Backlanding Creek to Great Bridge VA

Day 19 Thursday, May 4, 2017  

You can monitor my trip at the link: Little Star's Progress Live

A restless night.  Our anchorage, although secure, was  alongside the ICW and boats passed late into the evening and the wind continued to blow

Barge passing close by our anchorge

throughout the night causing the boat to rock.  We are both used to a rocking boat so that should not have been the cause.  I don’t know!

We raised the anchor at 7:00 and headed out.  Our goal for the day is to make about 55 miles to Norfolk where we hope to secure a berth in the Whitewater Marina where we stayed before.  The marina is close to a Navel museum that I have heard is quite interesting. 

The first 5 miles or so the ICW follows a narrow serpentine path through the

Ferry passing behind us in Coinjock Bay  Note rough water

salt marshes.  At one point I was cruising along near the right hand side of the route when I noticed that we were in 3 feet of water.  I quickly checked our speed and it had dropped down to about 3 knots.  We had found a mud shoal that was not listed on the chart.  I quickly swung the wheel to port and was able to continue to move out into deeper waters.  There is a saying, “If you haven’t been aground in the ICW, you haven’t been on the ICW!”  On my last passage, I think every

Loving osprey couple on green day marker 71

one of the 20 plus boats was aground at one time or another.  My situation in Second Wind was that I could push a button and the keel would raise up allowing me to go free.  This time, I was lucky.  It was soft mud and I wasn’t far in.

We passed by the Coinjock Marina which is located in the North Carolina Cut.  From there we passed into Coinjock Bay where the wind was blowing sharply from the east.  I decided to fly the jib and immediately picked up over 1 knot of speed.  The wind continued to build to over 20 knots and our speed continued to increase. At one point I saw 7.4 knots on the chart plotter.  Also, the boat continued to heal over to a more uncomfortable degree so it was time to reef the jib.  I pulled it in about half way making the ride through the waves much more comfortable.  The wave heights were probably 3 to 5 feet.  It was fun.

Fellow traveler

We made good time and arrived at our first swing bridge located on the North Landing River at about 12:30.  We passed a trawler who was obviously slowing way down so I called him on the radio and he said that he was holding back so as to make  the 12:30 opening of the bridge.  A great idea, I throttled back to about 2 knots and covered the last mile in about 20 minutes.  At the bridge, we were about 20 miles from

North Landing Swing Bridge

Norfolk so I called the marina for a berth.  The dock master told me that he had a festival starting tomorrow and although he had a spot for us this evening, we had to leave tomorrow and with bad weather coming in, he recommended that we look elsewhere.

As we approached the town of Great Bridge, about 12 miles from Norfolk, we pulled into the Atlantic Yacht Basin marina for fuel and a pump out.   I inquired about spending the night and the dock hand said that he had

Little Star tucked away in our secluded mooring

plenty of room in a slough along the backside of the marina.  He said that although the spot is secluded and very well protected, there was no shore power.  He took me in his golf cart on a windy ride through the woods to this beautiful spot.  It looked perfect.  The only challenge was it is a dead end with a small turning area. After fueling, we turned around and headed back down the ICW a couple of hundred yard to a small creek that led to the back side of the marina.  Along the slough, there were numerous huge yachts pulled into slips as well as large sheds.  At the far end, where we were to tie up, I was able to make a complete 180 degree turn, back up to the wall and pull forward into the side dock for our mooring.  It actually appeared as though I knew what I was doing.  It was a slight boost to my confidence.  It helped that there was no audience to score my landing.

After a celebratory beer, we walked into town where we came across a Dairy Queen.  I called my cousin Don in Missouri who introduced us to a fantastic DQ beverage the name of which I couldn’t recall.  He informed me that it is a “Salty Caramel Truffle Blizzard.”  And, of course, we each had to have one.

For dinner, we grilled a couple of nice strip steaks that we bought in Belhaven.  After dinner we walked along the dock on the ICW side of the marina gawking at the beautiful big yachts tied there. 

Shells of the Great Bridge Crew

On our way to the DQ, we passed a group of teenagers dressed in some sort of uniform.  They turned out to be the Great Bridge Crew who compete with 11 other teams in the area.  I spoke with the young coxswain; he was having the team members run up the street frontwards and then backwards as warmup exercises.  This was a neat group of about 20 or young folks.

 

Google image of motor yacht Principia

By the way, in one of the huge covered sheds is located the luxury motor yacht Principia.  It is owned by a NJ investment broker who, according to one of the dock hands, never takes her out.  This beautiful boat is a meticulously maintained wooden yacht that was built in 1928 in Seattle WA.  She is 96 feet long, 18 feet wide and draws 8 feet of water.  She is powered by a single Caterpillar 240 hp diesel engine.  She is a true classic beauty.