I get up to a beautiful day. the sky is clear. It will be a nice day to go through the canals ahead of me. BTW, the first thing that I do every morning is to listen to the weather. I don't like any surprises, and it looked like it was going to be a really nice day, weather wise. So I take off up the river, and eventually into the Virginia Cut of the Chesepeake and Albemarle Canal. Going through this canal made me appreciate the Great Dismal Swamp Canal even more. This place was not very pleasant looking, and even though it was much wider, you had to be even more careful. I saw tree trunks (dead heads) out as much as 1/3 of the way out into the canal. There are two swing bridges in the canal, and a lock at the end. The lock only lowers you about a foot. After the lock there were two or three more bridges that had to be opened. All of these bridges had opening times, and if you missed one, you may have to wait an hour till the next opening, without a place to tie up to.
So I get past the canal and all the bridges and go into the Elizabeth River. If you remember I was on this river at the beginning of the trip. This is where all the Norfolk Navel Yard Air Craft Carriers and War Ships are docked. Anyway I move up this river to the Tide Water Marina. I had no intention to pull into here, but seeing other sailboats anchored outside of the marina, I decide to do the same. They sold fuel, so I decided to go in for my diesel and some water, and also, if possible to get rid of some of my garbage. So I dinghy in, fill up my diesel gerry cans, and ask the attendent if there were any restaurants around. There were, but they were not to open till later this evening. So I chat with the manager, buy some beer ( the first for this triip), and some chips, and go on my way. My intention is to head for the Lafayette River where I know there to be a nice, little known, quite ancorage.
Before I go on with this story I have to pose this queston. Suppose you are a Gas Station Attendent, say out west. And an 'Out of Towner ' pulls into your station and request gas. BTW you being the Attendent, and pretty sharp, are pretty much up on matters in the area, and also happens to know that the road that the 'Out of Towner' is about to drive down, also happens to have a tornado coming up the other way. Do you mention this to the customer or do you think that it is not that important, and why bother.
Well I dinghy back to my boat, load the fuel and water onto it, and decide to fill the water tanks up now so I don't have to bother with it later. It is still a beautiful day as I raise my anchor and head for the Lafayette River. I am on my way for about 10 minutes and I notice the sky very black ahead of me in the diatance. It looked like a big storm coming my way. I decide to give the boat more power and try to beat it to the river. Well I don't. All of a sudden I get hit with these 50 mile an hour winds, soon followed by rain. The rain felt like someone was shooting me in the face with a BB gun, it really stung. I still try to work my way up to my river. In a short time the wind, being more powerful then my engine, had me on my side. I must of been heeling at 40 or more degrees. At this time I was in about 40 feet of water. My starboard toe rail was submerged. I could not see a thing around me. I was blind with only my chart plotter to tell me where I was. I was now heading for shipping docks. that was not good. At this point I was wondering if any water was getting below. I look down, all OK, and close the companionway. I decide that I have to change course so I turn down river. Now I am on a run. That was not good either, because soon I will be near other docks. So I decide to steer the boat across the channel slowly, and stay clear of the shore line. I am freezing, and sheevering. I put the boat in autopilot and go down for some foul weather gear. I at least get my jacket on, even if it is over my wet shirt. The worst of this storm lasted for about 20 minutes. As I am going across this channel I am concerned about being run down by a tug pushing a barge, or by a freighter. With these winds I did not have that much control. I could not see and could only with the help of my GPS chartplotter, keep it in a general direction. In time the winds subsided, I could start to see beyond my boat. The first thing that I see is a tug pushing a barge down the river. It passed in front of me as I was heading across the channel. I wonder if he had seen me. I look the other way and a smile comes to my face. I see another sailboat rocking back and forth. He had a big wave for me, and I for him, as we passed each other.
The winds dropped down to about 20 knts and I continued to my anchorage. Once anchoraged I opened a bottle of beer and started to count my blessings.
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