Let's buy a boat in Miami he said ....

Friday 1st November 2019

We had been planning to spend a few days exploring Annapolis but the weather dictated that we head off down the Delaware with favourable down winds forecasted. We had another beautiful sail with a number of other yachts heading South with us.

More yachts on the horizon yay

We pulled in to Solomon Islands and spent the night in a beautiful anchorage so calm and protected. It was nice to be still after our two nights on the mooring ball in Annapolis, that had swung and rocked and the sound of water slapping on the stern had kept us awake all night.

Blue skies and calm water

So many boats, on every side of the river

lovely still waters

It was good that we were able to stop in the middle of a river that was similar to the creeks in Annapolis, the creeks are deep and crowded with Marinas but are deep so boats can get far up stream. We were able to drop the anchor in the middle of it all with just enough swing room to feel comfortable and at this anchorage we could drop the dingy and go ashore. It was a bit of a hike but we found the fast food outlet and the supermarket so all necessities covered.. Just a nice stop peaceful but with good land access.

On the Sunday morning as we were leaving we filled up with diesel and town water, the guy who served us was just young, in his early 20's Id say anyway it was Sunday morning and I asked if he had been out for a few beers the night before and yes he had - with friends at a bar, but he had a DD a designated driver who came and picked him up, he said he was missing out on church working on Sunday mornings but that was ok he went to other things at the church during the week - bible study, this was also the same place we saw a 2020 Trump for president Keep America Great flag flying from the back of a power boat. So there are Trump supporters out there.

We had good winds and favourable currents to take us down the Delaware, again Craig was so excited to have other yachts sailing with us we feel we have been almost on our own for such a long time.

We did pick up Mario along the way we first met him in Port Washington and he had been in constant phone contact with Craig ever since, he is doing it hard... he has sailed from Quebec and was hit by Hurricane Dorian and all the same storms and weather fronts that

we have experience, except he is on a smaller yacht so much more wave movements, he is on his own so all the responsibility and decisions are on his shoulders, he had no auto pilot so has to hand steer all the time, and he has a small anchor that he was advised was the correct size for his boat but was really too small, so that meant in all these winds that we had experienced he had been on his own watching his anchor oh and he hadn't download the anchor pro app that we use so no alarm to let him know if he was drifting, so no sleep during the storms. He had had enough and was trying to get to Deltaville as quickly as he could so he could either sell his boat or put it on the hard for Winter and go home he had given up his plan to sail to the Bahamas.

Mario the lone sailor saying goodbye as we left Deltaville

We caught back up with him in Deltaville where he hauled out his boat and I do believe it was sold within a week. He has gone back to Quebec to live on his land, it was snowing when he got home but he was happy to be back on land in his own house.

Oh yes we received photos from Todd and Heather it has already been snowing in Wiarton !!. They had their first snowfall at Halloween. They have such a short Summer season there. Canadians who migrate South for Winter are called Snow Birds. Todd and Heather close the shop and go to the Dominican for 3 - 4 months each year starting just after Christmas.

Deltaville was kind of cute and we had a couple of nights anchored there but it was a long walk to the highway so we only made it to the hardware shop and West Marine.

Wednesday 6th November

The next day we managed to sail all the way to Hampton, again with a number of other yachts heading south. We anchored on the Hampton side opposite Norfolk where there is a huge USA Naval base, on the way in we kept hearing on the marine radio Channel16 announcing that there would be a naval vessel heading out and other vessels were not allowed within a 500mt radius. then we would hear "This is warship number -- we are heading out to sea and sailing vessel such and such you are in our way please allow us to pass on your port side"

We were lucky we didnt get in the way of any of them and managed to get into our anchorage at Phoebus Old Port Comfort. A sheltered basin with the exit from an underground road tunnel on one side and the old fort, Fort Monroe, on the other. It was a bit noisy with road traffic but that quitened down after peak hour.

So many different warships

We dropped the dingy and motored ashore - on the first trip to find propane (we use the propane for cooking, we have 2 bottles and they are 9lb stainless steel so no good for the swap and go). We walked a good 3 miles through a predominately low income black neighbourhood. The history of this side of the river is very interesting. It was first inhabited in 1607 and founded as a town in 1609 by the English. In 1861 during the American Civil War slaves who had been granted freedom were allocated plots of land here, so it was the first township of freed slaves.

There were squirrels everywhere

We found what we were looking for and by taking a different road back we stumbled across the supermarket, we couldn't buy much, as carrying the full propane bottle was heavy enough. Once back on Adriana we realised we had missed buying eggs and cream cheese (philly cream cheese is our new favourite as normal cheese in US is bland and tasteless and quite expensive) so back we went. We took a little detour as we were able to dingy over to the old fort, we found a dingy dock to tie up to and we were able to go ashore at the Old Fort and have a walk around, the museum was free so that was a bonus. Fort Monroe was the first stone built fort built by the British in the 1600's.
It was cool to walk around the old stone fort and climb the battlements and look out over the busy harbour.
Afterwards we headed back to the supermarket and as we were walking through this lovely lady said to Craig "are you sailors ? are you here on a boat ? would you like a lift with your shopping ?" we were like yes please, she said she does it when she can she also picked up a couple of young guys that were anchored in the next harbour along. Her husband was a doctor in the Navy and she had moved around to lots of naval bases but loved living In Phoebus and enjoyed watching the yachts come in and anchor close to her home. She also filled us in on some history and info about the area. The neighbourhood we were in called Phoebus Port Comfort had lately had a clean up and was becoming trendy. The town was where the first free black people were given land and it had always been a very poor black neighbourhood but part of the old fort compound now housed a returned serviceman’s hospital and repatriation centre and this had brought new money into the town and things were starting to be cleaned up.

We had stopped for a look in at a PAWN shop on our walk to the supermarket, I could have bought a gun for US $125 just a nice little one to keep in my handbag !!!! Think American Pikers type shop.

Our next stop was only 20 nmiles away still in Norfolk but with Portsmouth on the other side of the river. It was only a short run but we are starting our trip down the ICW tomorrow morning and this spot has easy access and we have to time our passage for bridge openings along the way.

Explanation of origins of Intercostal Waterway

I was beginning to feel that reading this blog might be getting a bit repetitive you know we sail, motor, ride out storms cook, shop etc well let me show you this, the next morning we had to pass the naval shipyard with its many warships, we counted at least 20 ships docked which was interesting enough, then as we were motoring past the navel shipyard heading to start our trip down the ICW we were stopped, before we reached our first bridge of the day because there was a SUBMARINE coming past !!

The submarine was heading towards us and like we had heard on the radio all vessels had to keep a 500mt distance from all Naval vessels, well this one had a security posse around it, there were about 5 smaller vessels with four or five fully armed soldiers on board each one, guarding the submarine as it pushed along past us. It was partially submerged with a lot of people walking around on top of it. The guard boats stood between us and the submarine, we were a bit hesitant to take photos but we managed to sneak in a few. The soldiers did give us a slight wave/nod to say hello.
There were about 4 other boats held up as the submarine went past it was quite a tight spot we couldn't turn around and at one point we were travelling parallel with the submarine back up the way we had just come but the submarine was quicker than us and we were able to turn back around once it had passed. It was really cool to see a submarine so close up and moving. My uncle Bill served in the British Navy on submarines so there has always been a fascination with them, and what the living conditions must be like. To me it’s quite frightening the thought of travelling along under the sea in one.

We were a bit nervous of being too obvious taking photos so just a few sneaky ones

It was a bit scary having the armed guards so close

This gives you a good idea of how big it was

Just the tip of the back was showing as it passed us

After we were clear of the submarine we were able to head to the bascule rail bridge that swings up to make room for vessels traversing along the river, it is up at all times unless there is a train using it and yes it was down as a train went over, then it got stuck halfway up and had to come down again before it was lifted back up and we could proceed through the opening.

We had about 5 bridges to pass through or under, either they were opening bridges that open on the hour or fixed bridges, the statuary height for the ICW bridges is 65 feet we measure from waterline to top of mast 63.5 then we have our antennas give us another couple of inches. We had read in the notes from Bill whom we purchased the boat from that he had tinked the Wilkerson Bridge that has a clearance height of 64 feet and we were on our way to meet it.

We approached the bridge as slow as we could we had still managed to time it so that it was low tide...
An English couple that we passed just prior to the bridge offered to tie a rope to our mast to heel us over slightly so that we could pass under with our mast slightly on its side to give us a bit more clearance.
They do have depth or bridge height from water line indicators but you can’t actually see them until you are almost under the bridge.
We had our hearts in our mouths. Looking up it seems like there is no way you will clear any of the bridges !! far and less one that is actually so close to your boats mast height.

We decided to go for it, there is a small video of the drama on Craig's FB page unfortunately this blog doesn't allow video. We did tink the bottom railing and our antenna clinked along the underside but nothing got stuck or was broken WHEW !!!

It was a stressful day as we had been held up early with submarines and rail bridges and we had timed the going under the bridges so that we had lowest tides and maximum headroom. We were grateful to pull over at the end of the day.