Albemarle Loop

 We left our anchorage in Norfolk to continue south through the Great Dismal Swamp. We have been through here a couple of times before and it is quiet, scenic, but with the occasional deadhead that floats up as you pass over it. It is only 6 or 7 feet deep, so the hydrodynamics of a full displacement boat will bring up bottom debris. We had a handful of "clunks" but nothing serious. 3/4 of the way through this canal is a visitor center that we stopped at overnight. We watered up and got a good hike in. One of the things we observed were a few of the original stone mile markers with the mile number etched on the face. These are the original markers erected by George Washington's engineers 275 years ago.

Washington's mile markers

Pretty berries seen on our hike

After exiting the canal, we entered the Pasquotank River leading down to Elizabeth City on the north side of Albemarle Sound. We stayed over night at a free municipal dock, had a nice Grey Ghost ipa and wings at  a local pub, and left to do the Albemarle Loop. This is a path going around the circumference of the Albemarle Sound, counterclockwise. 

Next stop was the Albemarle Plantation Marina. These places are all basically free stops, no charge to stay, with both power and water hookups. Albemarle Plantation is a retirement community near Hertford. I've never seen so many golf carts in my life. All driven by old people. Lots of condos. We stayed 2 nights and had another good IPA. Met a nice couple on a big Chris Craft from Trenton, Ontario who expressed as much frustration with their government as I do with ours, vis a vis viral infections. Got a great hike in as well. Interesting placed we passed was Harvey Point, a restricted area. Turns out it is a place where the CIA and others do "stuff". 

Homes on our hike at the plantation

Long dock at Albemarle Plantation

Burntside docked at the Plantation

Looking out at the sound as we left

Next stop was Edenton, a really nice historical small NC town. We took the trolley tour, looked at a bunch of revolutionary war era homes and buildings. The municipal marina had a courtesy car, it was an old squad car, a Ford Crown Victoria. Really cool. Anyway, made a grocery run with the Crown Vic, and departed the next day.

Docked at Edenton with lighthouse in the background

Wings and beer at the Governor's Pub Edenton

The Crown Vic courtesy car

Toodle's mortuary cracked me up

Edenton Lighthouse

Edenton dock and lighthouse

                                        

Next stop was Plymouth, 5 miles up the Roanoke River. This town is pretty sad. Lots of closed store fronts and just looked poor. We hiked to the ABC liquor store and restocked. The next morning we planned on pumping out but had to delay an hour or so. This was Saturday morning and the bass tournament began at first light. Dozens of boats had to clear before we could get to the pump out station. 

Interesting restaurant on the hike to the liquor store, Plymouth, NC

Pretty church in Plymouth

Boat remnant at the Plymouth museum

Plymouth lighthouse

Sundown over the pulp plant, Plymouth

After storm at Plymouth dock

                                            

Docked at Plymouth

                                        

After getting that chore done we traveled most of the length of Ablemarle Sound to an anchorage just north of the Alligator River bridge. At this point we rejoin the Intercoastal Waterway and unfortunately the south bound migration of boats. This morning (Sunday) we are south bound on the ICW with a pack of boats behind us. 

Bridge that crosses the Albemarle sound

Sunset last night at the Alligator Bridge anchorage

We have made arrangements for storing the boat over the holidays at Lamb's Marina near Jacksonville and will fly home on November 17, in time to burn some brush and clean up ski trails before snow (I hope).

Back on Track

 It's been a year since I posted on our blog. We are back on the water and trying to get back on track with this thing. We left Ely for the boat Friday October 1. The trip to the boat was somewhat indirect, detouring to the Twin Cities for the Eagle's concert Friday night before heading back to Duluth to catch the plane to Norfolk, Virginia. The concert was amazing, Joe Walsh still has it. Just great fun.

The crowd at the Eagles Concert, full house, no masks for the most part and everybody happy.

After the concert we headed to Duluth. We caught 4 hours of sleep at Mike and Shirleen's house before flying out at 8 am. Our flights were fine but picking up the Enterprise rental at Norfolk was a pain. The line was almost 2 hours long. 

The boat was left at Zimmerman Marine in Mobjack Bay of the Chesapeake. They did some work on the boat, basic maintenance I was unable to do that needed to be done. We stayed at Zimmerman's through the weekend, then departed. They needed the dock space for other boats. But we still had work to do. Cindy wanted to get the brightwork varnished (2 coats) and we discovered the windless motor was toasted. We provisioned the boat and then anchored a mile from the boat yard, ordered a new windless motor which was delivered the next day. I then dis assembled the windless and installed the new motor while Cindy varnished. We planned on pulling out and heading north up the bay to tour the brewpubs of the lower Chesapeake, but weather had other plans and we found comfortable anchorages, met some interesting people and got some good hikes in. On one hike, we met a retired accountant from Richmond with a second home on the bay. He raises oysters off his dock in cages. He took an hour explaining what he did and then gave us a mesh bag full of oysters. 

Our friend showing us the oysters in his cages. He has different aged oysters in different cages.

Shucking the oysters after steaming them on the grill to open them a bit

Ready to eat

Our house plant Luigi the basilian

One of a pod of dolphins keeping us company

Bunch of mushrooms on one of our hikes.

Up close mushrooms

We pulled up anchor and moved to the next bay over, still waiting for weather and took the dinghy to shore, hiked into Gloucester and a brew pub for pizza and beer.

Gloucester Brewing Company

Over the past couple of days, Cindy told me the anchor roller needed replacing. It was working ok but clearly worn, and I new it. The weather broke and we went up the bay to Urbanna, Virginia, on the Rappahannock River. Had a nice meal (and beer), went to NAPA, and a thrift store, got our holding tank pumped out. It was urgent, then left the next morning to anchor at a little town across the river and down stream 7-8 miles, at Irvington. Enroute I called the name I had for getting a new anchor roller. he was located in Deltaville, 12 miles further down the river. He returned my called and emailed me a CAD drawing and said he would have it ready that afternoon. Well we had anchored by this time so arranged to pick it up the next day. We moved to the anchorage at Deltaville and hiked to his house  a mile away. He works out of his house with his wife, a fascinating couple. He's South African, worked on a boat in the Norwegian arctic, is building an airplane, re modeling their home they bought at auction, just a fascinating guy, and he reconditioned our old roller as a spare for nothing. I installed the new roller and the next day we had a weather window to move down the bay, so we headed  to Hampton Roads.

 

Old worn roller

Beautiful homes at Irvington. We anchored off these places

The trip down the bay was uneventful and anchored off Fort Monroe, a place we had always passed by, but I wanted to visit. We took a hike to the grocery store, picked up a few things, found a pharmacy for some antibiotics I needed and a brew pub on the way back to the boat. The next morning, we toured the Fort for 3 hours, then pulled out for a more protected spot off the Elizabeth River passed the naval yard at Norfolk. This was a delightful anchorage among private homes, very quiet, but only a couple of miles from the busiest shipyard in the world. I new we had weather coming, but even so, our anchor drug with the passage of the front with 50 knot winds. We just re anchored with a lot more rode and all was good. 

Making an anchor roller

Lawn Chess piece made by the fellow that made our anchor roller

                                                

Light house at Fort Monroe

Moat around the fort

Church at the fort