DAY 34

Pete and Pete just got done watching the Superbowl. Pete informed me that the Colts won... hmmm. The cold must be getting to them.

They woke up this morning and it was cold and clear and sunny, cold enough to get a nice headache while you are standing at the tiller. Norfolk is mile zero on the Intracoastal Waterway. They have officially begun the ICW! They went through the Great Bridge locks... under some drawbridges, and they are tied up just south of the locks in Great Bridge. Tomorrow they leave Virginia and head for Coinjock, North Carolina.



From Peter Ver Ploeg:


We motored out of Norfolk in the stinging Winter wind, through a forest of construction cranes, railroad bridges, and the conning towers of great steel ships. Very impressive. Norfolk is mile zero on the Intracoastal Waterway, so even though we'd actually been on it for most of the trip, it hadn't really felt like it until now. Numerous draw bridges spanned this stretch. After the Eel Pond in Woods Hole, we were well used to those, but ahead were also our first locks, something neither of us had every been through before.


The receiver on our radio is malfunctioning. We never heard the bridge operators reply to our queries and so, unaware, called again and again. We must have annoyed the operators because none of them waved back as we motored by.

We got in to Great Bridge nice and early in the afternoon and found a spot on the public wharf. The sun was out and shining strong so we opened all the hatches, lay everything out to dry, cut our toenails (on the wharf because its bad luck to do it on board) and explored the town.


We found a couple good bars to watch the Superbowl in, one with cheap beer, one with free appetizers. When we got back to the boat, the ice was already forming on the river.