Cruising on the ICW: Virginia to North Carolina

"Front porch" view at the dock in Portsmouth

After our never-ending night crossing on the Chesapeake Bay, we decided to spend a full day recovering unwinding and a full night's sleep the next night, while tied up in Portsmouth, Virginia.

We may have been just across the waterway from Norfolk, but we never made it over there. The strong wind coming off the water and cold temperatures made the thought of getting on a ferry to cross the channel less than appealing. Also, by the time we got up to start our day, the sun had already climbed high into the sky. The first order of business was to get to the office at the marina to pay for our dockage and get the combo to the bathhouse so everyone could get cleaned up.

Later, my dad and I decided to stretch our legs by walking to the nearest grocery store a few miles away. With only small towns on our path for the rest of the trip, we agreed to re-stock when we had the chance- couldn't let the crew's beer supply run dry, after all!

Dad on our walk to the store in Portsmouth

The next morning we pushed off at 8:45 a.m., heading south down the channel towards our next stop: Coinjock Marina at Mile Marker 50 in Coinjock, North Carolina. Since the ICW begins in Norfolk at Mile 0, we had 50 statute miles* to go.

Our early departure had been timed to coincide with the opening time for the Gilmerton Highway Bridge, but a delayed opening at a previous bridge, due to a train passing through, forced us to miss its opening by just a few minutes. So we bobbed and circled in the somewhat narrow channel for the next 45 minutes until the Gilmerton reopened. Even, or perhaps, especially on the water, timing is everything.

When you're traveling down the ICW, bridges pose the biggest challenge to sailors. Most bridges lower than 65 feet tall open on a set schedule or upon request via radio to the bridge operator (the invisible guy hanging out in the bridge's control tower). Here, I have to note how essential it is for cruisers to get local knowledge when navigating. Before the trip Scotty and I found plenty of helpful information on web sites and online cruising forums, as well as in books we bought specifically for the trip. Still, nothing was as comprehensive as a simple printout of the recently updated bridge schedule we got from the marina. It's great reminder to always check locally before you go.

Bridges were high on our list of concerns for the trip, actually the main concern, because the Wind-Lass has a very tall mast. There are two types of CSY models for our specific sailboat layout and ours is a tall rig, shoal draft. And at 64 feet high our mast is higher than most. Most fixed bridges on the ICW were built to a standard 65 feet of vertical clearance, or the amount of space between water and bridge.

"Highway Bridge" at Mile Marker 7

On top of our mast is a flexible metal antenna and a 2.5-inch high navigational light. The fixed light leaves us with just about 9 inches of clearance left. Tide and wind also come into play, making it essential to monitor them closely.

Scotty climbs the mast to remove wind instruments for going under bridges

Of course, there is an exception the standard 65-foot high bridges: the Wilkerson Bridge (there's another 56-foot bridge near Miami but we'll cross that... ahem, you know the rest.). An engineering screw-up when the Wilkerson was built meant that the bridge's clearance wound up at 64 feet tall, a whole foot less than the others and the height of our mast. We talked about going around it via the Pamlico Sound through North Carolina's outer banks and decided against that due to rough waters and shallow depths caused by shoaling. 

Instead, we had to hope the 6 inches- give or take- of inland tide would give us enough clearance to pass through, or, as a last resort, tilt the boat to the side like this guy did. Pretty entertaining... when it's not your boat!

But that bridge was still several days away on our journey so we settled in for the relatively short eight hours of motoring to Coinjock. 

Osprey nest at the entrance to the Great Dismal Swamp route

Heading south on the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal

Dominion Boulevard Steel Highway Bridge

Opening up to let us through

Goodbye bridge

Next up, more small towns on the North Carolina ICW and one pesky low bridge to conquer!

*On the ICW, distances are charted in statute- or "regular" miles, versus where routes on the open ocean are charted in nautical miles. One statute mile equals roughly .87 nautical mile. Why didn't we learn this in math class?? (Preferably while learning how to sail to make it more relevant, of course..)