Friday, May 22, 2009

Well another holiday weekend. Today is graduation day at JHS. Hope my cherubs made it . Onward to Virginia today.

The Cat/Schooner and Ketch pulled out at sunrise. I watched them leave and run aground as they overshot the channel at the turn, and got some beautiful shots of them pulling out into the morning mist. There was another heavy morning dew that I splashed through, going up top, swiping the droplets and moisture off the hatches and dodger panes. The dew was sparkling like diamonds on the dodger "windows" but no matter how many pictures I took, I just couldn't capture the beauty of what my eyes saw. Many times I find that to be the case, kind of like the water in the Bahamas. The camera just can't capture what the eye actually sees. I sat up top drinking my coffee and snapping pictures in the chilly damp air. I spotted another eagle today - perched in a tree checking out it's surroundings.

Our plan was another short day today, then a longer run tomorrow to Deltaville. But it turned out to be a longer day today. The two places we were thinking about anchoring turned out to be shallower than expected and other than bump, bump, bumping to try to get to the anchorages, we just couldn't manage it so ended up going on to Great Bridge, VA (which we were going to bypass this time). This is a great stopping place. They have free tie up on the wall on both sides of the bridge, and there are numerous stores and restaurants all in walking distance from the bridge. We were going to tie up on the south side of the lift bridge this time, but, as we pulled up into an empty spot, a guy came up - this spot was actually part of a marina. The free spot was on the other side of the river. Since the bridge was opening, we just decided to go through and tie up where we did last fall. As we approached the open bridge, I spotted a pretty blonde waving at us from the free tie up on the south side. It was Mia Bella from Quebec that we'd met on the beach at Warderick Wells, Exumas Park.

Once on the North side of Great Bridge we tied up, at 4:30pm in 10 ft of water, in almost the exact spot, as we were when we were heading south. We actually tied up behind Kwakatu from Rhode Island. We'd met them in Charleston and I'd traded books with her there near the laundry. They were walking into Great Bridge to go to a Mexican Restaurant that they'd heard about when we spotted them. On their return, they said the restaurant turned out to be pretty good with good prices too. I'd already been in the process of making dinner aboard - the meat and gravy dish over mashed potatoes that Wayne has christened hamburger mash. It's about 60 miles to Deltaville from here, so we'll have to leave early tomorrow. Calling it a night.