Day 273
Legacy got an early start on Thursday morning, 06/10/21, when we left our tie-up on the transient wall at Coinjock Marina, in Coinjock, NC, at 6:45 am. We continued northward, up the narrow North Carolina Cut, on our way to Waterside Marina in Norfolk, VA, where we planned to spend the next several days. The weather was cloudy and comfortable, with a strong chance of rain for this afternoon. Leaving so early was our attempt to reach our destination before those storms materialized.
As we first cruised along, the waters started out glassy smooth, and the sun just coming up over the river was splendid, even if mostly shrouded in clouds. As our waterway widened, it became less protected, which meant we could feel the wind picking up, and roughening the waters to a light chop. We were back on the North River, and where it widens is called Coinjock Bay. We headed northeast into the Currituck Sound, which is in the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge. We passed Barco, Maple, and Currituck, NC, before passing Bell Island, NC, to our west.
As we traveled the North Landing River, and crossed the state line between North Carolina and Virginia, it dawned on us that this was Steve’s very first time ever in Virginia, and my first time in approximately 49 years. 🙂 We discovered that this portion of southern Virginia is appears sparsely populated, as we continued along the North Landing River. As we entered into the North Landing River Natural Area Preserve, we passed underneath the Pungo Ferry Road Bridge, and into Princess Anne Wildlife Refuge to our east.
Even though we’ve seen marshlands continuously all the way up from northern Florida, we both thought the marshlands through this area were especially scenic. Cypress trees and Spartina grass abound! We passed osprey nest after osprey nest sitting atop channel marker pilings, all along the river. Every nest had at least one adult osprey perched on it. It amazed me how closely we could cruise by them without spooking them.
Midway through the morning, Legacy was buzzed by multiple antique-looking planes that we think were WWII era fighter jets. Some of them were performing aerobatics as they flew above us. When I checked Google Maps, I saw that the Military Aviation Museum is just northeast of where we were cruising, which explained the presence of those planes. We arrived at the North Landing swing-bridge just in time for its scheduled opening time of 10 AM. The bridge-master operating that swing-bridge sounded grumpy when we checked-in with him on the radio; like he’d not gotten enough coffee that morning!
We headed westward on the man-made canal that connects the North Landing River to the Elizabeth River, southeast of Chesepeake, Virginia, and waited again at the Centerville Turnpike swing-bridge, scheduled to open at 10:30 am. Next came the Great Bridge Lock, which boasts a whopping 2-foot drop in water level. Going through this lock, we had to wrap a line at Legacy’s bow, and another line at her stern, while traversing this lock. This lock’s tie-cleats were located on top of the lock wall, which put them about 10-feet away from the side of our boat. I got to lasso both cleats, which was quite the feat indeed. The cleat next to our stern was fairly easy to loop, but the one up by the bow was a different story, taking me about 8 different tries to finally execute. UGH!
Through the Great Bridge lock and afterward, we cruised for a time with famed delivery captain, Randy Register, with whom Steve is friends on social media. He was also traveling northward, making a delivery of a trawler named Aperture, and had the boat’s owner onboard with him. Steve and Randy checked-in with each other on the radio and Randy even got some pics of Legacy underway, that he posted on The Great Loop Facebook page later that day.
As with pretty much everywhere, we saw lots of large waterfront homes on the Elizabeth River, as we approached the city of Chesepeake, VA. Just up from those houses, we passed underneath the US Highway 64 bridge and entered into a very industrial part of Chesepeake. The shores here were lined with barges, container ships, and related equipment. No more houses for awhile! What started out a pretty, scenic cruise, turned a bit ugly (in my opinion) with all the commercial shipping structures and vessels everywhere.
We cruised through Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and then into Norfolk, VA. As we approached the famous Norfolk Southern Railway Bridge, on the Elizabeth River, at the southern end of Norfolk, we saw that it was closed at its clearance of no more than 10-feet above the water. We’d heard previous boats ahead of us calling on the radio for the bridge-master to please raise the bridge for waterway pass-through, but the bridge-master stated loudly that a train was on its way, so the bridge would have to remain closed until after the train had come through. After several minutes, a group of northbound boats had accumulated there on the south side of the railroad bridge, waiting for the train (which was nowhere to be seen or heard) to cross over the river. Steve already knew, but it took awhile for it to dawn on me that this bridge-master was not physically housed right there at the bridge, as with most bridge-masters. This bridge is operated remotely by someone in an entirely different location. All of our boats idled in place for more than 20 minutes watching the railroad bridge for what turned out to be a ghost train, as we never saw one the entire time. We were all becoming frustrated, until Randy Register hailed the bridge-operator on the radio again, requesting status. He did not receive response, but after about 10 more minutes, a loud, automated announcement blasted-out, and the bridge slowly began to open. HALLELUJAH! As we were all cheering, Steve reminded me that this bridge was famous for doing this very thing – regularly, delaying the passage of countless Elizabeth River water vessels. Legacy could now go into the record books as being one of those delayed vessels! We never did figure out what the problem was (perhaps these delays are just for sport), but its a good thing we all got through the opening rapidly, because just as soon as we did, there was another loud announcement that the bridge was closing, and that’s exactly what it did! I’m sure there were cameras mounted strategically to assist the remote operation of this bridge, but it seemed to me that no one was actually watching those cameras…(?!) 😐
The closer we got to Norfolk, the more immense and intimidating the military ships surrounding us became; right there in the Elizabeth River, along with monstrous tankers and container ships. Right in the middle of all these, Waterside Marina is located where all the action is in downtown Norfolk, which we found to be an ideal location. We actually arrived Waterside at 1 PM. The further north we’d come up the river, the prettier it got as we came into downtown Norfolk, VA. We were assigned a primo slip in one of the best parts of the marina. (One that we were later told goes for $500/night during city festivals and on holiday weekends. We’ll take it!) Legacy was tied right in front of the Blue Moon TapHouse, where a band plays live music on Friday nights.
Some of our friends we’d met down at Stock Island Marina Village, Cathy and Scott McKinley (aboard Andante), reside right there in Norfolk, very close to Waterside Marina. As instructed, I texted Cathy when we arrived, and she and Scott rode their bicycles from their condo over to our slip to welcome us to Norfolk. It was great to see them again, Scott helped us tie-up, and Cathy gifted us with a bag of delicious, gourmet cookies. 🙂
At 5:30 pm, the McKinleys returned to the marina in their car to chauffeur us to Omar’s Carriage House for dinner. The original plan had been to walk to the restaurant, but of course a heavy downpour hit the downtown area exactly at 5:30, so we were glad they’d decided to drive their car at the last minute. We all enjoyed a fun evening of drinks and dinner, funny boat stories and companionship. After dinner, we visited the McKinleys’ lovely condo we’d heard so much about, where it’s located right beside the private marina that houses their trawler, Andante, when she’s in home port.
Thursday, 06/10/21, turned out to be long and action-packed, so we both slept really well that night.
Position: N 36° 50.640, W 76° 17.517
Distance traveled: 48 SM
Total distance traveled: 3741 SM
Total marina nights: 250
Total nights at anchor: 22
Locks today: 1
Locks Total: 28