We’re up early with coffee and a breakfast bar to start the day. We get underway at 0620 hoping to make all the bridges before the late afternoon opening restrictions. Unfortunately, all the fast powerboats had the same idea. A few got going before us, but we had to put up with all the others passing/waking us the rest of the day.
The overcast skies gave way to partly sunny and then sunny as we got into Virginia waters. We arrived at the North Landing Bridge a few minutes early and had to jockey about. Once we cleared the bridge, the race was on to make the rest of the scheduled openings at Centerville, Great Bridge, the lock, Steel Bridge and Gilmerton.
At the lock we were the last boat in and were forced to take a port side tie up. There were no line handlers to help and we struggled to get lines on the cleats. Being the last boat out of the lock, we kept the RPMs up as we raced to make the Steel Bridge opening.
After clearing Steel Bridge we ran into a show stopper at the #7 railroad bridge adjacent to the Gilmerton. The normally open RR bridge was down and they were doing maintenance. Ten boats jockeyed about for over thirty minutes before maintenance crews announced they would open. We cleared the RR and Gilmerton and continued on.
The skyline had changed only a little. The one glaring difference was the absence of the old Jordan Bridge. It wasn’t totally gone, but the span, counterweights, and half of one tower were gone. In fact, welder/burners were cutting away on one tower as we passed by.
When we reached our dock, the transmission refused to shift out of reverse and we crashed the dock stern first. We were going slow and suffered no damage except to my pride. We traveled 2000+ miles, made dozens of successful dockings or mooring approaches and then we hit the dock arriving at home. Audience…you betcha!!! The whole world will know and remember not our cruising accomplishments, just our arrival home! Sheez!
Regardless, We’re HOME!
Location: PYC Dock/Home - Portsmouth, VA - MM 0
Distance Traveled: 50 mi
Total Boat mileage on return trip: 1058 statute miles
Hi Dick and Donna! I figured I'd get in touch as I just read some of the blog, and some of your posts on the sailing forums. I believe we have the same boat, though I refer to mine as a 333 instead of a 33.5. http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=7380 I'm actually wondering if you have the dimensions of the bimini and dodger, or if you know someone who has the dimensions, or has new old stock. We bought our boat without either (though the bimini poles ar ein place.) Thanks for the blog! I hope maybe we can be in touch as it looks like you have some trips under your belt, and we have plans to do so! -Aaron aaronhyde@gmail.com
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