Hey folks,

So here I am back on the blog site.  It has been a long while since we did anything interesting enough on the boat to think about writing it down for others to read.  Remodeling a house, moving x2, life just gets in the way.  Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the story so far.
               

The trip up the ICW has been fairly uneventful. We dodged thunderstorms every afternoon, and luckily had  only had a few sprinkles of rain from them until we hit Norfolk (more about that later). We got our refrigerator running again after fiddling with the wiring, but cannot get the solar controller working so have to charge batteries with the engines. Since we have mostly been motor sailing, that has not been a problem.

We anchored the first night just south of the Alligator River bridge where we thought to find some calmer water. It was a bit rolly, however, so we were glad to get up and out of there in the morning. We'll chose a different location next time if there's a SW wind.

ICW canal

The Albemarle Sound was a bit rowdy. No surprise there. But we were able to turn off the engines after that crossing and sail up the North River. Nice wind and calm water. Anchored in Blackwater Creek, a quiet little stream surrounded by marsh grass. Calm night except for the skeeters.

The next day we stopped for fuel at Coinjock and started through the many bridges and one lock between there and Hampton Roads.  We were actually able to coordinate the bridge openings well and only had to wait a while for a railroad bridge to open back up after a train passed. 

Great Bridge Lock

There were heavy clouds all day but no rain.  But as we were navigating the area around Portsmouth/Norfolk, we were hit with 2 blinding deluges.  If you have never been on that particular stretch of water, you need to know that there are very large barges and naval ships that regularly pass through there.  There is also strict security surrounding the military ships docked on both sides of the river, so you can't get too close and blow them up, I suppose.  Anyway, it can be difficult to find a place to tuck into to wait out the weather.  And you can't anchor very easily either in 50 feet or more of water.  So we pointed into the wind a little out of the main channel, turned on our navigation lights so we could maybe be seen, and hoped for the best.  It seemed like forever but the rain did eventually abate and we were able to move on to anchor in Willoughby Bay just before entering the Chesapeake.

Willoughby Bay is a large, relatively protected bay surrounded by Norfolk Naval Base and the highway that enters the tunnel to Hampton, VA. It would have been a great anchorage except that helicopters flew over and around the boat all evening and even after dark for a while. Some might say a small price to pay to be settled and no longer dealing with the weather.

Friday morning we woke up to drizzle and gloomy skies.  We couldn't decide if we wanted to head up the Chesapeake as planned or wait until the weather improved.  Finally, after checking the weather reports and radar several times, we felt like the worst storms were over.  So we sailed the 30 or so miles up to Severn River, once again dodging showers on a few occasions.  We are currently anchored off Severn River Marina with our friends Dennis and Denise "next door".  We had another (and hopefully the last for a while) deluge last night just after returning from a potluck dinner on shore.  Had about 5 inches of rain to bail out of the dinghy this morning but it needed a good cleaning anyway.  Today we're doing nothing much but relaxing.  Planning to get the boat hauled Monday afternoon and then do some sailing around the Chesapeake.