May-7 2006

May 2006
The ICW ‘Great Lock’ is small by European standards and we went down about four inches. All the bridges down to Norfolk are coordinated and we were the only sailing vessel. All the fast motorboats roared of to the next bridge and then had to wait for us to potter along and join them. Like Dordrecht or Rotterdam there was much heavy industry to be seen and numerous very old naval vessels being broken for scrap.
We finally lost the power boats at the impressive pair of lift bridges that signaled the entrance to Norfolk itself. These rise 120 feet to accommodate passing warships and are very old - and rusty. The next section of the river is naval repairs and mothballed ships of which there are many. We found our way down to a shallow anchorage just off the huge military hospital for the night since we would not get far into Chesapeake Bay that day.

With no radar we were thrilled to find that the weather forecast for our trip up the Bay was for thick fog. The VHF was heavy with warship movements and exclusion zones with frightening consequences for getting too near. We met with familiar looking container ships that probably visit Felixstowe as well and worked hard to identify landmarks. Thank goodness for electronic charts! The naval dockyard was well downstream.
This is said to be the biggest naval base in the world and we can believe it. There were seven aircraft carriers in commission in the docks sitting side by side! I think the UK has two tiny ones just now...
We crept out into the fog and stayed as close to shallow water as we could but that found us all the pot buoys instead. Finally the fog cleared before lunch and we had our first views of the strange local lighthouses. The oldest ‘screwpile’ lighthouses are mainly preserved on shore and we hope to see them later. Those on the water are steel and brick.

We traversed the Chesapeake Bay from Norfolk Virginia to Cambridge Maryland in two days with a very sheltered and quiet night at anchor in between. That meant 75 mile days but it was all worth it when we entered the Choptank River to find our chosen marina in Cambridge. The buoys were quite difficult to follow and there were some very shallow areas to avoid. We could see horrendous thunder storms moving in from the West over Washington and Baltimore and wanted to anchor before they hit us!
We went right up the Cambridge River to the centre of town and found just enough room to anchor below the bascule bridge. We were just off the pontoons for a local fish restaurant and it has to be one of the tightest spots we have ever used. The storms passed later without problem. We noticed one motor vessel tied to the dock wall and wondered if we would have had enough water there.
The following morning we went through the bridge and docked at the Generation III marina who have been very kind and helpful. We wandered out into the town and discovered a delightful place full of beautiful old buildings from 17-1800s.

Lady was lifted and sprayed off on the Monday - really not too bad. We left her in a cradle and headed for the airport very early on Monday to stay in our Colorado cabin for a month and visit with Aspen again. We will post a Colorado web page later.