Crew Log for November 5th – 11th
Located at ICW Mile Marker 12 on the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal, Great Bridge Village is part of Chesapeake City. It’s history dates back to the American Revolution and the Battle of Great Bridge. In addition to the Bridge, there is also a single lock that controls the tide difference between the Albemarle Sound to the south and the Chesapeake Bay to the north.
Our time on the ICW had been short, but as we reported in the last blog post, unforgettably eventful. We welcomed a lazy day (or more) on shore after the stress and emotion of the day before. Our “home” for the next few days would be the Atlantic Yacht Basin (AYB) which is south of the bridge, directly across from the Great Bridge Village free docks.
AYB consists of a long face dock for both long term live aboards and transient boaters and includes a service dock for fuel, water and pumpouts. In addition to the constant migration of snowbirds from the north, many boats from the south that had escaped hurricane season, were also still here. Hurricane Nicole was approaching so vacant dock space was scarce.
AYB also has several very large boat sheds or barns that provide storage for boats over the winter. We were tied up in the lagoon, just outside one of the storage sheds at the rear of Atlantic Yacht Basin. While it wasn’t our most scenic dockage, it provided excellent protection from whatever weather Nicole would bring. We also had access to power and water, and laundry and washroom facilities. AYB also had a marine store on site, which had a selection of the more important maintenance supplies.
The other benefit of staying in Great Bridge Village was that it had a wide choice restaurants, grocery and other retail services, all within easy walking distance from AYB. After one of our trips to "town", we were relaxing on the boat when we heard Tow Boats coming in with a 27 foot Rangertug, mv McTug, in tow. The crew, Mike and Kathy were on their way back home to Beauford, South Carolina after a short trip to Norfolk, when the engine started to overheat.
It was the weekend, so like us, nothing was going to happen until at least Monday. Mike and Kathy would be our dockmates for at least a few days altho they were worried about their home in Beauford given the projected path for Nicole and were anxious to get out of here.
On Sunday afternoon Mike asked if we could take them for a dinghy ride, I suppose to help pass the time. We slowly idled our way up the lagoon and down the face dock looking at the large trawlers and mega yachts. Later in the evening we headed to the Italian Restaurant after an aborted attempt to have supper at the sports bar. I was hoping to catch the football game on a screen larger than my phone.
We were pleased that the work on the boat started early on Monday, as promised. Since all of the damage was above the waterline, they brought in several floating work docks and tied them around the boat to provide a work surface for “Ray”.
If you saw Ray, you would never have guessed he was a surfer. He is a fairly big guy, slightly younger than me, and I rarely saw him without a giant cigar in his mouth between 7:30 am when he arrived and 4:00 pm when he left. He wasn’t a talkative guy, which was OK with us, given he was “on the clock”. Most of his responses were 1 – 2 word answers.
I did find out though that he had been married, but that his wife passed away a few years ago from a complication with prescription drugs and a rare genetic condition. She was a life long smoker too, and Ray was pretty sure she won't have survived Covid, so oddly, he was happy she passed the way she did. He had dated a few times since, but his last relationship ended after a trip to Las Vegas. He had only been on a plane twice, including the trip to sin city, but was looking forward to doing some travelling in retirement. He loved working for Atlantic Yacht Basin and had nothing but good things to say about the place.
He was a painter and did a lot of brightwork on the more classic boats and interior varnish work, in addition to painting hulls. He painted a 75 foot yacht, in the water, which was his proudest accomplishment. He was even invited to ride on the boat back to Annapolis when he finished. He was an artist and took great pride in his work. He color matched the repairs to Elizabeth M perfectly and we couldn't be happier with the results.
While I puttered around the marina, Judy walked halfway across the State of Virginia to the Post Office. She welcomed any excuse to walk to the dollar store or hardware store, for the exercise and to get off the boat. There was a beautiful walking trail on the opposite side of the ICW that we checked out, that also included a history museum. It was unfortunately closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and for some reason we never went back. In the evening we visited with Mike and Kathy who decided to stay put until Nicole passed by. Of course, there was the usual tasks of catching up on blog posts, making bread and pizza and knitting to help pass the time.
We very quickly became part of the community. There were a number of live aboards that we would see every day and several other people who were finishing up putting their boat into storage before heading home for the winter. While some of the live aboards were “cruisers”, most simply parked their boat and lived on it, eventually moving it to a better location when the winter changed. It was essentially a floating community.
One of our neighbors in the storage barn was a guy from Florida that used to refer to the “older couple” on the trawler. Our neighbor was 86 and the older couple were 92, so I suppose he was technically right. He was very nice and extremely helpful. He introduced us to a fantastic hull cleaner, although it worked so well, Judy thought it was going to dissolve the fiberglass. He also was very good at recommending where to eat or the best places to get supplies.
In addition to the marina community, while I was enjoying my first cup of coffee in the early hours of the morning, I noticed people out on the ICW, in the dark in rowing sculls. It turned out, they were a group of high school aged kids in a rowing club. The adult rowers would be out on the weekends.
While we have had some minor setbacks during this trip, I was reminded again about how lucky we are, and how short life is. As we were preparing to wrap up our time in Great Bridge Village, I got a message from the son of a friend of ours to tell us his Dad was very sick and had only days to live. We were shocked at the news given that we last saw him in the summer at our grandkids t-ball game. He looked like the same guy we had known for years. He was the same age as us, underscoring why we needed to make everyday count.
We had arrived at Great Bridge Village a week ago, after only only managing to do 12 miles of the Intra-Coastal Waterway. Our repairs were complete, the boat looked great. Nicole moved on, so the weather was looking great. And we were provisioned, had clean clothes and were freshly showered, so we were ready to continue the adventure. We would be heading for the Alligator River.
But, more about that, next time.
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