Belhaven - Dowry Creek Marina

On the way to Belhaven, I had to pick up some fuel before the bridge.  

Docked at Dowry Creek Marina. 

I picked up the new Windlass and bow roller from Polvige and installed them.  Took about two hours.  

Had a group supper at the club restaurant.

The next day we had a shrimp party at the club house.  

The next day was rainy and I got a lot of PC work done in the club house.

 

Alligator Pungo river anchorage

There was no cell coverage at the anchorage near Tuckahoe on the Alligator River. 

Nice sunset and spectacular starry night.

Next day we sailed to Dowry Creek Marina.  My Windlass failed and I had to raise the anchor by hand.  Good news - a new windlass was awaiting at Dowry Creek Marina.

 

The next morning, we were off to Dowry Creek, and my windlass drum apparently had a stripped thread on the spindle or the new drum. I had to haul the anchor up by hand. Fortunately, a new windlass was waiting for me at Dowry Creek Marina with a new bow roller

During the hauling anchor, I stopped the Raymarine track and had to start a new one.  The Raymarine anchor alarm makes stopping and deleting the current track easy. Happened last year coming back from Quebec City.  Fortunately, the track stopped but was not deleted.  But it was a few miles later on the Alligator River where I discovered the track had stopped before I started a new one.

One almost serious incident happened as we were approaching Dowry Creek Marina. I was far from Midnight and Fair.  I put the autopilot on aiming for the marina about 2 miles ahead.  I was not paying attention and heard Mark blow his horn and I just realized I was inches from sideswipping Midnight.  Apparently, Midnight was not watching out either.

Nice marina, wi-fi at the dock sucked.  I replaced the windlass and installed the new bow roller in about two hours.  Turns out the solenoid terminal was slightly stripped and I used some washers as spacers for the solenoid terminal to go over the stripped threads.  Needed a beer after that.  Luckily I decided to order the new Windlass.

We had a great group supper with music from Unforgettable.

Dismal Swamp

I got up at 6 to shower and prepare for our group departure from Hampton to the Dismal Swamp.  We are a convoy of 8 sailboats.

  

As we left Hampton Bay a thick fog covered the Eastern side of the bay including the major commercial channel.  We stay out of the channel where two freighters came through .. completely invisible but blowing their fog horns

We made an announcement that we were all going to cross the channel at N22 together.  
Eventually, the fog cleared and we had a good view of Norfolk but missed much of the Navel shipyard

 

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Next, we waited for a train bridge to open.  The bridge was undergoing maintenance so they did not leave it open. There were easily fifteen boats waiting for the bridge to open. After some complaining over the VHF and cell phone, they opened the bridge for us but we missed the 11am lock cycle and had to anchor and wait until 13:30, when the lock-master squeezed all ten boats into the lock. 

After cycling the lock, we had to wait for the lock master to open the car bridge a mile down.  
28 miles to the Dismal Swamp Welcome Center where we rafted up for the night.   

The second half of the Dismal Swamp was wider, deeper and curvy.  The second lock was not much more organized than the first lock.  Boats head north were rude and demanded we get out of their way. 

We eventually locked through together and motored our way to Dowery Creek.