Passage - Coinjock Marina to Atlantic Yacht Basin, Chesapeake, VA
37 Miles

My back is still out. HURTS. I get up before 6AM because I’m awake. Engine room check goes very slowly because I have to calculate how to lift the engine room hatch, crouch down in the engine room and not cry at the same time. Everything on a boat is an awkward movement. You often need to summon up levitation powers in order to use both hands in the engine room. It does require bad angles to lift things too. Anyhow I endure checking the oil, fuel levels and fuel filter. I crawl out of the engine room, stare at the hatch and get it back in place.

See, everyone, boating is not all bikini’s, fair winds and glamour boating.

We get underway 7:33AM. We know that there are lots of faster boats that haven’t left the dock and will be passing us somewhere. Pretty nice ride this morning. I’m sitting sideways in my chair like a captain looking forward and behind without twisting my back. I calculate the first bridge, North Landing Bridge, that we will have to open and determine we will be there at 11:33AM. This bridge is not an open on demand bridge and opens on the hour and half hour. We need to be there at 11:30. Do, you want to wait at a bridge 3 minutes while I arrive? Probably not, and the bridge tender is not going to give me that much slack. I push the throttle up and watch the calculation drop to 11:30. That’s good, except? I start being overtaken by the faster boats we left at the dock this morning. I HAVE to slow down for them to pass me without a catastrophic wake. After the 1st boat passes us and we regain our speed, we are once again arriving at the 11:34. I can’t push Liquid Therapy but so hard. I get the estimated time to the 11:30 arrival. Good, except two more fast boats cause us to slow down for the “Slow Pass” maneuver. We are still running hard as the bridge opens but the fast boats were backed up and we get through North Landing! It looked like a country road, anyway, with not too much traffic backup

Next bridge, the Centerville Turnpike bridge, is a little over 4 miles away and calculations say since I got through the first bridge a little late that it would be 12:11 when we get to the Centerville Turnpike Bridge. I pull the throttle back a little above idle and instead of hurrying to make the 12:00 opening I settle for the 12:30. GPS says at our slow speed we will be at the bridge at 12:27. So we take in the scenery and bird sounds. Sorry to say I didn’t get a picture of a majestic bald eagle sitting in a tree. We have a leisurely bridge opening and then head for Atlantic Yacht Basin to get fuel and spend two nights to wait out weather and my back recovery, I hope.

The next timed event is the 1:00 PM Great Bridge Lock & bridge opening. The bridge lock is just beyond our destination so Liquid Therapy does not have to make those. However, Atlantic Yacht Basin’s fuel dock gets really busy from the boats coming out of the lock and wanting fuel. I radio the marina and tell them I want diesel and the marina informs me they are out and are waiting on a fuel truck delivery in a few hours. I elect to just tie up and get fuel when we leave.

For dinner, we ate Coinjock Leftovers: DELICIOUS grouper Florentine and ribeye steak, scalloped potatoes (like none we had ever tasted!), and garlic green beans. Sad to say, but not really, our eyes were too big for our stomachs when we ordered truly, ‘out of this world’ REDNECK EGG ROLLS!!! These are BBQ and collard greens, jam-packed in egg roll skins!

Today’s picture is me filling our water tank. A good time for pensive moments of adventures past and yet to come!