Day 52-Change in plans

Monday May 10, 2021.
Temp: 73/54, Humidity: 61/89%, Top Wind: SW15mph, Precip – some rain, Miles Traveled: 9.5

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It was warm last night, only getting down to about 70 outside. We slept with one window open and the fan running. I started out with the hatch over our bed open , but with the threat of rain, didn’t think that was very smart. It did sprinkle a little over night, and everything was wet outside in the morning. At least we were dry, if not a bit sweaty, inside. I got up before 7:00 and checked the weather. Still looking like thunderstorms early afternoon, and wind anywhere from 15 and up with higher gusts once we get out of the swamp. I went back to bed thinking… what’s the hurry? We don’t HAVE to go anywhere, so why are we stressing over it? And it’s free to stay here! So even though we don’t have power to plug into, we have great batteries and a generator for living without shore power. We both looked at the forecast again, and finally decided to just stay. We kind of had a deadline to make the decision, because there would be boats coming north about an hour after the 8:30 lock opening. The catamaran sailboat that was on the wall had departed, so there was an empty wall spot. If we were going to stay, we should un-raft from Seeker, and go grab the spot on the wall. I texted Ann on Hallelujah! since I could see that they were coming. She said there were SEVEN boats coming that locked through together! YIKES! We would definitely have boats rafted to us. The sailboat Monarch decided to peel-out before the flotilla arrived, so that left another open spot on the wall. We went ahead and untied from Seeker, and made our way over to the end wall spot. That way if we ran our generator, it was pointed toward the trees. While we waited for the boats, I tried another flower portrait, and at least this time there is a stem attached to the flowers. 😉

We saw the park pedestrian bridge open, so we knew the boats were almost here. Ann on Hallelujah! texted me again to tell me that Panacea was trying to get us on the radio. I grabbed our little handheld VHF and chatted with the incoming boats to let them all know the situation here for docking and rafting. There were three sailboats in the lead, so they all piled up together in the middle. Panacea rafted to us. We told them we wanted to leave before sunrise in the morning, and they said – no problem. The next big boat was Spinning Dreams, so he rafted to Seeker. Then Hallelujah! rafted to Panacea, since they only planned to stay for about an hour. It was raining off and on during this whole organized chaos event. Everybody got tied up and settled. Whew! What a mob scene! Six of the eight boats are Loopers!

Here’s our little pod of big girls.

Don and Joan on Panacea are a hoot. They’re the ones that called us on the radio coming across Albemarle Sound yesterday to see if we had better water than them. 🙂. They have Inky on board with them, an elderly lab that has lost his hops. So Don had to help him off their boat, onto our boat, then off of our boat to shore. Inky looks like a twin to one of our grand-dogs named Dixie.

Here is what happens when boats are rafted three deep on the wall. We kinds stick out into the canal.

Hallelujah! left by 11:30 so that they could catch a lock opening in order to get to Norfolk as planned today. Then we had another boat StarDust come in and take their place. When they decided that they wanted to raft to Panacea & us rather than the other big boat, we told them that we were going to leave very early in the morning, and they said “we’ll figure it out”. OK, cool. It sprinkled rain a little bit, but the storm that was forecasted to hit us went right on by. Hmmmm.🤔. Then we started having thoughts that we should have just gone today. StarDust mentioned that they’d like to possibly do a boat shuffle this afternoon to get us on the outside, so we wouldn’t have to mess with relocations in the morning. Then an idea 💡! Monarch had mentioned that he was just going to go north and stop at one of the free docks near the north lock. Not a bad idea! We didn’t have anything else to do this afternoon, and the rain was pretty much all done. It would save us some miles in the morning, and we wouldn’t have to leave in the dark to make the first lock opening. So we got everybody fired up and we did a little boat dance to get us out and we tootled on our way up the waterway.

Look! We made it to Virginia, and we were welcome!

We haven’t seen too many lilypad fields, but today there were a couple.

The forest really started to close in on us! There was a sailboat a ways ahead of us, and we didn’t want to catch him, so we just idled along at about 5.3 mph. It was a very relaxing and quiet afternoon!

We actually found some trees that are just starting to leaf out! I guess Virginia trees are slower to recognize Spring than North Carolina trees. 😉. We only had one log bump our hull when we were in over seven feet of water. They lurk under the surface and you cannot see them. But that is why you go slow through the Swamp, so the hull hits them and hopefully shoves them to the side before the props find them!

Before the lock at the north end of the Swamp, there is a lift bridge, and about a 70’ free dock that boats can tie up to. The bridge only operates in conjunction with the lock, so it would not be opening after 3;30 today. We though we’d go all the way to that dock. But there had been a fast boat go by, and then the sailboat in front of us, so there might already be two boats there. I found another free dock about half way there that had really good reviews. The sailboat didn’t take it because there is some tree cover which is a little iffy for sail masts. We decided to stop at the Douglas Road dock. We’ll have eight miles (1.25 hours) in the morning, which will work out just fine for the 8:30 lock opening, and we’re the only boat here.

The dock here is in great condition, with rubber buggy bumpers on the pilings, a clean well lit bathroom with running water, a picnic table, and a paved bicycle path. I guess it’s part of a park and it was really nice.

So here is Island Girl glamping on her own out in the wilderness.

It’s a great spot out here all by ourselves. We can run the generator without bothering anybody, we’re all tied up secure, and we won’t bother anyone when we leave. AND, it’s ony 1.25 hours to the lock instead of three! Yipee!!

Kenny worked on the generator a bit to fine tune the volts, watts, amps, something. I just whipped up an easy microwave kind of dinner with some chili, potatoes, cheese and sour cream. We had our windows and door open with screens on, and there really were hardly any bugs. What a great find! Tomorrow we’ll get up and leave before 7:00 so that we’re sure to be at the bridge before 8:30. We’re pretty sure that southbound traffic has the right of way, so the bridge won’t open until after 8:30, but we want to make sure we’re there and ready.