The ICW Train

We traveled from Atlantic Yacht Basin in Great Bridge, Virginia to Coinjock, North Carolina yesterday. 

The first part was like traveling down a narrow river.  We like river and canal travel.  There's something to see besides water.  Like trees.

We had to wait about 20 minutes for one bridge, which was no big deal.  We also  had this guy coming towards us. The ICW seems really narrow when you're confronted with something like this big barge approaching.

We scooted over as far as we could to starboard to give the barge room, but we had stumps to contend with, and less than ten feet of water.

All ended well though.  We didn't hit the stumps, and the barge didn't hit us.  He wouldn't want to hit us.  Too much paperwork.

A bit farther down the line, Pam was driving, and she looked out the helm windows and looked confused.

"What is that?  Is that a train?", she asked.

I couldn't tell either.  Everything was at water level.  Us, the reeds and bushes and trees, and it.  I looked ahead with the binoculars.  It wasn't a train coming towards us, but another barge.

Seriously though, I was also taken aback. This part of the ICW is very low and twisty, and I didn't know what I was looking at either.  It was a large manmade object of some type, but exactly what, I couldn't tell.  Through the binocs, though, I could see it was a tug and barge.  Of course, I didn't let Pam know this right away and I teased her endlessly about the ICW train. 

The person not on the helm is responsible for looking astern for overtaking boats, and as Pam was steering and I was checking astern for traffic, I referred to it as "looking for trains".

There's really not much else to report, other than the wind was blowing like stink.  It was out of the north though, and so on our stern, and the trip down Currituck Sound was a piece of cake.  Currituck Sound is very shallow, maybe five or six feet of depth outside the channel, so like the sailboat in front of us and the two speedy powerboats that passed us, we stayed in the channel.

A landlubber sayng I like is; when driving, anyone going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster is a maniac... 

This guy was a maniac.  He was also a total asshole, passing our port side by only 20 feet or so.  Luckily, I saw him coming and so warned Pam.

It was cold yesterday, only getting into the low 40s, but we were warm and toasty inside Drift Away's helm station.   I'm actually getting  to think that I enjoy motoring along when the temps are in the 40s.   Anything warmer than that and we'd start to overheat.

A shameless plug.  I googled marinas in Coinjock and found there are two.  One linked to a rave review for the restaurant at Coinjock Marina.   We decided to eat there last night.  It was outstanding.  It was definitely the best prime rib I've ever had in my life.  Write that down, Coinjack Marina prime rib.  The best.

So it's off down the Ablemarle Sound today.  Sometime during the day I'll start looking for a marina stop for the night.  No sense in over planning these things.