Saturday, May 23, 2015

Last leg....almost!!

The day (Friday) dawned sunny and cool and we pulled away from the Coinjock dock at 6:05, and for once didn't have to stop or go back.

Leaving Coinjock
 Instead we plowed a furrow in the bottom of the North River, nearly into the Currituck sound. Presumably due to the strong winds of the previous day had pushed the water out of the north River and our keel was dragging in the mud as we wandered side to side looking for deeper water. We finally found some and headed into Currituck sound. 
Currituck Sound
It was cold, breezy, with lots of spray coming over the dodger. Not at all pleasant. But we were soon on the other side and into the north landing River, which was much nicer and warmer. It's a pretty River, winding through very scenic countryside, marred only by the occasional swing bridge, which gave us a chance to play "hurry up and wait" at each bridge
. There is also a Great Lock (that's the name)
Robert holding a line in the lock

 which always has very pleasant 
and helpful tenders and we were soon on our way into Norfolk 

It's fun to look at the amazing collection of warships lined up on display. 
One of the several aircraft carriers in Norfolk 

We passed through Norfolk without event and on up the Chesapeake Bay by 2pm!

It was warm, sunny with a 12 knot breeze from the west. We were making 6.5 knots and hoped to Baltimore by 4pm on Saturday

It was not to be

Every thing was fine till around midnight when the wind shifted to the north, on our nose and mover the next 4 hours built to 28 knots. The Bay became choppy, with waves crashing over the deck and into the cockpit.    Our speed slowed to about 2 knots and it was miserable!! By 7am we'd had enough and pulled into Solomons where we anchored and collapsed into bed

We plan to leave again around noon, when the winds are predicted to decrease into nothingness. We'll see. 
Our hope now is to get to Baltimore before midnight!

One final thing, I think I was remiss in not sufficiently describe the meal at Coinjock

The Prime Rib weighed 32 oz, was perfectly cooked and delightfully tender. I managed to eat it all, savoring every morsel, while also enjoying the baked sweet potatoe and the pickled beets.  A nice Cabernet rounded out the meal, and of course there was ice cream for dessert

A fantastic meal. Not rivaled by those other pretenders

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