Departing Chesapeake Bay into Norfolk, Virginia, begins the official ICW (Intracoastal Waterway). Between the naval ships, cargo ships, tugs, busy railroad bridges, the Great Bridge Lock & all of the low, opening highway bridges, you know there will be drama, but you never know from which one(s).

This is the narrow 1/4 mile canal between the lock & the bridge. Lori expertly lassoed a line around the piling so we wouldn’t have to maneuver for our 2-hour wait. These pictured boats were just the first batch – the next hour’s lock opening brought another 8 vessels including 2 mega yachts & a tug pushing a barge.

This year it was the Great Bridge Bridge’s turn (yes, it’s the bridge in Great Bridge, Virginia). It usually opens hourly in conjunction with the adjacent Great Bridge Lock & being less than 25 years old (unlike the nearby lock & bridges) is usually of little concern. Unfortunately, we encountered day 2 of a breakdown which could run as long as 2 months. Rather than the hourly openings, it is only opening 4 times/daily. Not only will it be chokepoint for pleasure vessels, this is a busy corridor for tugs with barges 24/7.

Fortunately we fortified ourselves the night before with cruising friends Jeanne & Sheldon. Gotta keep your strength up!

Norfolk always brings unique sights. This unusual ship is being towed by a tug pulling backwards at the bow & a 2nd tug with a towline at the stern (usually one of the tugs is tied alongside “on the hip” for better control).

The other Norfolk drama was a sailboat which nearly de-masted. One set of the several opening bridges is a low railroad bridge adjacent to a 36′ highway bridge. A few of us powerboats were waiting for the railroad bridge to finally open, which then the highway bridge opens for sailboats. This one sailboat didn’t understand the setup or perhaps was their first time – they tried to proceed before the 36′ highway bridge fully opened.

The bridge tender’s (tense, but gentle) warning on the VHF radio saved them, as the highway bridge had just started its very slow raising (this particular bridge takes several minutes to rise to sailboat height). We had the opposite experience 15 years ago first transiting in our sail catamaran – I was so worried that the bridge wasn’t fully open that the bridge tender had to yell at me to go, as the bridge was up 75′ (& we only needed 63′). After hearing/seeing a sailboat de-masted years ago, that was always a fear during our sailing cat days, as it does happen, although rarely (usually when a bridge closes onto a still approaching sailboat).

Two days later we were moored safely in Belhaven, NC enjoying one of our favorite restaurants Spoon River Artworks & Market. The background gives you a gist of the owner’s artworks talents.

Our engine problem was apparently simply a bad connector on a transmission solenoid. I cut the connector off, replaced with spade connectors & encapsulated it to keep moisture out. I also had to replace our anchor washdown pump & my engine lift fuel pumps are working perfectly – so if trouble comes in 3’s, we’re all set for the rest of our journey!

Our next planned stop is in Beaufort, NC, but look what’s coming!

In the end, we snagged a protected slip in Beaufort for a few days awaiting the storm to pass by. The winds were in the 30’s, gusting to 50, with 4″ of rain & some flooding, but we were snug as a cat.

We’re glad we’re this far, as north of us will be quite flooded for several days, likely severely impacting most of the bridges and the lock. We’re heading off in the AM, hoping to make Charleston for next weekend.

Is departing on Saturday the 13th a wise move? A bit of a haze, but a calm Long Island Sound once we got there. Picking up our speed to 15 knots, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP from one of our engines! Our first thought was something caught on a prop, so we made our way to a nearby harbor in Long Island to dive down & take a look. Nope – nothing caught, bent or suspicious… Our next thought was the damper plate on a transmission, or ??? Not willing to turn around back to Deep River, we continued onward as we could still proceed at up-to 10 knots with whatever this problem was.

A restored commuter yacht or just a classic day-cruise yacht?

Once to NYC, we knew we couldn’t make it our usual 115nm offshore directly to Cape May in daylight going only 9 – 10 knots, so we booked the marina in Atlantic City as several days of windy weather was forecast.

Not quite as glamorous up close – the marina & casinos were built in the ’80’s.

Once the winds & rains relented we headed out again offshore the rest of the way to Cape May. Like magic, no more strange noises at high speed! Up the Delaware, across the C & D Canal & began down the Chesapeake, when suddenly the noise came back accompanied by a VERY LOUD ALARM!

What the heck does PRIMARY SOLENOID FAILURE – PORT PCU mean? A Goggle search told us the PCU was our electronic “powertrain control unit” & being hydraulic transmissions, each transmission has 2 solenoids – “primary” for forward & “secondary” for reverse. Why the heck couldn’t this alarm have gone off days ago? Now I could zero in on the exact problem. Either the wiring or the solenoid itself was bad, so I started with the wire connectors. They were quite corroded, being down in the bilge near the shaft. I cut off the special Volvo Penta connector, cleaned up the corrosion & installed ordinary connectors as a temporary test. There is a very good chance the THUMPING was the solenoid momentarily kicking on/off due to the poor connection. The next couple hundred miles will tell…

But first … Imelda & Humberto (this was an early model before they performed their fortunate sharp turns away from the U.S.).

We were about 1/2 way down the Chesapeake (around 80 miles from the Atlantic) – far enough away with dozens of creeks to hide out in. The next day, it looked like both storms were staying south, so we decided to push down to Hampton (otherwise we would have been “stuck” waiting up in the Chesapeake for nearly a week with high easternly winds, even after the storms went by).

There is an unremarkable creek in downtown Hampton, VA between bridges & protected by tall buildings we knew we’d be o.k. anchoring in. Other boaters were panicking, so the marinas we checked with were all booked up, plus sitting at an expensive marina for 4 – 6 days could hit nearly $1,000. Wanting to have enough drinking water & to top off our diesel tanks, we stopped at the Safe Harbor Bluewater Marina. As we pumped the last of their diesel (their low-level alarm was going off, but still 2′ of diesel to go), we asked for perhaps their last boat slip too? No, sorry – all slips are booked solid … all we have is this fixed dock out back:

Darn, it’s behind all of their fancier floating slips, so more protected. Oh, because you’re a Safe Harbor Marina customer, it’s free for 3-days! Oh, with your Safe Harbor membership the diesel was only $2.99/gallon!  Happy Us!!

With the sharp turn East of both hurricanes back out into the Atlantic, we’re expecting winds gusting only to around 30 knots with a few rain showers. The minimal rain will help greatly with our next leg on Thursday, as the upcoming bridges & the Great Bridge Lock often shut down if too much rain due to flooding. Things are certainly looking up!