It’s been about a week since my last post. We’ve been putting some miles under our keel and taking pictures along the way.

October 24th- Solomons Island MD to Fishing Bay/ Deltaville VA

Today we woke to fog. We were really ready to get going since Evergreen had been sitting in Solomons for a while. Patience. Eventually the sun burned off enough of the fog that we had better visibility. The day turned out to be sunny and warm for our trip down the Chesapeake.

We had an uneventful trip down to Deltaville. There wasn’t much wind so we ran the diesel engine all day.

We are right in the middle of a large pack of boats migrating south. This will be a common theme over the next week or so and an influence on where we anchor. In past years we have tried to stay ahead of the pack for some of the trip. Basically, many of these boats go to the Annapolis Boat Show. The Annapolis show is one of the largest on the East coast. We haven’t been to the show since we’re on a fixed (low) budget. Why look at expensive stuff we can’t really afford? Maybe someday we’ll stop at the show but we haven’t yet. I try to get ahead of it. We were ahead of the migration but it caught up to us in Solomons. We’re all moving about the same time due to the weather. The plus side of this is you have a lot of like minded individuals heading in the same direction. The negative side is all of these boats are filling the anchorages and marinas at the end of the day.

Normally when we go to Deltaville we anchor in Jackson Creek and dinghy in to the Deltaville Marina. We like both the marina and the adjacent restaurant. We could see a forest of boat masts in the creek with many vessels anchored outside the entrance. It just looked too full. Further up the Piankatank River is Fishing Bay. It probably added an extra hour to get up the river but the bay is big and well protected. There is a conveniently located marina for Ollie’s evening commando raid. Around 25 boats were anchored in the bay but there was enough room for us to drop the hook.

Some scenes from Fishing Bay.

October 25th – Deltaville to Old Point Comfort/ Hampton VA

We traveled down to the end of the Chesapeake today. What little wind we had, was “on the nose” so the engine did most of the work. We had a few choices for destinations lined up but after consulting with Rhiannon we decided that the anchorage at Old Point Comfort was big and we’d definitely find a spot. The sun was shining and Fort Monroe is a nice place for a walk.

October 26th – Old Point Comfort VA to Dismal Swamp Welcome Center NC

We had a nice night and had a couple of good walks on the point. Both boats crossed Hampton Roads and went up the Elizabeth River adjacent to the Norfolk Naval Base. While passing through we saw a huge navy ship being moved into a berth. They radioed me to stay clear. We stayed clear!

After passing Norfolk we had a choice of routes. We could take the canal at Great Bridge and Coinjock or go the Dismal Swamp route. We’ve been on the Dismal three times and have enjoyed it. Rhiannon has done it once and usually take the Coinjock route. We collectively decided to take the Dismal Swamp. I hope I didn’t over sell it. It did not go well. Evergreen had no problems but it was a different story for Rhiannon.

The day went well for us. We saw lots of turtles and followed a great blue heron for a while.

Along the way we hit a few under water logs and avoided others. We’ve hit logs before and Evergreen hasn’t sustained damage. There was no duckweed growing, which has been a problem in the past.

With only a mile or so to go, Rhiannon radioed us. They had hit a log and lost steerage. The rudder would barely move. We tied to the dock at the Welcome Center and prepared lines and fenders to “catch” Rhiannon. With great effort they were able to turn the wheel a little and tied up to us for the night.

October 27th – Dismal Swamp Welcome Center NC

Rhiannon found a diver to check out the rudder. The diver found nothing stuck on the rudder so that ruled out one possibility. We brainstormed different ideas and disconnected auto pilot and steering to try to isolate the problem. The rudder itself was completely jammed and may be due to a bent rudder post. Big problem. The boat needs to be hauled and the rudder removed in order to effect repairs. After a bunch of phone calls, Rhiannon found a towing service that would bring them back to a reputable yard in the Norfolk area (Atlantic Yacht Basin). Unfortunately, that is back up the canal to the north. We’re going to continue south and hopefully we’ll meet up later.

We spent the remainder of the day walking trails. Later we had them over for Chicken Parmesan and had a nice evening on the dock.

October 28th- Dismal Swamp Welcome Center to Elizabeth City NC

We untied from the Dismal dock around 10:00 to catch the lock at South Mills for 11:00. We said farewell (temporarily) to Rhiannon. Their Tow Boat would be at the dock in a couple of hours and bring them north to the other lock at Deep Creek. Unfortunately the string of bad luck wasn’t done yet.

We locked through at South Mills and continued down the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City.

Our day was uneventful BUT Rhiannon literally ran into more problems. The canal is narrow so the tow boat had to side tie with them to keep control since they had no steering. One of the crew was on the bow of Rhiannon spotting logs. Rhiannon’s mast hit a tree causing a large branch to come down on the lookout’s head and shoulder. She had a large lump on her head and a possible broken shoulder. In addition to that problem, they were unable to get to the Deep Creek lock before it shut down for the day. A call was made in to the Coast Guard and a local Fire and Rescue squad met them at a dock to get her to a hospital for X rays. Some of what transpired we found out from a brief phone conversation. Later we heard a Coast Guard “Pan Pan” announcement on VHF 16 for a medical emergency on the Dismal Swamp. We felt so bad for our friends and helpless to actually do anything to help.

Evergreen anchored for the night at Elizabeth City. There are free docks but most looked full and the captain didn’t feel like hunting for a spot. Later we had good news. There was no broken bones or concussion. Injuries were limited to bruises and battered ligaments. Boats can be fixed but people repair is more difficult.

Some scenes from Elizabeth City.

October 29th- Elizabeth City to Alligator River NC

Evergreen continued down the Pasquotank River to Albemarle Sound. The Albemarle can be a cantankerous body of water but today it was sedate. We ended the day at the top of the river in a very remote spot. Did I mention remote? It was remote except for the 30 other vessels anchored around the area. We continued another couple of miles up the Alligator to our even more remote spot which is near a boat ramp. There was still another boat anchored near by. It was the first time we’ve seen anyone.

Some scenes from the Alligator River.

October 30th to 31st – Alligator River to Belhaven NC

The snow bird armada was up in the morning and proceeded down the Alligator Pungo canal. There was lots of communication on the VHF radio about various things. We had a south west head wind on the Pungo River but it wasn’t too bad.

We found out that Rhiannon made it to the boat yard and repairs were being scheduled. Hopefully they are back on track soon.

We ended the day in Belhaven. There are boats everywhere. We wanted to stop for fuel at River Forest Marina but all of the space on the fuel dock looked full. We anchored and decided to get fuel another day. The next couple of days look questionable so we’re going to stay here for a bit.

Today (Halloween) we went into town for a while. They have a large hardware store so I picked up a few things with a focus on combustibles. Propane, stove alcohol, charcoal briquettes, and lamp oil topped the list. It’s supposed to get cold so we’ll get the heat going in Evergreen. We then stopped at a bakery for lunch and had a bowl of beef vegetable soup. Good to have on a cool fall afternoon. Happy Halloween –