Wednesday, 2 November, 2016 – Hampton, VA – Great Bridge (Chesapeake), VA
Somedays it’s all about timing, and today our’s sucked.
We started what we expected to be a pretty easy day leaving Hampton along with many of the boats starting the Salty Dawg rally to the Caribbean. As we left the Hampton River they turned left to go out to sea, and we turned right into Hampton Roads and the busy port.
There are many times we are thankful we transmit on AIS (Automatic Identification System – an automatic tracking system used for identifying and locating vessels). Today was no exception when a very heavily laden cargo container ship hailed us by name as they were entering the busy shipping channel requesting we move outside the channel markers so they would have room to maneuver. We had no problem obliging.
This buoy marks the beginning of our first leg southbound on the ICW (IntraCoastal Waterway) again. And here we go…..
Today’s route would take us under a railroad bridge that is “usually open”, immediately followed by a high bridge we don’t have to worry about, immediately followed by another railroad bridge that is “usually open”, followed by a bascule bridge that opens on request immediately followed by another railroad bridge that is “usually open”. An hour further down the waterway we would be expecting to enter a lock, wait there for 15 minutes if our schedule held and then one more bridge that only opens on the hour before we arrive at our marina for the night. We originally planned to arrive at our marina by 1400, but leaving a little earlier than planned this morning and making better time than expected, we realized that it was just possible that we could make the 1300 bridge opening and thus get to the marina an hour earlier.
As we approached the first railroad bridge, we noticed the second railroad bridge starting to go down – bummer, hopefully it won’t be down for long.
We milled around the bridge with a handful of other boats, and waited…..and waited…..and waited. We noticed the 1st railroad bridge going down now and we felt trapped between two bridges, with no where to go, even if we wanted to. 
We continued to wait, as we heard on the radio they were making repairs and the bridge would go up shortly…and we waited. It was about an hour before that bridge finally went up.
Just a bit frustrating, if we had gotten there 10 minutes earlier we would have missed this delay.
Now the parade of boats made its way to the Gilmerton bascule bridge. When we radioed to let them know we were approaching and requesting an opening we were told that the next railroad bridge was currently closed (WHAT?!?!?) and they would open when the railroad bridge opened. At least there was a train on this bridge, and a good reason for it to be closed. But, it was a looooooooooong train, so we waited probably another 10 minutes.
Once through those two bridges, we survived the onslaught of power boat wakes as they rushed to get ahead of each other to make it to the next lock opening.
Finally, we were on the move and having a peaceful trip to the Great Bridge Lock, adjusting our speed for the distance to be travelled in order to make the lock opening without having to wait – we were soon to learn that was a wasted effort.
As we rounded the corner we saw a slew of boats waiting outside the lock and no apparent movement. The lock should have been open and receiving boats but his time, but nothing was going on. We radioed ahead to a boat we met last evening in Hampton, who was closer to the front, and asked what they saw and what was going on. That was when we learned that a “red flag” tug was taking up the lock. (We had plenty of time to research and figure out what a “red flag” tug meant — it means it was carrying hazardous/dangerous materials – guess they didn’t want to mix that with the rest of us.) We would have to wait yet another hour before we could enter the lock. Unbelievable! By this point, every boat in the area was very frustrated as they have all encountered these same delays.
You must also realize that “waiting” on a boat, is not the same as waiting in a car on land. It is not as easy as having your foot on the brake, or putting the transmission into Park to wait. No…. even with the engine in neutral, a boat moves, being pushed by the current and by the wind. So staying in place for an hour at a time, actually takes effort. Kudos to Bob.
We eventually entered the lock and got tied up waited again for the lock to close and open. All the frustrated boats then pushed their ways to the front of the line to wait yet again for the Great Bridge Bridge to open on the hour. We passed under, radioed the marina, and got safely tied to our slip for the night ready for a beer and a wine.
We do realize that today could have been a LOT worse. It could have been cold, foggy or rainy with no visibility, with strong wind or current pushing us (and all the other boats) around as we waited. But instead, today was a warm, sunny and calm day and all that happened was that we had to deal with 2 hours of delays and lots of waiting. We liken it to a bad commute on the road, but heck, we have to admit it is alot better than having to deal with a commute to go to work, so we can’t really complain.
But what a difference 10 minutes would have made this morning!
We have been planning to avoid much of the ICW by doing a number off shore passages to make our way south this year. Today was a good reminder and motivator for us to keep with this plan.