My last passage on Smitten began by finishing the Carolina Cut that brought us to Coinjock Bay. Across this relatively small body of water we saw a dozen or more Ospreys. There seemed to be a nest on every marker.  The bay is not deep and there were several duck blinds offshore in open water.  Reminded me of a chapter in “Chesapeake”.

The passage up the canal was interesting with bridge openings and a lock.  The first two bridges open on the hour and half hour.  Doug’s perfect timing had us at the first bridge with 15 minutes to spare. The next bridge was 5 miles and we needed to get there on the half hour and we made it. The next obstacle was a bridge and lock combo.  The bridge opened on the hour and the lock opened to coincide with the bridge opening.  We got to the bridge with 45 minutes to spare so we tied up at a dock and had lunch. On the hour the bridge opened, and we motored into the lock. The gates closed the water went down about 2 ft and we motored out of the lock. Shortly we finished the canal and made our way down the Elizabeth River to the harbor between Norfolk and Portsmouth.

This is a major deep-water harbor.  Large commercial operations, naval shipyards and home to our Atlantic fleet.  The photos will tell the story.

We tied up in Portsmouth, VA at the Tidewater Marina my last port-of-call for this adventure.  In the evening we were joined by my brother Sterling and his wife Diana and ferried over to Norfolk for dinner.  The next morning, we toured the harbor gawking at the huge presence of the Navy’s ships. Tuesday I’ll be flying home.