November 20th, 2018
Pamlico Sound
One of the rare 44ft bridges encouraged us to take a diversion through the Pamlico sound and we shall be ever grateful for we had two days of lovely sailing. Having sailed round Cape Hatteras we knew it was a long way out and pretty boring so decided to avoid it and have a sniff at the ICW. Here we were sailing through an amazing bird sanctuary with all sorts of things to keep us occupied and on top of our game. There is a saying around here that there are two types of boaters. Those that are aground and those that are going to go aground. Whilst its not that bad you do have to remain vigilant and so what might have been a boring grind outside became a pleasure that whisked the day by before we knew it. I think the most impressive sight was squadrons of Pelican flying about in formation just above the water. What was amazing was that we had the place to ourselves which only served to make us feel all the more privileged to have stumbled across this unexpected gem.
November 20th, 2018
Bridges
There are many bridges along the ICW with swing and lifting being favoured in the past. Apart from a couple of outliers all the new ones are 65ft and fixed so we can just scrape underneath them. That said the optical illusion from the cockpit is enough to give us a heart attack every time we approach.......so far so good.
November 20th, 2018
Inter Coastal Waterway
The ICW is the most amazing piece of engineering in that it stretches 4,800km from Boston to Brownsville Texas. In so doing it served as a protected maritime artery up the east coast of the US. It has many guises as it follows the path of least resistance utilising at times pretty open water. Sometimes the engineers had no option but to get dredging and as you can see from the picture its on a big scale. In this case ploughing through seemingly endless forest.
November 15th, 2018
Inter Coastal Waterway
Once on our way we found ourselves diving into the Inter Coastal Waterway with a clutch of boats heading south for the sun. This is an actual migratory pattern for many yachts and motorboats with a large proportion of them from Canada. It was absolutely freezing yesterday and I fully expected it to snow as I looked at the heavy grey cloud cover. This picture is of us all waiting for a bridge to open. Pleased to report that we didn't hit any of the fixed bridges so all good so far.
November 15th, 2018
Sail has right of way over power.....I dont think so
On leaving Norfolk we were herded into a lay-by to allow an Aircraft Carrier past and it was both thrilling and frightening when you think what it is capable of doing. In the foreground is our good friends Ian and Michelle on Mahina. We met them about six months ago in Herrington Harbour and they are now fast friends. Its nice to be traveling in company with them.
November 15th, 2018
GUNS
There is an amazing museum in Norfolk and the Bell of the Ball is the USS Winsoconsin and as you can see we did the tour. Our guide was an old timer who was amazing and just the man to bring her to life. This is her 16inch guns which can fire a shell that weighs the same as a VW Beetle 26 Miles!! We couldn't help thinking of Grandad we walked about for he is full of stories of the Royal Navy which he joined at fifteen years of age. These were the kind of guns he used to play with.
November 15th, 2018
Be afraid
The USS Winsconsin bow is concave which makes it look like an optical illusion. To the naked eye it is just like in the picture - imagine that running down on you at 39knts which is what they got out of her during sea trails.
November 15th, 2018
USS Wisconsin
Now this is what I call a battle Ship and doesn't she look good in the dark
