Maiden Voyage

We departed Northwest Creek Marina in New Bern, NC at 7:55 AM on August 21, 2017, and headed North away from the path of the solar eclipse.  The eclipse was a non-event for us, more like heavy cloud cover - but that's OK - we were starting our live-aboard adventure!  There will be other eclipses!  

We passed our first Intracostal Waterway marker in the Neuse River and headed across the Pamlico Sound, a large body of water in fair winds and following seas.  We continued to follow the ICW into the Pungo River.  We stopped and bought tuna steaks and shrimp from the dock at R.E. Mayo & Company, a spot seriously in the middle of nowhere. (wish I took a picture!  I'll get better, promise) we continued up the Pungo and dropped the hook for our first night at anchor at Deep Point.  

Pods of porpoises circled us, their exhalations sounding like great blasts and birds swooped and sang.  It was magical as Jerry grilled steak kabobs and roasted potatoes on the stern.  We enjoyed dinner on the foredeck.  The temperature was perfect, the sunset beautiful, the stars came out, we saw the Milky Way, a satellite, and 3 shooting stars - honest!  Here's a 360 video of the anchorage.  

August 22, 2017.  Continuing our journey we enter the Pungo-Aligator Canal, which seems to be only about 100 feet wide, and keep an eye out for logs and other obstacles while "Iron Mike" (auto pilot) kept the heading.  Jerry gave me the helm and went below.  Inside of a minute, I saw a log rolling straight for our bow.  I put Mike on standby and took the wheel to maneuver hard to port, avoiding certain disaster and then got back on course in the center of the canal.  

Down below Jerry felt the motion, looked out a porthole, saw the erratic motion and came running back up to ask if everything was OK.  (It was.  I had avoided certain disaster, I was quite happy with myself).  We got good old Mike back on a good heading and continued to look out for objects in the water.  There was nothing else on this long stretch of the canal except a big gator, and s/he got out of the way without our help.  

We anchored out at Sandy Point for another perfect night under even more incredible stars (there was even less light pollution at Sandy Point than Deep Point).  

During this leg of the journey we saw no other vessels, only a car or two driving over the two bridges we passed under and started to wonder if we were the last two people on earth.  Just before the end of the canal, Dayo came in and the spell was broken.

August 23, 2017 We "polished the props" (that's boat slang for a "soft grounding") leaving the Sandy Point anchorage.  I guess those shoaling warnings on the chart should be made wider!  We're getting back into civilization as we go through lots of nice rivers and canals.  We decided to buy a night at the Midway Marina and enjoyed air conditioning while it stormed outside.  We enjoyed a nice dip in their pool and met another "new to him" boat owner Mark, who was given a sailboat.  

August 24, 2017.  We awoke to find the port side of the boat covered with green, gloppy bugs.  We used the raw water wash-down to power wash them off before they were tracked everywhere.  Today we entered a medium-sized body of water, the Currituck Sound.  There was a lot of fetch and wind, which combined created some larger surf and a few whitecaps here and there and Tanuki handled it beautifully.  We encountered more bridges, including those we had to hail and those we had to wait to open (some have a schedule).  

We also went through our first lock!  Didn't think that would happen so fast!  It was easy, once you understood what was going on.  (nope - no pictures of that - you'll get one on another lock).  We had to wait about 30 minutes for the Norfolk-Southern #7 train track to swing open - yep, had to wait for a train crossing!

We saw more and more civilization as we made our way to the High Street Dock (a free dock with no electricity) in the heart of Portsmouth, VA.  As we tied up to the dock, John and his small son Teddy watched.  Teddy, about 3 years old, was simply fascinated with Tanuki.  We invited them aboard for a tour and Teddy cried "I want to stay" as his daddy took him ashore after their time aboard.  

We stayed at the High Street Dock two nights and explored the town's shops and restaurants.  If you want to learn more about the shops and restaurants we explored, visit Trip Advisor and look up GrammieSammie.

August 25, 2017.  We visit a Light Ship Museum, shops and restaurants in Portsmouth.

Saturday, August 26, 2017.  We're underway after visiting the Farmers Market and buying produce, eggs and breakfast sausage from the folks who grew them.  

We passed restricted naval areas, huge coal and container ship loading facilities and barges.  There are also lots of pleasure boaters - and that's the what we expect on the weekend.  It's getting really busy in here!  

Out of the congestion and on our way up the Hampton River, we were hailed on the VHF radio as "the N37 entering the Hampton River, this is Lou Codega".  Jerry recognizes the name, responds and switches to a working channel to talk to the Naval Architect that designed Tanuki for Mirage Manufacturing in Gainesville, FL that built our boat!  We tied up to a dock at the Hampton Public Marina where dockmaster Tom walked us through our first pump out.  

We think we'll stay here for 4-5 nights, waiting for the big blow to calm down before we cross into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.  Other boaters are doing the same thing, including sailing vessel Pegasus (their stern is in the photo above).  Mary and Ron have been living aboard Pegasus for about 3.5 years and are transitioning back to land this winter.  (they gave us our first boat card!)

We visited the City Museum and learned about the town's 400-year-old past (Hampton, VA claims to be the oldest continuously occupied English speaking settlement in the country).  At the museum, we also learned that during the Revolutionary War slave owners didn't trust their slaves enough to arm them.  Instead, the slaves sided with the British who gave them freedom afterward.  Britain had recently outlawed slave ownership.  

We met Helen who works at the Museum and recommended Venture where we enjoyed fried pork rind nachos and came back to the boat to hear an alarm sounding!  "High water alarm," Jerry said.  I opened the engine room door and found the bilge pumps dry, the entire floor was dry.  He looked at the alarm a bit longer and saw the batteries were desperately low.  Jerry spoke with Joe (the previous owner) on the phone, and after lots of head scratching remedied the situation.  He cranked the generator, shut down non-essential systems and began to recharge the batteries.  

Turns out the shore power hook up here was different from the previous one, and required a different way of using shore power than before.

We strolled off to a block party in downtown Hampton, listened to a great band, then shared a pizza at a restaurant next to the marina.  Great day!  

Who knows, perhaps I'll spend some time tending the Boaters Garden at the Hampton Marina.

August 27, 2017.  I'm finally catching up on the blog and we took a Harbor Tour on the Miss Hampton II this afternoon.  Yesterday we bought a discounted Seas to the Stars pass that includes entrance to the Hampton City Museum, the Harbor Tour, the Virginia Air and Space Center Museum and the Historic Carousel.  All for $39 each!  Such a deal.  

The Navy's biggest base is here, as well as a container ship company that promises to get cargo anywhere in the US inside of 2 days.  Amazing!  Here are some photos from that cruise.  

Looks like weather coming in...I'll go ahead and post this blog.  We'll stay here until the weather is good enough to cross the Chesapeake Bay.  We'll make our way up to Mears Point Marina for the MTOA Fall Rendezvous early-September.  We promised to not inundate you with posts, so we'll lay low until something interesting happens.  If you have any questions, just text, call or email us and we'll fill you in.  TANUKI!!