Finally we get into the ICW

All of our travels so far were but preamble to our trip down the ICW, which officially begins in Norfolk, on the Elizabeth River, at red buoy 36 (designated as mile "'0" on the ICW)

But first

last evening the crews from the five Island Packets docked at Hampton public piers went to dinner at a wonderful Tapas place (Venture) about 2 blocks from the marina. It was chosen in part because the food and ambiance were reported to be good (which indeed they were) but mainly because they have Prosecco on tap!..there are those in the group who dearly love their prosecco..as my friend David would often say "Segustubam non disputem est"...you can look it up

The crews..clockwise from me: Hayden, Drew and Deb from Shawnee, Greg and Sharon from Dream Catcher, Eric and Pat from CutterLoose (Pat is taking the picture), Radeen (who sails with Hayden on Island Spirit and Molli, who sails with me.

It was a fun evening and a great way to cap our trip down to the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and our beginning of the trip down the ICW

The morning was glorious and we cast off at 7:15 with the goal of getting to the Gilmarton Bridge by 10:30 (we were under the impression that the bridge only opens on the half hour, but that proved to be wrong...it opens on request..but it worked out nice)

Right away we sailed post lots of naval warships (Norfolk is the main base for many humongous aircraft carriers, some of which are in dock when they aren't off scaring the natives around the world)

Sunrise in Norfolk

A better view of one of the many aircraft carriers docke here

Molli enjoying the view

We got to the Gilmorton bridge in about 3 hours (a lift bridge, often one of the hurdles to going down the ICW if you miss the opening. but today we requested an opening as we got close and it opened in minutes (probably annoying lots of drivers forced to wait for us to whiz by at 6 knots...you can jog faster)

An hour later we got to the "Great Lock" which equalizes the heights of the water before and after the lock...in this case it only dropped us down about a foot!, but still...

The drill is...we wait for the lock to open (at quarter past the hour) we motor in and lean against a wall with one person up front who holds a line around a cleat to keep us against the wall. Another person ( in this case me) does the same at the stern

(last year when I did it alone I stood in the middle, holding two lines...this way is easier)

Boats tie up at both the left  and right (port and starboard) walls, and assume the position.

Molli holding her line at the bow

Looking to the forward locks, that will eventually swing open to let us out

The boat slowly drips, and the crew holding lines let it out slowly to keep us in place.

Soon the front gates swing open and away we go

500 feet further down is the Great Lock Bridge which is supposed to be synchronized. Timing was a bit off and we had to all mill around, which can be tricky if there is wind or current, but today there was neither. It opened in about 5 minutes and under we went

Our stop for today was the Atlantic Yacht Basin, mainly because they have a large service program and an electrician (named "Sparky" of course) will come by first thing in the morning.

We spent the afternoon fixing those things that had broken...turns out the problem with the deck wash was that the pump had lost prime and when I reduced the afterload (by temporarily removing the hose at the pump) it recovered and is working fine now. 

We refilled the fuel and the water and relaxed the rest of the afternoon.

We'll eat in tonight....looking forward to another great barbecue!