Day 2: Deltaville, Va to Coinjock, NC

Another darn cold morning. At this point I was starting to get a little worried, since I had packed 5 pairs of shorts and t-shirts, and the only warm clothes I had were the sweatshirt and jeans I had on when we left Elkton. I had envisioned warm days sunning on the back of the boat, but it was actually a bit chilly most of the time. The exception was all of the no-wake zones, where it got pretty hot just because we were going so slow and the sun was shining. But anyway, on to the pictures.

(Click on a picture for a Hi-Res version)

This picture was taken near Hampton Roads, and way in the background is the Chespaeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It's hard to see, but this was the closest we got.

As we got close to Norfolk, we started seeing a lot of Navy activity. Here was an interesting floating building.

Once in Norfolk, off of Lambert's Point, we saw some really cool ships. Here's a bunch of cool battleships and stuff.

Here's an aircraft carrier.

Here's another cool ship. If anyone knows more about these, or what kind of ships these actually are, feel free to email me, and I'll put that information in here.

Some type of gunship here. Check out those huge cannon-looking things on the front.

Here it is again, next to some cool building.

Another cool ship...

This really amazed me. I've never seen a ship out of the water. Look at the size of the props next to the people standing there. There were probably thirty people under there welding and making other repairs to this thing.

This was the first bridge we came to, the Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line Raliroad Bridge, at ICW Mile Marker 2.6. It was already open, so went right on through. There were three of these huge lift bridges within a mile of each other.

Looking much like the first one, the Jordan Highway Bridge (mm 2.8) was closed when we got to it. It's an awesome feeling to watch them raise these monsters for you when you need to get through. The final bridge, the Norfolk and Western Railroad Bridge (mm 3.6), was already raised.

I almost didn't see this until it was too late, but there's a submarine next to an older looking ship.

This is actually a picture of two bridges that were right next to each other. The one in the back is the Glimerton Highway Bridge, and the railroad bridge is the Norfolk and Western Railroad Bridge. Same name as the previous railroad bridge. We had to wait a little while for these to open. (mm 5.8)

Here is the Interstate Route 64 Highway Bridge (mm 7.1). With 65 feet of clearance, we didn't need this one to open.

Here is the sign at the junction of the Dismal Swamp Canal, to the right, and the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, to the left (mm 7.2). Both of these routes end up at the Albemarl Sound. We decided to take the left route. With a name like Dismal Swamp, we thought the other way sounded safer. Plus it's a little shorter, at 72.8 miles to the Sound as opposed to 75.8 miles taking the Dismal Swamp route.

This is an example of the pretty view on the southern branch of the Elizabeth River.

This is the Dominion Boulevard Bridge (mm 8.7).

Here it is opening for us.

Here are some of the nice houses on the Elizabeth River. Most houses we passed on the journey had boat lifts with nice boats on them. This made it easier for us to go through, since we didn't have to be as concerned with our wake possibly causing damage to the docked boats.

Here is the Great Bridge Lock (mm 11.5). This was the only lock we went through, and it was very cool. This is what's called a tidal guard lock, and lift vessels into nontidal waters. Once through the lock heading south, there are no tides of significance until just above Morehead City.

Here are the gates closing behind us as we were tying up in the lock. Once the gates close, water from the other side is alowed in until it rises enough that we can exit to the south.

Here are the southward gates right before they started to let any water in. If you compare this picture and the next, you can see how the water level rose about 2 feet. And look, there's Ron!

Here are the gates opening. See how the water level is about 2 feet higher now? The people at the lock were very cool. That bridge in the distance only opens on the hour, and we had about 5 minutes to go. The lock people were speeding things along trying to get us through on time so we didn't have to wait an hour for the bridge.

And here it is, the Great Bridge Highway Bridge (mm 12.0).

As you can see, we made it! This is called a double-pivot swing bridge, and is pretty cool.

This is also called the Great Bridge Highway Bridge (mm 12.6), but this is a fixed bridge with 65 feet of clearance, so we were OK here.

Here is the Centerville Turnpike Bridge (mm 15.2). It opens on the hour and the half hour. We didn't have much of a wait on this one.

Here is the North Landing Route 165 Highway Bridge (mm 20.2).

Here's the view as we entered the North Landing River, which means we were leaving the Albemarle And Chesapeake Canal.

Here's the Route 726 Highway Bridge (mm 28.6).

This was pretty much the last thing we saw before crossing the North Carolina state line (mm 33.9). Are we back in Cecil County? Once in North Carolina, we cruised through the rest of the North Landing River, the Currituck Sound, and finally into the Coinjock Bay.

Here we're in Coinjock. On the left is Coinjock Marina (mm 49.5), and up ahead is the Coinjock Highway Bridge (mm 50.1).

And here's Coinjock Marina, where we spent our second night. We ate at a nice restaurant there, and Ron and I split a 32 ounce prime rib. Yummy.

At the dock, Gerry filled the tanks. You can see Kenny sitting on the deck. I guess this is really the first picture of the boat so far. You can see we had a great vessel taking care of us!

I just want to take a second and explain why there are so many pictures of bridges. Well basically that's because we saw a lot of them. There are 130 bridges that cross the ICW, and 85 of them are opening bridges that most vessels need opened to get through. Every bridge is a neat experience, and I could never get over the fact that on our command, a bridge tender would stop traffic both ways so we could get through. If you don't like pictures of bridges, you might want to check out a different section of this web site :)

DAY 3

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