13th - 28th May 2013 - To Norfolk on the ICW....again!
Nimue
Tue 28 May 2013 01:32
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With an unforgiving forecast, we had little chance of rounding
Cape Hatteras, so this was to be our 5th time navigating the ICW from Beaufort
to Norfolk. Accompanied by Blue Yonder we departed for the first
leg to Oriental, where the OCC port officers, Dee & Don, had kindly
sorted out a slip for us (albeit very shallow for Nimue). One
of our favourite towns, we couldn’t resist stopping for a day and by chance it
turned out to be very beneficial:- by now we had become very dissatisfied with
our new 8ft AB dinghy, as it wasn’t giving the expected smooth ride and we still
were getting very wet in lumpy waters. We had no joy with
complaining to the manufacturer, so had resigned ourselves to purchase a new 9ft
AB dinghy, which we knew we liked, as we had tested one out in the
Bahamas. As it happened the local chandler in Oriental, also an AB dealer,
had one in stock and at a special boat show price! So we jumped at the
chance and bought it straightaway, so we were now the proud owners of 2 dinghies
(we later sold our 8ft on Craig’s list – a sort of local e-bay).
 Michael in little Merlin, towing the
new, bigger Merlin
After leaving Oriental we had 3 longs days negotiating the
ICW, but managed to find good anchoring spots each night. Once we had
reached Great Bridge, it was only a relatively short hop to Gary &
Greta’s in Norfolk.
 Nimue, (the tallest mast) outside
Gary & Greta’s condo in Norfolk
  A boat trip to see the US Naval
Base in Norfolk. Joined by Scott & Kitty off Tamure
and David off Blue Yonder
  A few US Navy warships located in their
base on the Elizabeth River, Norfolk.
A very informative trip telling us all about the
various types of Navy ships and a last look at the first nuclear aircraft
carrier, Enterprise, which was being
de-commissioned. |