Goodbye Chesapeake Bay, Hello Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway!

Solomon's Island was an enjoyable stop. Monday we borrowed bikes from the marina and biked around the island, separated from the mainland by a very short bridge.  There were a few restaurants and shops and many very nice waterfront houses.  

On Halloween we motored down the Bay and anchored in Antipoison Creek which flows into Fleets Bay.  It was well protected and quiet except for the Pride of Virginia Bait and Oyster plant which ran 24/7.  

Many of you know that I have been struggling with how we will safely get our 64' 4" mast (without antenna and wind instruments) under the 65 foot fixed bridges on the Intracoastal Waterway.  Last winter I came across a number of YouTubes showing boats being heeled over to reduce their height with waterbags hung from halyards to dinghies, outboards and kids hung from the end of the boom.  I eventually corresponded with the owner of a boat with very similar dimensions to ours who had been going up and down the Intracoastal for years using a bag made of pack nylon to heel his boat.  Having difficulty finding anyone that would sew such a bag for us, I eventually got a 1 cubic yard soil bag from a local sod farm.  They assured me that the bag would hold water.  I was able to get the straps and bag reinforced, but when we tried it out on Georgian Bay it turned out the material was permeable! As we pulled it out of the lake initially full of water it quickly drained.  Back to the drawing board.  So when we went home for Patrick and Katie's wedding I bought a vinyl tarp and was able to get Art at A-1 Canvas and Awnings to sew it into a liner for me.  Back to Antipoison Creek we decided to try it out.  I used the main halyard to raise it, the main outhaul to pull the bag out to the end of the boom, and the spinnaker downhaul to pull the boom out perpendicular to the boat.  It worked pretty well, except that I hoped it would level itself in the hoisting straps as we raised it out of the water, which it didn't so it was only about 3/4 full, and when I had it out at the end of the boom I tried to raise it a few inches and think that I may have caught the halyard or strap on the end of the boom at which point the wheel in the turning block that the main halyard passes through at the foot of the mast crushed ... whoops ...  Good news though, is that in spite of the bag not being full, nor fully out of the water we got about 9 degrees of heel which I figure had the mast down to 63' 6". 

Test run of the water bag

Wednesday morning I replaced the turning block I had broken and we poked our noses out into the Chesapeake but after plowing into a couple of waves that slowed us down to two knots decided to wait for the light winds forecast Thursday.  I worked on the bag, improving the fastening of the straps so it will come out of the water level, and adding a block to the straps so that I can use both the topping lift that normally holds the boom up and the main halyard to support the weight of the bag.  That halves the load on everything and should avoid any more failures. 
 Sheila and Bob kindly invited us for Matzah Ball soup, Vodka lemonade and euchre in the afternoon.  We started a new round of euchre, with the girls and boys each winning one game.

Watermen harvesting fish stakes in Fleets Bay

Thursday we motored over to Cape Charles. On the way across the bay Karen screamed "look, look" and my heart jumped into my throat as I frantically tried to find the crab pot floats, but it turned out we had dolphins swimming by us!  Very exciting! In Cape Charles we walked around the town, did some window shopping and watched the sun dropping (but not setting) from the fishing pier before going to an Irish Pub for a beer and then back to the marina restaurant for dinner.  

Chesapeake Bay at sunset

Friday we motored back across the bay to Hampton Roads, Norfolk and Portsmouth which is home to Naval Station Norfolk and lots of commercial shipping.  Warship 55 passed us on the way into the harbour and a 740' freighter Golden Pearl also passed just behind us on her way up into Hampton Roads.

Warship 55

We docked at Tidewater marina in Portsmouth.  We met Lana and Robert from Our Diamond, a Catalina 36 MkII, as well as Bob and Sheila for happy hour and to pick Lana and Robert's brains since this is their second year travelling to the Bahamas. We'll  spend the next couple of days touring Portsmouth and Norfolk and preparing for the ICW.