Hi everyone,
Ed and I are chugging along! We departed Tidewater, in Norfolk, VA on Sunday morning 7:00 am. We only packed a few staples from our home fridge. No time to go to the store; Ed wanted to roll… we’d deal with what we have for food on our boat, which wasn’t a lot from our last journey.
Woke up to about 50 huge ravens cawing and cawing; they were on the huge boat next to us.
The boats name was, “Dream On”!
Yes…
Well that’s what we’re doing- dreaming on to our next adventure- South…
As we got to railroad bridge number 7, which was hit by a cement barge two weeks prior (our luck!), two trains were coming and we had to hang out and wait.
Oh well, no worries.
I called and the railroad attendant and he said, “I can’t let you know exactly when the two trains are coming, it’s just like when you’re waiting for your train”… or waiting on a woman.
I did get the attendant to open after the one train passed. We squeaked through.
Then, we were in a boat parade with all of the boaters heading south…
We got to great lock and I whipped the line over the cleat and the lock attendant said, “Wow, do you want a job? You’re making my job easy. And you would love this job; you meet all kinds of interesting people cruising through the locks.”
I bet he could write a book with all his stories.
Then Ed asked him, “Do you live here?” He replied “Yes, this is a place where you can have four seasons all in one day.” We all cracked up.
We were chugging along and Ed and I talked about what could we make for some lunch. We decided to make Mac and tuna salad.
I boiled the water, looked for our tuna, and there were none at all! We have 7 cans at home.
Then Ed said, “How about that box of Annie’s Mac and Cheese that some one brought on our boat. Great!
No- no milk. Oh we’ll rethink it… next option…
I said I’ll make it any way,
The box was no place on our boat.
Next Ed went and grabbed a pack of cheese and crackers. Turned around and they were gone, gone gone.
He said, “Meg, I have to go to the cabinet and grab another package of crackers. Where did the crackers go?” I was cracking up so much.
As Rena would say, “The fairies love to hide items right in front of your eyes, so you will laugh.” Well it was too funny. She is so right. We were laughing so hard.
I said, “I can’t wait to get to Coinjock. I love their food and I don’t want to ruin my appetite anyway…”
Still can’t find the missing items on the boat.
The wind kicked up and we just cruised along. It was up to 35 at times. We had to pass this huge barge full of scrap steel, omg..
I was driving. I told Ed, “You take the wheel and pass him!” It was wild. Powered it up and it was hammer time…
The barge was full of scrap steel and he was not giving us much room next to the green marker.
Later we saw the barge cruise by at Coinjock.
You can’t believe how close that you get when you have to pass one of these. Leaves you very humble.
You are very small out there…
Well, we pulled in with all of the other boats into Coinjock and the owner and his son are awesome.
I said to them, “I feel like we were just here, which was in June heading north. “Louise said, “that’s because you were…” These guys are great.
We fueled up, bought a few staples in their store and enjoyed an amazing dinner at their restaurant.
It was a great first day running.
Departed this morning from Coinjock, the sunrise is earlier then back home.
Chugging along and in the pungo saw lots of amazing eagles- I just love it.
Then we were on our way to Moorhead city, NC.
When the sun went down out here, it’s pitch black.
We just went slow and steady. The moon was such an amazing color. It was beautiful, even though you couldn’t see a thing other then the lights flashing.
It was difficult to look for our navigational lights without getting confused with other lights that were flashing.
There was a huge shipping port entering going through a bridge and another railroad bridge, it was black.
Things look a lot different in the darkness, just have to let your mind stay focused .
Not to wonder what you think that you are seeing.
We did fine, slow and steady, got to Moorhead gulf docks and fueled up, went out for some food and ready to rock and roll, mañana.
The fairies Are enjoying the journey too.
Love to share our journey,Enjoy,
Sea you out there,
Meg
