Bridges

There are several types of draw bridges on the ICW.  This is the bascule bridge at Great Bridge as we are going through.

You need to call the bridge tender to ask permission to have it opened.  Some open on demand, others have a scheduled time to be opened.

 

We left Great Bridge with 26 degree weather and ice forming on the water.  We continued on rivers and canals through cyprus and pine groves.

There are also swing bridges, here we are lined up to go through.  The tender will ask for everyone to move close to the bridge so the opened time is short and not disrupting the vehicular traffic patern on land.

We made it to Broad Creek to anchor for the night and then proceeded to Alligator River Marina the second day.  The weather warmed to 65 during the day so it felt good to be in the sun.

 

 

 

Here's Dalmatian in a slip at Alligator River in exactly 7 feet of water.  Tomorrow we head down the canal to a bridge that's fixed at 64 feet vertical.  Our mast is also 64 feet tall, this should be interesting.

Thanksgiving

I thought these pictures say it all for Thanksgiving. I’m loading the turkey pouches in the grill for the dinner. We got the recipe from a cruising magazine.

New to the group are Alan and Sherri sitting between Mike and Irene. Their boat is Silver Spray.

This side has Stacin sitting beside Ken and Hank. His boat is La Dolce Vita. As you see we combined a fairly good meal.

Here are some other folks headed south, including the geese.

Tomorrow we head under the bridge when it opens.

 

So far, so good

Well we had two whomping good days from the Solomons to Great Bridge Va covering most of the two days at 7 to 8 kts speed over ground, (SOG).  That was because we had the tide, wind, and swell behind us giving the boats a big push.  This also filled in the lower bay with more water so the water levels were up several feet allowing us to cut across some thin water areas.  This resulted in our cutting an hour or so from the run time the first day, and even more on the second. 

So we got to Norfolk around noon and were able to head through the harbor and on to the Elizabeth River ahead of schedule.  Here's some of our military that protect us so we could have our Thanksgiving today.

Someone had entered their secure area as we were passing and over the radio we heard the warnings.  Well there must have been some confusion with the interloper because we soon heard "Leave the area or you will be fired upon."  Since the area is so large we didn't see who was going to need some fiberglass patched.  Why mess with the guys with the big guns?


Over the past 6 weeks or so we've been watching the weather near the Gulf Stream at Cape Hatteras and it's been nasty.  In the meantime we've made calculations as to what we could do to be able to travel the ICW through Va and the Carolinas.  Our first look at this came yesterday while traveling the first segment of the ICW.  Here we are running under a fixed 65 foot bridge.  There was plenty of headroom.  Thank you Interlude for the fine picture.

We also traveled over some thinner water and should see some more, (read less), tomorrow.  But for today we are having a Thanksgiving meal with everyone contributing.  We're tied up between the locks and the bridge at Great Bridge, Va. 

Here are the locks and where we tied up along the pier.  Well our dinner's waiting for me to get the grill going.  More to come.

How many sailors does it take to change a light bulb?

So the others in our group have had to do some chores on their boats too while waiting for the weather to turn.  Yesterday Captain Mike needed some help changing a light bulb and on a sailboat that could be more than One to hold the bulb and two to spin the boat.  Yeah, I know it's an old joke, but we're old guys. 

To have a line to climb the mast, we had to lower the forsail and add a 4 to 1 block system to the halyard.  That would make it easier to pull Mike to the top of the mast.  After a lot of talking and line tying, Mike gets into the bosun's chair.

We got to cranking.

Break time, we left Mike hanging.

Actually we switched positions to keep Mike moving upward.  Close to the top and we had to switch lines for a final pull.  Of course this was about the time the plastic tape hit the deck, oh well Mike didn't need it for switching bulbs.




Mike working at getting the lens off and swaping out the bulb.  The mast was swinging in the breeze.

It was cold below and I know Mike could only work so long with cold hands.



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We tried the light and got the high sign from Mike.  Lowering is always a lot faster.

It took a while to warm up afterwords and return the halyards to their former function of holding sails in the furlers.

After dark Mike tested it once more and was pleased he switched to a LED anchor light.

Windlass gets a bonnet

While we were waiting for our friends to repair their engine. I picked up some parts to swap out lights to LED's to reduce the drain on the batteries.  The draw went from 75 watts to less than 3 watts by changing three bulbs.  I'll do more when the price drops a little more.

MaryLou has also been busy making a cover for the windlass and anchor locker.  She had some matereial from another project and stitched together a cover that will keep some of the water from draining into the anchor locker everytime it rains.  Here are the pics of her handywork.

Pretty good work for having a tiny workshop set up on the table below.

The Dalmatian is ready again for traveling.

Think tank

For some time now we've been discussing the possibility of taking the ICW instead of running outside of Cape Hatteras.  Well, we got the think tank going and it seems very likely to transit the ICW if we get under the Wilkinson Bridge (listed as 64 feet mhw).  We measured the mast, lights, and various wind instruments.  They total 64 feet and change.  We need to have low water and possibly lean the boat on its side 8-10 degrees.

I've rigged the dinghy for weight on the boom to swing abeam and then we will fill it with water to get more weight.   We should get 5-6 cubic feet of water for ~1100 lbs.  That should pull the mast over 10 degrees and reduce the mast height by 1 foot, 63 feet.  We'll check the tide board on the bridge to verify nearly 65 feet of clearance before running under.  The plan works on paper, we'll post how it works out when we get Wifi again.

NOAA boat

Before the arrival of Sandy we had seen the NOAA boat docked beside Kabria and thought it would be nice to find someone who could show us the boat.  Well yesterday Irene and MaryLou arranged our tour for this morning.  We met Rob who explained the mission of the boat, introduced us to the crew, and explained the workings of the boat.

The threefold mission is bottom mapping, testing experimental equipment, and public outreach.  He identified the parameters for testing equipment, such as a programable submarine, and how the data would then be used.  If anyone has an idea that works in a labratory and would be better in function or cheaper to use in a marine environment, they would evaluate it.

We saw this device ready for evaluation before the storm Sandy.  This NOAA boat was called to assist in the Norfolk area during the storm.


The bottom mapping is done with two different resolutions from two seperate devices.  The first is a towed device that can give data within a meter resolution. 

As the boat travels in rows of a grid, the data is collected and projected on a screen.  Then it requires some interpretation to decide whether it is a bottom feature, crab pot, fish, or some other annomoly. 


When it's decided a better look is needed, the fixed high resolution sonar is deployed.  It has an accuracy of decameters and done with color imagery.  The sonor device is at the botton of that wing device and it is lowered through the deck of the boat.  The result could be a picture of sunken boat or some other debris on the bay floor.  There is also a method of gleaning the data to show the composition of the materials making up the bottom of the bay.  This could be useful for aquaculture or biomass restoration.

Rob explained that within their mapping area, Chesapeake Bay excluding rivers and streams, they will travel back and forth for ten years before returning to the same place.  The NOAA data is available within 3 months of discovery.  This is done in the Update to Mariners and then to updated charts.  Rob also mentioned the other places in the US and world where NOAA is involved in mapping the ocean floor.  Captain Mike mentioned his involvement with mapping during his career with the US Navy thirty-plus years ago.  Some of the data in areas that don't shoal in can date back to pre 1900's and continue to be accurate.

We had several questions on mapping, boat duties, anual servicing, and life on board which were answered by the crew.  It was an enjoyable diversion from everyday life aboard a boat.  

Pumping Out

For the last week we've been either in a storm or waiting for another.  The Chessy may be rough but there are plenty of chores to pass the time.  Laundry, restocking food, and boat maintenance items are on top of the list.  We did a pump out at the town dock so we would have plenty of room in the holding tank once we get going again.  The dock pilings were a bit snug as we pulled along side the town dock.  Mike and Hank had come along for the adventure and assured me we would fit if the pilings would give a little.  It was a squeeze.

 

We are in snug as can be while I did the pump out of the rear holding tank.  I ran a flush of the line before we left to assure we would have an empty tank.

Mike and Hank pushed us free as we backed out into the channel and returned to our slip at Calvert Marina.  I laughed later on when I saw the sign in the pictures that read "No Crabbing", good choice. 


We were busy today doing some final shopping before leaving this weekend and I thought this would be a good day to celebrate. MaryLou and I invited everyone over for Margaritas and a little snack while the sun warmed the cockpit. It was good to sit and talk about what's coming up and why we are enjoying this style of living. Here we are kicking back until the sun went down.

It did get chilly as we set plans for the morning.  There's going to be a tour of the NOAA boat which is at the floating docks further up in Calvert Marina.  It should be interesting but 9 am may be pushing it for this crowd.