Back in the Water and Starting South

 October 22nd was a beautiful fall day. We had one project to get completed and then we would be ready to go back in the water. We needed to take our anchor chain out of the locker in the bow of the boat and lower the anchor and chain to the ground. We then measured it and painted sections with yellow spray paint every 25 feet. We then installed color coded zip-ties to let us know what the length was. We expected this would be a quick project, but the paint, although it said quick drying on the can, would not dry. Kim ended up getting the heat gun out and got it dry enough to put back in the locker. We also gave the anchor fluke a new coat of yellow paint. 

With that completed, we were now ready to turn things over to Andy and his crew to get us placed back in the water. 

Our home on the move. 

Approaching the well. Andy has excellent skills. No sudden movements, smooth as silk.

Andy set us down in the water and we checked for leaks. We did have water coming in the shaft seal, but Andy assured us it would swell in the next 24 hours and it did. We now have a dry bilge again. The engine did not start on the first crank. It is not used to being in colder temps. I have since started to use the glow plugs if the temps are cool. 

SHIFT where she belongs, back in the water. We turned on the refrigeration and were now ready to get more food. We spent the next three days at this dock.

 We once again called on our good friend, Diane to borrow her car to do our last provisioning and laundry. We ended up spending about $700 on food to stock the boat for the next few months. We had a weather system move through on the 23rd and 24th, so we stayed at the dock. The 25th was cool, with light wind. We decided that was the best day to start our trip south. Our first day was a short one. We only had 15.6 nm to go to get to Willoughby Bay. We wanted to get a slip at the marina, but the marina could not accomidate us, so we anchored in the bay. We took the dinghy ashore and met Kim's Niece, Daisy and her husband, Ben for Dinner. We were very lucky to get to see Ben. He is an F-18 pilot on our Navy's newest Aircraft Carrier. He just got back from deployment. 

You can see the Navy Ships just behind our anchorage at Willoughby Bay. The work area to the right is the new tunnel they are digging over to Hampton.

This is the marina, where we went for dinner. They have an interesting breakwater made of concrete pipes. 

Kim and her niece Daisy facetiming with their Maw Maw and Navy Pilot Ben.

We enjoyed a nice meal and better conversation with these young folks that are making daily sacrifices for our nations security. We can't thank them enough for making some time for us. 

The following day we enjoyed some very settled weather, so we started our journey south. When we came out into Hampton Roads we saw a number of other boats heading south. That would become the theme for the first days of this trip. We certainly never felt alone. 

I love this straight on shot of this Aircraft Carrier.

The Aircraft Carrier and a radar defeating ship.

More smaller Aircraft Carriers and other warships

It is so awesome to see the US Navy.

During the weekend before we left, we had a guy stop by to admire SHIFT. He has dreams of cruising and we invited him aboard to check out the cabin. Really nice guy. He told us that he ran Pilot boats out in Hampton Roads. As we were passing through the bay he called us on the radio to say hi and offer us best wishes on our passage south.

Our new friend saying, Hello and Have a good trip

 We motored 22.5 nm to the great bridge and lock. We made our passage through the 1 foot lock and then went under through the open bridge. There is a free dock just after the bridge. We saw that there was room available on the dock, so decided to call it a day and put it on the dock. It wasn't long before two boats we had been traveling with also decided to stop. 

The dock is in a very protected area. It is free, but you can only stay for 48 hours.

You can see the bridge opening in the center of this shot. There is also a museum on the right that we decided to visit that first afternoon. The battle of Great Bridge was the first significant patriot victory of the American Revolutionary War. 

We were only planning to stay one night, but we were watching the weather closely. There was another major weather system coming in that was bringing 30+ knot winds out of the north. We had some decisions to make. In my next entry, I will tell you what we decided.