Friday, October 14, 2011

Heading South

Finally, Papy Jovial is moving again. This time, for a short trip in the neighborhood (Fort Lauderdale). Extracting ourselves from Norfolk was like pulling teeth. At the infamous Gilmerton bridge, the railroad bridge got stuck in the close position for almost 90 minutes. Then we missed the Great bridge bridge by 4 minutes. We tied up at the Atlantic Yacht basin for an early departure the next day. Which we did at 5:45 a.m. in the fog and in pitch darkness but we were able to make the Centerville Parkway bridge before it got restricted at 6:30 (we crossed at 6:15) and were able to make the 7:00 a.m. opening of the North Landing bridge. I then pushed hard and despite an increasingly strong headwind, we managed to reached Deep Point (mile marker 102) right at sunset. Next day, still with headwind up to 28 knots, we went to Belhaven marina where we arrived in time to get lunch there.
We are going to spend Saturday there and welcome my dear friends Tom and Barbara who will drive all the way from Wilmington to meet me.
Then, the weather looks like headwind all the way to Charleston and I will probably have to stay inside. The deadline is October 31 at Fort Lauderdale and we should be able to make it. (We is me and Karen).

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