Southern Migration Time
- sondrawinter
- 8 hours ago
- 8 min read
Deltaville, VA to Belhaven, NC
172 NM | 197 Miles
Beautiful sailing, crashing boats, Neptune’s blessing, and swimming deer are some of the experiences we share in this week’s blog post.
Exhilarating Sailing on the Chesapeake
Friday, October 17
Deltaville, VA to Norfolk, VA
50 NM
Day three of our push to the Norfolk area started at sunrise as we raised anchor in peaceful Fishers Bay outside Deltaville. Once we rounded the turn to reenter the Chesapeake Bay, yesterday's sporty winds and waves greeted us again. However, conditions mellowed throughout the day turning into ideal fast sailing conditions.
At one point during the day, I had to go out on deck to address something amiss on the stack-pack. After completing the task, I turned around to head back to the cockpit only to find myself awestruck by the exquisite conditions around me. The wind and seas were still brisk, but the sun was out providing some warmth to the cool air as I watched the waves pass by Utopia’s hull as she sliced through the water, heeling over to port where I sat. It was just the most stress reducing, peaceful, and yet exhilarating feeling amongst the strong winds and waves.
Once at the southern end of the Chesapeake, we dropped the sails to enter Elizabeth River and head to Tidewater Yacht Marina. As and we approached our slip next to Quest II, we were greeted, and assisted by the marina dockhand, Denise, and Tommy from Alboe! It was great seeing him again.
Saturday in Portsmouth
Saturday, October 18
While yesterday was the day of sailboats arriving at the marina, today was the day of trawler arrivals, indicating to us that the Chesapeake had calmed down a fair amount after several days of high winds and seas. It is going to be interesting to see how much southbound traffic we will be dancing with over the next month as we work our way down to Daytona. A friend of ours recently went through the Great Bridge Bridge bridge opening with 12 other boats!
Our first full day in the marina was primarily spent cleaning up the boat and doing various boat chores. We did take a mid-day chore break to walk to the High Street Fest in Portsmouth in hopes that their farmers market would have some enticing vegetables or fruit. Alas, we walked home empty-handed, but we still enjoyed our little outing. That evening Quest II invited Utopia and Alboe over for happy hour.
Crazy Boat Driver and a Toast to Poseidon
Sunday, October 19
The strong gusty breezes returned today, but the temperature was perfect for outdoor chores. As I stood on top of our hard dodger adjusting the lines supporting the stackpack, I witnessed calamity unfolding. A large trawler was speeding backwards down the fairway as the wind pushed it to our side of the fairway and hit a Hylas sailboat causing damage to the pulpit, twice. They just missed Utopia although the woman grabbed our solar panels to try to push off. Next in line was the bow pulpit of Quest II, which thankfully only received a glancing blow, no damage. Although everybody on our dock thought captain was an idiot for his extreme speed backing, he took full responsibility for damage made to the Hylas. The Hylas couple was not onboard during the incident, and they were impressively calm once they learned about it. The woman said that she was glad that they were off the boat during the incident.
Thankfully our dingy was not on the davits during this incident. Jimmy was giving it a big bath up by the bow when the excitement had begun. Once the dinghy was nice and clean, we applied decals with its boat name: The Jeep. Before pulling off the decal covering, Jimmy and I had a little impromptu naming ceremony. Basically, I asked Neptune and/or Poseidon to honor our dinghy with the name The Jeep and splashed some rum into the water. Then Jimmy said we both need to take a swig of rum out of the bottle before peeling back the decal cover.
The day ended at the marina bar where we met up with Quest II and Alboe, shared our stories and discussed our upcoming cruising plans.
Ten Extremely Busy Nautical Miles
Monday, October 20
Norfolk, VA to Chesapeake, VA
10 NM
Today's trek involved eight docking maneuvers (DM), two involving a lock plus two bridge openings (BO) all in about 4.5 hours.
DM1 – Depart Tidewater Yacht Marina slip: Began to exit the slip around 8:45 a.m., stern first into the fairway. Winds 12 k onto port stern. Tommy helped push the bow into the wind. Once in fairway, wind pushed us down the fairway, while sitting at a 45d angle. Attempted forward gear into the wind, but a gust pushed us into the Hylas sailboat. Jimmy and Tommy fended us off of their anchors. Jimmy asked Tommy to let the owners know that we graced them on our exit.
DM2 – Arrive at Ocean Yacht Marina fuel/pump out dock: Approached long face dock into the wind and stopped using a spring line. Although I discovered that when the winds are strong, a lot more throttle is needed to hold the boat into place, or the bow will swing out away from the dock.
DM3 – Depart pump out dock: We allowed the wind to take the bow away from the dock, but our grill ended up acting as a fender against the dock piling.
BO1 – Gilmerton Hwy Bridge opening: This bridge is adjacent to a railroad crossing and this morning a long slow train was crossing the river. Several southbound boats idled or moved slowly in circles waiting for the train to pass, then for both bridges to open. No northbound boats were waiting on the other side.
DM4 – Arrive at Great Bridge Lock: Typically, recreational boats tie on the south wall, which has protective bumpers. Since it is southern migration season, the “good” wall was full, so the lockmaster put us on the concrete and rusty metal northern wall. Alas Jimmy was prepared and had fenders out on our port side. The lockmaster slipped lines around bollards at our stern and midships. He correctly indicated that a bow line was not necessary. I listened to the radio to hear when the water would start to change level, but there was a lot of radio chatter. We never heard it and could hardly notice the water dropping down 6 to 8 inches.
DM5 – Depart Great Bridge Lock: Over the VHF the lockmaster called out that vessels on the northern wall were to exit the lock first. By noon, Utopia was off the wall following two other boats with Quest II behind us.
DM6 – Arrive at Great Bridge western free dock: Normally the lock and adjacent bridge openings are timed together, however the bridge is under repair and is only opening four times a day. We needed to hold in place with the other ten boats that locked through with us so we pulled up to the free dock where a few more boats were already waiting for the next bridge opening. Docking went well, but when I handed Jimmy the stern line, it was tangled up with the grill’s propane tank causing it, and the regulator, to drop into the water. Thankfully, a woman fishing at the dock grabbed her net and rescued our grill parts. Once we were settled, Quest II rafted up to us to allow others to find a spot on the wall.
DM7 – Depart Great Bridge free dock: As the bridge began to open, Quest II decoupled from Utopia as we waited for the boat in front of us to move. Once free of the dock we slipped into the long line of boats exiting the area between the lock and bridge.
BO2 – Great Bridge Bridge opening: After we locked through, one more load of boats including a barge was also waiting for the bridge to open. There were about 15-20 southbound boats and two or three northbound boats at the 1:00 p.m. opening.
DM8 – Arrive at Atlantic Yacht Basin dock: The dockmaster guided us to a tiny opening between two other boats along the dock. Since the wind was at our stern, we wanted to go past the spot and turn to dock into the wind. As I prepared to turn to starboard, I checked behind me and saw the barge coming my way, and very quickly made the turn. I made it into the slot, although nervous of the possibility of the wind pushing our stern into the beautiful Hylas picnic boat next to us. With the aid of the dockmaster and along with Cam and Denise, Utopia got onto the wall with little to no drama by 1:15 p.m.
Jimmy was physically exhausted from all of the boat handling, and I was mentally exhausted. Baxter however wanted to go for a walk along the dock, so I acquiesced. He was rewarded with meeting a friendly dog. I wish I had my phone on me because it was cute.
Photos from Great Bridge Lock, Great Bridge Free Dock, Tidewater Marina
Bridge Clearances
Tuesday, October 21
Chesapeake, VA to Camden Bay, NC
42 NM
A long day of motoring with two easy bridge openings and two fixed bridges to pass. These were no issue for Utopia and her 59.5’ air draft, but Quest II is four feet taller and had to watch the bridge heights closely. We passed under the bridges first and called out the reading on the tide board (a scale posted on the bridge fenders) to let them know how much clearance was available. The Pungo Ferry Bridge was a hair short of 64’ and Quest II successfully made it under the bridge.
The anchor was set just before 5 pm in pretty Camden Bay in strong winds. If it wasn’t so windy, this remote location would be very pleasant, except for the aggressive mosquitos.
Sailing the Sound
Wednesday, October 22
Camden Bay, NC to Alligator Cove, NC
37 NM
There are a few places on the ICW that are open and long enough to raise the sails and turn off the engine. A smaller boat has more options than the bigger ones, like our friends on Alboe, who sailed their 32’ Westsail on a good portion of the ICW. Well, the Albemarle Sound and the wind direction were just right for Utopia this morning and we got to enjoy two hours of motorless, beautiful sailing. Once across the sound, we had to take down all the sails for the Alligator River Bridge opening that we shared with five other boats. Afterwards, we unfurled the jib and motor-sailed to our anchorage at the southern end of Alligator River’s wide waterway in another pretty and remote spot.
Belhaven on an Open Day
Thursday, October 23
Alligator Cove, NC to Belhaven, NC
32 NM
Turning off of Alligator River, the ICW becomes a narrow channel surrounded by natural areas. The Waterway Guide states that fast boats creating wakes cause shoreline erosion that kills trees which eventually turn into stumps and floating logs. At one point Jimmy shouted out from the helm
“What is that? Is it a log? No, wait it is deer!”
They deer kept swimming across the canal and right towards Utopia. Jimmy reversed the engine with a big throttle, and the deer were able to safely swim across.
On our northbound trip this summer, we anchored outside of Belhaven on a Monday afternoon only to find that the town is pretty much shut down on Mondays. This time we arrived on a Thursday afternoon and were able to visit a brewery and a restaurant. Bright Ayes was anchored outside as well and came over to say hello. It looks like they will be going back down to the Bahamas this year.
Next week we head towards Oriental & Beaufort. We haven't made any new videos since the laptop with the software has died. We'll resume them after reaching Daytona.
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