Ships
log day one at sea November 14, 2013
10:45 am-We left the fuel dock at Annapolis Maryland at
10:45 this morning and set out on our journey down the Intercoastal Waterway.
We are cruising at 15 knots- 17.3 mph. Our goal today is Norfolk Virginia. We
will probably reach it around 9pm. The sun is getting ready to set on the
horizon. Its 4:51 pm. Seems a little early.
About an hour after we got underway we were visited by some
flashing lights…the US Coast Guard!!!! Steve thought he was getting a ticket
for speeding!! They boarded the boat and checked for compliance for safety
regulations, if the boat was in our name, number of life jackets, flares, etc,
etc. It was a little nerve racking!! Any way they were nice and we passed 100%!
We are now good to go!
4 pm- The seas have been pretty calm until the last hour or
so. I’m in the cabin nice and warm; Steve and Eric are up top. We were
fortunate to have a canvas company whip up a “dodger” or plastic windscreen or
they would REALLY be freezing! Hopefully this will be our only late night. The
guys have their cold weather gear on but I am definitely the comfortable one!
My sister asked if I was getting queasy, but so far so good.
I’m sitting here writing this with a delicious glass of Chardonnay! (I know,
typical!) Update: it’s about 6 pm now and the seas are pretty rough- we’ll test
the wine theory.
This is such a dream come true for Steve and me. It started
when we were in high school and talked about how fun it would be to live on a
boat….. over 44 years later we finally are doing it!
Capt
Steve
I
stole the following information from Wikipedia regarding the Intracoastal
Waterway for anyone that’s interested.
“At the request of the
Senate in 1807, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin presented an overall plan for
future transportation developments of national importance and scope. Along with
inland east–west improvements, Gallatin's north–south improvements included the
following:[2]
“
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The map of the
United States will show that they possess a tide water inland navigation,
secure from storms and enemies, and which, from Massachusetts to the southern extremity of Georgia, is
principally, if not solely, interrupted by four necks of land. These are the
Isthmus of Barnstable,
that part of New Jersey which
extends from the Raritan to the Delaware, the peninsula
between the Delaware and the Chesapeake, and that low and marshy tract which
divides the Chesapeake from Albemarle Sound. ...
Should this great
work, the expense of which, as will hereafter be shown, is estimated at about
three millions of dollars, be accomplished, a sea vessel entering the first
canal in the harbor of Boston would, through the
bay of Rhode Island, Long Island Sound,
and the harbor of New York,
reach Brunswick
on the Raritan; thence pass through the second canal to Trenton on
the Delaware, down that river to Christiana
or Newcastle,
and through the third canal to Elk River
and the Chesapeake, whence, sailing down that bay and up Elizabeth River,
it would, through the fourth canal, enter the Albemarle Sound, and by Pamlico, Core, and Bogue sounds, reach Beaufort
and Swansborough
in North Carolina.
From the last-mentioned place, the inland navigation, through Stumpy and
Toomer's sounds, is continued until a diminished draught of water, and by
cutting two low and narrow necks, not exceeding three miles together, to Cape Fear River, and thence by an open but
short and direct run along the coast is reached that chain of islands between
which and the main the inland navigation is continued, to St. Marys along the
coast of South Carolina and
Georgia. It is unnecessary to add any comments on the utility of the work, in
peace or war, for the transportation of merchandise or the conveyance of
persons.
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9:00 pm- Going by huge ships in
the Navy Shipyards.
9:29 pm- anchoring at Norfolk
Virginia!!! Fabulous day!!!! 147 miles!!!!!!
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