Time to Relax

Deep Creek, VA
N 36 44.863 W 75 20.300

At the moment we are waiting for the lock to open to let us in to The Great Dismal Swamp Canal. Oh yes, we like that. I'm hard pressed to think of anything more peaceful and more relaxed than put puting through this canal. There could be a hurricane blowing, there could be a thermonuclear war, but nothing is likely to disturb us when we are in that canal.

Fellow cruisers take warning: They are doing construction on the Gilmerton Bridge south of Norfolk. On weekends it only has three openings per day, ??, 1 PM and 7PM. We almost missed the 1 o'clock opening. That would have ruined our day waiting 6 hours in that location. The bridge is surrounded by ship breaking yards, smelly oil terminal and other industrial unniceties. But we did make it just in time. Now we'll pass the lock and tie up on the dock just past the lock. There is a grocery store
nearby so we'll buy groceries.

Last night I surrendered to the tidal current against me and we stopped for the night at the Hamption public dock. Then we got a hot shower, and a pizza, and went straight to bed. You can bet we slept very very well.

Today is a very nice day. Sunny and temperatures in the 70s. It is very pleasant.

All the aircraft carriers seem to be gone from Norfolk. I remember reading somethinga about moving the carrier base to Mayport Florida. Perhaps that's where they are. Or maybe they're all out fighting wars. I heard Bob Woodward on the radio last week. He said that General Petraus met with Bush last year. The president said, "This surge is double down." The general replied, "No Sir. It is all in." Yikes! General Petraus is a real hero. I read a long article in the Washington Post last
week about how the general personally instigated the strategy changes that turned the war around. The extra troops in the surge helped, but it was Petraus' wisdom that made the big difference. Shame on the left for disparaging that man as General Betray Us.

I checked the weather forecast this morning. Wow, there will be 7 more consecutive days with strong NE winds offshore. If we wanted to continue south in a hurry, this would be the window. We could be in Florida by Thursday if we wanted to. But there's three things that keep us from doing that. (1) Cape Hatteras, (2) Frying Pan Shoals, (3) The fact that we can't enter Florida until November 1 according to our insurance policy. Indeed, instead of being in a hurry, we have 5 weeks to get there.
We have no plans. I suspect that we'll try to find places that we haven't visited before. (p.s. In case you didn't know, both Hatteras and Frying Pan Shoals sometimes extend out to the western edge of the Gulf Stream. Being in the Gulf Stream during a strong northerly wind is something that nobody should do. Even giant cruise ships, like the Norwegian Star, can't handle it. Two years ago, the Norwegian Star (I think that's the right boat) had to turn around with it's 5th deck windows smashed
in by a wave out in the Gulf Stream.