With the only breeze being the one created by the forward movement of the boat, we motored north on the ICW after taking on 40 gallons of diesel ($6.50/ gallon!- Bahama pricing due to the War in Ukraine) near the start of this leg of the ICW. We covered 70 miles during the course of 12 hours on each Tuesday and Wednesday and while we didn’t see any alligators, we did see a black bear swim across the Alligator-Pongo canal which was pretty cool. Traffic on the ICW was fairly quiet but once anchored Tuesday night in Currituck, NC, after the sun had set. We turned on a the stern light for the night to warn off any fishing boats at night. Big mistake. Shortly the quiet was broken by the sound of swarming midges- a non-biting relative of the mosquito. Fortunately we had screens on the windows to keep them from entering the cabin. However thousands were still present the next morning when it came time to leave, mostly dead. Bucket loads of water seemed the best way to rid the midges from Juno, and there were so many, their green poop residue turned the brown ICW water green as it washed out of the cockpit. Ugh.
Thursday was a short day of motoring as we found a vacant spot at the free docks at Great Bridge, VA at which to stop Thursday noon. This was handy as Great Bridge offers ready access to restaurants, a grocery store, diesel, Revolutionary War history (https://gbbattlefield.org/learn-the-history) and perhaps most importantly with the 96 degree temperatures we discovered air conditioning inside the Great Bridge Museum just beyond the end of the dock. Furthermore, it provided a secure dock for severe thunderstorms that were forecast to arrive Thursday evening. After spending Thursday afternoon in the a/c catching up on reading, we had dinner out and made a stop at Dairy Queen. Then Friday morning we started with a quick walking trip to the grocery and beer store before fueling up Juno to continue north to Portsmouth / Norfolk at 1:00pm. The last drawbridge before Portsmouth was down until after rush hour so we idled along the ICW to avoid having to do circles waiting for it to open. We arrived just a little early so circled for 15 minutes until it opened at 5:30pm. An hour beyond that and we finally dropped anchor off Hospital Point in Portsmouth, across from Norfolk, just before sunset. A quick check-in with Sally revealed some bad luck as they had to cancel their planned vacation to San Juan for Ellie to meet her other grandparents, as their family had contracted Covid.
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Sunrise before leaving Cape Lookout
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A small bear swimming across the canal before scrambling ashore
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Midges! Yuck!
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Enjoying a/c inside the museum
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Juno with others on the free dock at Great Bridge
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