I think that title is already taken for a poem or song about the Schooner Ernestina but I sure feel like I deserve to use it. 10 days from Beaufort, SC to Hampton, VA. 484 nautical miles, 557 land miles. Roughly $280 worth of diesel fuel. About half the cost of a plane ticket according to my alternate plan for attending these meetings. A lot more fun too.
I’ve asked at every fuel stop and I’m quite confident I get the tee shirt for first boat north this year. The looks I got from southbound boats were priceless. I also had to watch carefully when meeting them. The idea of a northbound boat was so far out of their minds, hunkered down in their total environmental isolation, full canvas outfits, squinting at the GPS, that there were almost a couple of collisions.
I love to move the boat, as you all know by now. This mad dash was a gas. There is also something about moving fast that lets you see the sweep of the landscape and geography. Oddly, it got steadily warmer as I proceeded north. That was a bit disorienting and I kept looking at the compass as a check on the GPS to see if maybe I had gotten turned around somewhere. 70 degrees today crossing Hampton Roads, I could have been in Maine in July.
The day finished up in grand style with a dawn departure from my anchorage inside marker G 53 where the North River narrows into the land cuts from Albemarle Sound. I saw nothing but a few ghostly glimpses of marker posts on the way across from Middle Ground Shoal the day before and today was more of the same.
I ran up Currituck Sound and North Landing River in 500-600 foot visibility. That’s no exaggeration. I set a GPS distance marker on several marker posts along the route and looked at the distance as soon as I could make them out. It was that thick all the way up to the land cuts.
This leg was done entirely by GPS. By the time I could see the markers, they were useful only as confirmation that I was on track and not as steering aids. I’m pleased to report that the Garmin charts are very accurate in this area. I could have done the whole route sitting in the warmth of my cabin watching the GPS with the autopilot remote in my hand. Nobody else would be crazy enough to be trying this so traffic wouldn’t be an issue. Besides, I had the radar going.
I got up to the new Gilmerton lift bridge and was held up for 45 minutes while they tried to raise it enough for me to get through. There were a bunch of puzzled looking fellows clustered around what looks like the slide for the lift span.
I think there is a good chance I was the first northbound sailboat through as it only opened to boat traffic on Friday. If anyone beat me to it, I’m sure they weren’t in Beaufort, SC 10 days ago.
I’ll be tying Strider up for about a week to attend meetings about things that I hope will let me put enough money in the bank to think about things like cruising to the Bahamas or beyond. I’ll be doing less cruising for the next few months but most liveaboard cruisers come to that time when they have to top up the money tank. Hopefully, it will lead to more interesting things to report on in the future than just going up and down the ICW.
I’ve asked at every fuel stop and I’m quite confident I get the tee shirt for first boat north this year. The looks I got from southbound boats were priceless. I also had to watch carefully when meeting them. The idea of a northbound boat was so far out of their minds, hunkered down in their total environmental isolation, full canvas outfits, squinting at the GPS, that there were almost a couple of collisions.
I love to move the boat, as you all know by now. This mad dash was a gas. There is also something about moving fast that lets you see the sweep of the landscape and geography. Oddly, it got steadily warmer as I proceeded north. That was a bit disorienting and I kept looking at the compass as a check on the GPS to see if maybe I had gotten turned around somewhere. 70 degrees today crossing Hampton Roads, I could have been in Maine in July.
The day finished up in grand style with a dawn departure from my anchorage inside marker G 53 where the North River narrows into the land cuts from Albemarle Sound. I saw nothing but a few ghostly glimpses of marker posts on the way across from Middle Ground Shoal the day before and today was more of the same.
I ran up Currituck Sound and North Landing River in 500-600 foot visibility. That’s no exaggeration. I set a GPS distance marker on several marker posts along the route and looked at the distance as soon as I could make them out. It was that thick all the way up to the land cuts.
This leg was done entirely by GPS. By the time I could see the markers, they were useful only as confirmation that I was on track and not as steering aids. I’m pleased to report that the Garmin charts are very accurate in this area. I could have done the whole route sitting in the warmth of my cabin watching the GPS with the autopilot remote in my hand. Nobody else would be crazy enough to be trying this so traffic wouldn’t be an issue. Besides, I had the radar going.
I got up to the new Gilmerton lift bridge and was held up for 45 minutes while they tried to raise it enough for me to get through. There were a bunch of puzzled looking fellows clustered around what looks like the slide for the lift span.
I think there is a good chance I was the first northbound sailboat through as it only opened to boat traffic on Friday. If anyone beat me to it, I’m sure they weren’t in Beaufort, SC 10 days ago.
I’ll be tying Strider up for about a week to attend meetings about things that I hope will let me put enough money in the bank to think about things like cruising to the Bahamas or beyond. I’ll be doing less cruising for the next few months but most liveaboard cruisers come to that time when they have to top up the money tank. Hopefully, it will lead to more interesting things to report on in the future than just going up and down the ICW.
