anchorages, which is where we are today.
Looking back at the start of this journey in "2021 South-Bound, Phases I and II", this was not on our plan …
Jammie Play Day!
The weather promised showers later in the day. We have no reason to press on into the rain. Liquid Therapy will be at Manteo on Roanoke Island, tomorrow, the 23rd. We can wait here and join them tomorrow.
We played quietly all day …
We had anticipated hellacious (gusting over 20kt) wind today. But, this morning, the weather forecast was for moderate wind today, and the hellacious stuff was pushed back to Thursday night and into Friday.
This means we can cross the Albemarle and try to find an anchorage behind Durant Island. This …
It's a long day from Great Bridge to North River. Three lift bridges, lots of other boats.
Here's the 08:00 bridge opening. From there, we have ½ hr to the Centerville Turnpike bridge. Then an hour to the North Landing bridge.
Then it's about 4h 18m to Coinjock …
We went as far as Great Bridge, between lock and bridge. We're tied to the shore at 36° 43.284′N, 076°14.511′W.
We had some drama, but we sorted it out well enough.
Looking back at the plan, we were supposed to blow …
Laundry Day.
CA wanted to try the Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth. For a small fee, we can tie up our Dinghy, use the showers and laundry. I have the WiFi password, and CA can walk a mile and a half to the Food Lion. Maybe take the bus back.
In …
Dolphins! And painful weather. But. First. Dolphins!
Running around the deck to look at them made it difficult for us to get the anchor up.
The weather did not cooperate, either.
CA broke out the camera and banged away at trying to capture some images. It's …
We declared today to be a Jammie Play Day.
This means we did more-or-less nothing all day. Indeed, I wore my pajamas all day.
The anchor stayed down in Bryant Bay at 37° 19.5000′N 076° 26.6830′W.
For CA, this means reading and …
We've never been to Mobjack Bay. It's time to correct that. There are four rivers that flow into the bay, and each has a number of well-regarded anchorages. I rolled the four-sided die and picked the Severn River.
The engine went on a 09:00, the anchor was up at …
Sometimes things work out.
Today's weather is NW winds 10-15 kt. We're headed south. This would be great sailing.
Except. We've got to cover 47.5 nautical miles. Unless we can sail at a steady 6 kt, we're looking at arriving after dark. Not a pleasant prospect. While the Piankatank …
Nothing ever works out perfectly. For the most part, we have to settle for good enough. We finally left Herrington Harbour. We topped off the water. Picked up the fenders and docklines, and chugged out into the Bay on the morning of October 13th.
Winds were nearly flat (less than …
Here's our general strategy for getting to Charleston, SC. This has three phases to it. Phase I is to get to Norfolk. Phase II is to get to Beaufort. There are a lot of moving parts.
We'll see if we do none, some, or all of it.
For example, there …
Mr. Lehman's starter has been getting flakier and flakier. We've put up with it for a few years now.
You push the starter button and "Click". Nothing else. Just "Click".
Last time we went anywhere (see "Got off the Dock") there was a sequence of five pushes to get the …
Topping lifts hold up the end of the boom. It's expected to hold the boom up for years and years and years. It's kind of important. And no, I did not make a mess of them. They've always been a mess.
The topping lift keeps the boom up when there's …
The 10+ year old binnacle cover finally collapsed. The zipper teeth finally eroded to a point where they wouldn't actually zip. They zipped open one last time.
CA made a new one.
The color scheme doesn't match anything.
But.
It was cheap …
Sometimes you have to do some work.
Like chase down the Blue Heron ("George") as the sunset and clouds align.
This was almost like work.
Just about every piece of running rigging has a shackle (or a loop) spliced into it.
So. I've been trying to learn to splice loops into double-braided line.
See Home Handicrafts — Splicing for my first few attempts.
Here's the mizzen outhaul: white with green.
I spliced …
Usually, it's the other. This is how one repair tends to expand into more than one.
Haul out means some slopping around in the slings as they lift Red Ranger up and whisk her away. It also means that she's often blocked with the bottom of the keel level, which …