Sailing Mystic Hearts

It’s hard to get an early start sometimes when you know you’re going to be cruising for awhile. There are so many last minute preparations that need to be done, like topping off water tanks, unplugging the shore power cables, packing away the water hose, stowing away items that can fall or break, and the list goes on. We didn’t leave the dock until around 10 am, which was fine because we were only intending on cruising from Norfolk to Chesapeake today. After passing the first railroad bridge on the ICW, another cruiser headed north radioed us to let us know that there were boats frozen in at the free dock in Chesapeake – right where we were headed. We could continue on our way, but there isn’t an anchorage that we could get to during daylight hours past the free dock. If we attempted to get to the free dock, it’s likely already full and then there’s the obvious issue of even being able to approach it with the current state of the water. 

For those not aware, the U.S. East Coast had Arctic-like weather roll through over the Christmas holiday. Florida wasn’t even spared, with some areas hitting 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Even at our home dock, temperatures didn’t get above freezing with multiple days of frigid cold conditions. We took the information we were given by fellow cruisers and decided to just go ahead and bail out. Instead of cruising all the way home, we decided to anchor on the Elizabeth River off Hospital Point in Portsmouth. Across the Elizabeth River we have beautiful views of downtown Norfolk, Waterside, and Nauticus. We always figured we’d end up anchored here at some point. This is as good a time as any. And as a bonus, we won’t be losing any cruising days because of today’s delay. With an early rise tomorrow, we’ll cruise all day until almost sunset and drop the hook well past Chesapeake. The day after that we should be fully back on track, if not ahead of schedule. That’s the funny thing about cruising. Sometimes we hurry up just to slow down. Other times we think we have the perfect schedule planned out and it just ends up changing for one reason or another. We’ve learned to be flexible and adaptable, good traits to have when so much of our lives are dictated by the weather. For now, we’ll enjoy the last hour or two we have of sun (it’s currently so warm sitting in the cockpit under the full enclosure) and then bundle up as soon as the sun goes down and the temperatures drop overnight. It’s going to be a cold one, but we’re so glad to be heading south once again.