What a difference a day makes….

3 November, 2016 – Great Bridge, VA – Coinjock, NC

p1030061After yesterday’s frustrations and a good night of sleep we left Great Bridge, ready to continue our journey south.

p1030062Today we had 2 bridges with timed openings — The first was less than 3 miles from our marina and the next one was 5 miles further.  We left the marina a wee bit earlier than we needed to, and arrived at the first bridge 20 minutes before the scheduled first opening at 0830.

p1030063We were the first to arrive and behind us was a parade of power boats.  A half mile before the bridge we moved toward the side of the waterway and let the power boats pass by – saving us and them the hassle of having to pass us after the bridge.  We’re getting smarter.

Once we were through that bridge we calculated our speed so we could plan to arrive at the next bridge before the next opening but not have to wait for long.  The parade of boats seemed to be going a bit faster than we planned, but we kept with the flow.  As we made the final turn we backed down the engine so we could maintain momentum but not rush to the bridge and have to wait and mill around with the other boats.  We had 15 minutes before the scheduled opening.  And then we heard on the radio that the bridge was doing a special opening to clear the boat traffic for the boats that were approaching, if we could bet there quickly.  We radioed the bridge to say we were on our way, and putting the pedal to the metal.

We ramped up our speed and slid through the narrow opening as only one side of this swing bridge is operational still since the damage done by a tug running into last year.   Just after we cleared, the bridge closed leaving one boat behind who would have to wait for the scheduled opening in 10 minutes.  We thanked the bridge tender for the special opening and appreciated the consideration – this made up for some of the frustration from yesterday.

p1030064The next few hours we enjoyed a quiet and peaceful meandering down the North Landing River and Currituck Sound.

Another amazing thing that happened today you just don’t hear about…. as we were approaching the marina we knew that they were getting busy with boats needing fuel.  Lots of motor yachts means lots of time to refuel (motor yachts take on hundreds of gallons at a time, and we’ll need maybe 24 gallons – quite a difference).  

We radioed the marina to say we were on our way and wanting fuel before going to our slip.  They said “no problem, come and down”.  
There was one big yacht that just passed us and another one right behind. Bob just “knew” they would get there first and we would probably be having to stand down and wait for them to refuel.  As if he read Bob’s mind, having listened to our radio conversation with the marina, the boat that had just passed us radioed us, confirmed we were heading into the marina and needing fuel.  We confirmed, and he said he was doing the same and said he would slow down, let us pass him and he would follow us in so we wouldn’t have to wait for him to fuel his large tanks…. how cool was that!!!!!
The second boat offered the same afterwards.  We were ready to buy them both a drink to thank them.  Fortunately for them (and us) this marina has diesel pumps in the center that run slow for sail boats and along the docks that run fast for the power boats. — so the power boat captains got good karma points for offering to wait for us and weren’t inconvenienced other than going slower than usual for the last mile….. I always appreciate when power boats are more than considerate and we let them know that when we ran into the at the marina.  (And learned that indeed the first boat did put 500 gallons of fuel in his tank, and that would have taken a while longer than our 20 gallons we needed.)  
Tomorrow’s forecast is for big wind, 20 – 25 knots with gusts up to over 30, so we plan to stay here at Coinjock Marina for 2 nights, and wait out the weather before we cross the Albermarle Sound the next day.
They have a good restaurant with a  Prime Rib special for Bob and fabulous seafood options for Christina.  We don’t mind staying here for an extra meal.