Since it is Saturday, the Gilmerton Bridge is not closed
from 06:30 to 09:30. Instead, it opens
every hour on the half-hour, so we planned our departure today for 07:15,
expecting to arrive at the Gilmerton Bridge by 08:30. We actually got away a few minutes ahead of
schedule, and arrived at the bridge 10 minutes early, so we had to mark time
for 10 minutes. It is all about the
bridge schedules (and canal lock schedule) in this first 20-mile stretch of the
ICW. After Gilmerton, you have ½ hour to
get to Steel Bridge, which opens every hour on the hour. It is 3 miles, so we needed every bit of
speed Kite could deliver to make it on time.
And then it is 2 ½ miles to the Canal Lock, which opens every hour on
the half-hour, so we didn’t have to go so fast to get there on time, but we
only had a minute or two to spare before they closed the locks after we
arrived. Then it is 5 miles to the
Centerville Bridge, which opens on demand on weekends only, but we didn’t know
it, so we thought we had to get there for an opening on the hour or
half-hour. So we timed our speed to 5
knots so that we would arrive just in time.
We were shocked when a motorboat ahead of us arrived at 5 minutes before
the opening time and the bridge opened.
We thought they had done the opening early and that we would have to
wait 25 minutes, so we called and asked if they could hold the bridge open for
us. The bridge tender said we were too
far away, but he would close the bridge long enough to clear the automobile
traffic and then open it again for us.
We waited only a couple of minutes for that and then we had one last
bridge, which opens on the hour and half-hour, 5 miles away to get to in the
remaining 55 minutes. This one went without
incident and we were through with bridges by noon.
 |
| Osprey with chick |
After the bridges, there were still 30 miles to go before
arriving at Coinjock, NC, our destination for the night. Most of that 30 miles is spent crossing
Currituck Sound from top to bottom. But
the next 5 to 10 miles was ICW wilderness.
We noted that the ospreys now have chicks, whereas they were just
nesting when we came north. We also saw
lots of Canada Geese and blue herons.
We had hoped that we could put out our sail and get some
extra speed, but as we started crossing Currituck Sound, the wind was just too
far forward and we couldn’t get any benefit from it in the narrow channel
through the Sound. Half an hour later,
some thunderclouds started forming in the west and the wind strengthened and
shifted, so we were able to put out the jib and get the boat moving around 7
knots. Then the Coast Guard broadcast a
warning that a line of severe thunderstorms, capable of hail and winds over 40
knots, was west of Currituck Sound and moving east. About the time the storm arrived we would be
turning downwind, so we decided to reef the jib to about ½ its full size and
keep moving; maybe we could outrun the storms.
It turned out that we kind of split the difference, some passed in front
of us and most of the rain passed behind us, but we didn’t have any hail or
severe winds. Soon afterwards we
un-reefed the jib and continued our speedy crossing of Currituck Sound. We encountered a few more brief rain squalls,
but didn’t really get soaked. The last of
the rain had stopped before our arrival at Coinjock at 15:50, and the sky was
beginning to clear. By dinnertime, there
was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining brightly.
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