Sunday, April 29, 2012

We were tied to the free dock just before the Deep Creek Lock along with our friends in five other boats.  The lock opens at 8:30 A.M.  There was no southbound boat traffic.  George, today's bridge / lock tender, had to drive to the Deep Creek Bridge to let one north bound boat through.  Then he drove back to the lock and opened it for all of us (7 boats total).  The lock dropped us 9 feet.  Then, we hadn't cruised very far when we came to the Gilmerton Bridge.  Normally, on the weekends, it opens on demand.  However, they are working on the bridge and it only opens on the bottom of the hour.  So, we were there at 9:45 and the bridge didn't open until 10:30.  By the time it opened, there were 13 north bound boats and 1 south bound barge.  Shortly after that, we passed under 2 railroad bridges that are open unless a train is coming.  Fortunately, no trains were coming and we passed right through. 

 Naval Carrier Ship

Naval Destroyer Ship.

The closer boat is named "Ms Spent Funds".  That cracked me up! 

This looks like a bridge to nowhere. 

Portsmouth, Virginia.

Once we reached Portsmouth and Norfolk, we had large vessels of all kinds everywhere we looked.  A lot of Navy ships, but also commercial ships.  At one point, the Coast Guard came along side our boat and told us to stay on the wrong side of the green markers until we got passed this large ship that had 3 Coast Guard escorts.  They told us it was carrying dangerous cargo.  We ended up at the Downtown Hampton Public Piers.  The Dockmaster Kate is delightful.  This is the first marina we have ever been in that has its own herb garden that you can help yourself and take what you need.  This is an extremely accommodating place.  Free bicycles to use, restrooms, showers, laundry, swap library, an exercise room in the hotel you can use by showing your paid receipt.  Kate gave us a packet with tons of information about the town. We walked about 4 blocks to a restaurant called Marker20 for dinner tonight.  The food was good, bu we are all ready to just relax for the remainder of the evening.