5/30 - 6/1 - Our travels over the next few days proved to be quite frustrating. Our first day out we anchored in Pungo Creek and the second night in Broad Creek. We woke up to millions of blind mosquitoes (aka mayflies) that completely covered the boat, including the flybridge. If that wasn’t bad enough, they left little green poop deposits that stained the boat. After several days of cleaning the boat it almost caused a major melt down of both the Captain and the Admiral. All that work for nothing. Linda spent most of the day underway trying to wash them off the decks and vacuuming them off the flybridge. Add to that the fact that we had several bridges and one lock today, all with really screwy opening hours (some on the hour, some on the half hour and some with early morning or late afternoon time restrictions where they didn’t open at all.) We ended up having to wait at almost every bridge, one for almost 45 minutes. It was a most unpleasant day.
We pulled into the Top Rack Marina in Chesapeake, VA a little after 4:00. We topped off with fuel as it was about the cheapest in the area ($3.44/gal). They had a “dock and dine” deal where you got a dollar off your dock fee for each $2 you spent at the restaurant (The Amber Lantern). This is where the day got a whole lot better. The food prepared by Chef Carmello was fabulous. We had dinner, a little wine, shared a dessert and watched a great sunset. Maybe boating isn’t so bad afterall. We stayed another day and had a second great meal that night after a day of cleaning the boat – again.
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| Entering the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal |
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| End of the canal -- 20+ miles of perfectly straight canal |
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The Alligator River Bridge. It was, according to the
bridgetender, a bit "sick". Fortunately, it opened
okay for us. We heard on the VHF the next day
that it was closed for repairs. |
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| We woke up to these .... |
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... and these .... everywhere. They worked themselves into
every nook and cranny on the outside of the boat.
(click on picture to enlarge to see just how many there were) |
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| Locking through the Great Bridge Lock |
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Oh, did I mention that in addition to the flies
and bridges it was also HOT !!!! 100 degrees |
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Cheap fuel (well, not cheap, but cheaper than most
everywhere else) |
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| Seared tuna |
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| Rockfish |
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| Mahi Mahi - all wonderful |
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| ... and a nice sunset as we ate |
3 comments:
Just be thankful the Mayflies don't bite Gerry!
Thanks for sharing.
Rick & Lori
You're right -- that would have really put us over the edge!!
Thanks for the great pics! I use them for my computer desktop. Best I can do for now until I can for now as I am still a working stiff. But I have my eye on a Camano 31 and hope to follow in your footsteps in a few years.
Have fun!
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