Tidewater Marina, VA to Coinjock Marina, Coinjock, NC (docked)
October 29 & 30, 2023
We planned to leave Portsmouth on Friday but the wind was so strong we were concerned about getting out of our slip. The wind was blowing from the north and could have pushed us beamwise across other docked boats. We stayed an extra day which allowed us to leave safely, get more provisions, and get a slip in Coinjock today- all of which are wins.
Portsmouth/Norfolk is mile marker 0 for the ICW. There’s also a lot of shipyard industry and bridges right there. The Gilmerton Bridge is just about 6 miles south of Portsmouth and the bridge tender there is cranky. She likes to make boats wait for this “on demand” bridge, which means we have to circle for a few minutes before she does her thing (we can see when she begins starting traffic).
When we were in the Great Bridge lock in July, there were 2 other pleasure boats and a tug going north. Today there were at least 8 other boats, all going south. There are a few bridges just past the lock, so we wound up in a flotilla with them for a couple of hours (even the boat that tried to pass everyone had to wait at the bridges while we all caught up).
It’s easy to see why this part of the ICW, the Virginia Cut, is often called the ditch – it’s a straight, narrow cut through the woods. The water is calm and there’s no real current.
It was still mostly cloudy for much of the way, although we began to see blue skies just before we hit the Currituck Sound.
After the rough ride through the Port Royal Sound in January, I get a little worried when I know we have to cross another sound. The Currituck was super easy today (but I wonder what it was like yesterday in the wind) plus, we had sunshine!
We’re at Coinjock Marina and have fueled up; we’ll head out early tomorrow and plan to travel about 50 miles so we can anchor somewhere near or in the Alligator River in North Carolina.
Life on Lailia 
Nice shots of the lock and the ditch
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