Keene Sailing

We have this pretty neat device called the Bullet, it amplifies WiFi so you can receive up to 8 miles away. Now I’m an x IT Geek so getting this thing set up should be a piece of cake, wrong! So starting in Deltaville, VA on Saturday it won’t work (screwed around for hours), then Sunday in Norfolk same problem – so one last try here on the Dismal swamp canal no Internet so I’m typing this on me iPhone. I have pictures if I can publish them on here. So much for trying to write this post with a smartphone, I need to get that Bullet replaced and a cheap way to access the Internet when WiFi is not available, any ideas?

So to bring the blog up to date after a cold night in Solomons we made great time to Deltaville we took a slip at Doziers Regatta Point and it was such a nice place. We needed fuel so that delayed our getting underway and we had winds out of the south and we’re heading south, we could have sailed but we would have tacked all the way and most likely would not get there till after dark. We got into Norfolk anchored at Hospital point, we enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the busy commercial port.

Monday Nov. 12 2012

We leave Hospital Point at 8:15 to make all the bridges, each one has different rules for requesting them to open, some open every hour others on demand, others you need to call on the phone or channel 13 on VHF radio. So we had to hurry up and wait at the final bridge before we got on the Dismal Swamp canal. The Dismal Swamp canal is the oldest continually operating man-made waterway in America, it opened in 1802. There are 2 locks on the canal, we locked through the Deep Creek at the north end with 2 other boats, they lined us along the wall with fenders protecting the boat and a bow and stern line to control the position of the boat.

Robert, the lockmaster closed the gate and then the water drained in and up we went. This guy is a legend in the boating community, so after the boats are up to the level to the canal, our lockmaster turned tour guide gave a 15 minute talk about the dismal swamp and life in general, what a character. So we go down the canal and stop at the Welcome center, which is also the visitors center for car traffic as the US Rt 17 parallels the canal. I’m sure for someone seeing the mast of sailboats right next to the hiway on a body of water maybe 60 feet wide might be a little startling. We had 5 boats that stayed the night by the visitors center, and once again my Bullet failed me.

Tuesday Nov 13, 2012

Rafted next to us was Ted on a 47 foot boat, single-handing his way to Mexico, he was a pretty fascinating person with many sea-stories to tell. We followed each other to Elizabeth city where he continued on to Albemarle Sound and beyond.  A major cold front moved in this morning bringing much colder temperatures and big winds from the north so we decided to hunker down for today and check out this old town. We got a free slip at the Mariners Marina, which is in the heart of the city, there are no services though. We hiked it 5 blocks for a 5 dollar shower, it felt wonderful, but the place was a bit run down as was most of the city. Maybe if it wasn’t such a crappy day the old art deco buildings and Victorian houses would dazzle us but they didn’t. We walked to the laundry-mate in the slummiest part of town and came back to the boat. The wind is howling and its about 48 outside mayhaps 60 in the cabin. I do have a little Honda generator but we decided to not use it today, we might change our minds tonite