To the end of the ICW in Norfolk and then across the Bay to Cape Charles, VA -- June 28

The Intracoastal offers two routes for getting from the Albemarle River to the Elizabeth River (which passes Norfolk and empties into Hampton Roads). When we did the Intracoastal two years ago we took the route through the Dismal Swamp Canal, which was scenic and historic (opened in 1805), but also very slow (6 mph for 22 miles) and full of nasty biting flies. We decided to take the alternate route that uses a five-mile canal to connect the North River to Coinjock Bay (our marina last night was on this canal) and then takes Coinjock Bay and the North Landing River to get to an eight-mile canal connecting to the Elizabeth River. This route was faster and did not have biting flies, but it did have three lift or swing bridges that we had to wait for (although not too long) plus a single lock, which lowered us only a couple feet. The lock must compensate for tidal differences, as the Elizabeth River is clearly tidal while the North Landing River is barely so. These photos show the bridges in order of appearance. 

The white trawler with fly bridge that shows up in a few of these pictures has been following our route the last couple days. They were docked with us in Belhaven and made a fuel stop at Coinjock. We never met but spoke with them on the radio while waiting for two railroad bridges in Norfolk. We learned that they've had the boat two weeks -- got it in Seattle and had it delivered to Charleston. The guy said they'd looked at Ranger Tugs but decided on room and stability over speed. 

Waiting for a railroad bridge is unusual. They usually don't get much traffic and are fixed in the open position. But the Norfolk & Southern bridge #7 was busy today, and we waited for a long freight train consisting only of container cars and then an Amtrak passenger train. The N&S bascule bridge is next to a highway lift bridge, which makes the photos somewhat confusing. The highway bridge didn't need to open for us (or the Seattle trawler) because it has a 35-foot clearance when closed. 

We waited for a train again at the next railroad bridge, but this was just a short switchyard train. The entire train shows up in this picture -- including a caboose, which you don't see in action very often.

There were lots of interesting ships on the Elizabeth River. The Nord Abidjan was loading scrap metal at the Sims Metal dock in Chesapeake; the Themis was loading wood pellets at the Enviva dock (this has been a controversial business and they declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March); and there were a couple barges at the Perdue Agribusiness Grain Elevator and Oilseed Crush facility (which had a distinct raw grain bouquet as we passed it). Janet said it smelled like the chicken barn at the State Fair. Ship tracking sites on the web say that the Nord Abidjan would be heading for Fairless Hills, which is a port on the Delaware River where US Steel has a plant. The Themis would be heading for Liverpool.

We tried not to get carried away with pictures of Navy ships, as we did that in the blog two years ago. Suffice it to say that the number of ships in various states of repair and service is astounding. We particularly like the destroyer USS Nitze (DDG-94) because it was built at the Bath Iron Works (launched in 2004). We pass by BIW every year on our annual week in Maine when we take a boat over for an excursion in Bath.

Here is the USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) being worked on at the BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair yard. She is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship. These ships carry a mix of landing craft and aircraft plus up to 1,700 troops. The technology and logistics in running one of these ships must be phenomenal. It's worth reading about on Wikipedia or the ship's official website.

The USNS Comfort is a 1000-bed hospital ship. It was briefly deployed to NYC in the spring of 2020 to help with the Covid pandemic. 

Our last naval photo is of another DDG class destroyer, the USS Gonzalez, this one underway coming into port as we headed out into Hampton Roads. Another Bath Iron Works ship, launched in 1995. 

There is also a lot of commercial activity in the outer end of the Elizabeth River, including

the Port of Virginia container docks in Portsmouth and Norfolk, and the N&S coal dock in Norfolk. The photos don't do justice to the scale of these facilities. 

 

For the last 15 years or so the US has exported roughly 100 million tons of coal a year -- roughly half steam coal and half metallurgical coal -- and Norfolk accounts for about 40% of the total. Bulk carriers like the MG Hammond typically carry 18 to 20,000 tons, so that's 2,0000 ship loads a year heading out of Norfolk alone. Seems like we should have seen more than one ship at the N&S dock!

As we left Norfolk we saw these two container ships -- the light blue hull heading out and the big dark hull heading in. The tug was also heading out -- probably to meet the incoming container ship -- the Zim Sammy Ofer. This ship was built in 2023 and is 1200' long and 167' wide. She is one of the new Malaccamax size container ships, which are too big to fit through the Panama Canal but are sized to be able to fit through the Strait of Malacca. But the biggest Malaccamax ships are 112' longer. The Zim Sammy Ofer is operated by Zim Integrated Shipping Services of Israel, but is owned by Seaspan out of Hong Kong. Both are big and presumably reputable companies with nice websites. 

It was impressive to cross the bow of the Zim Sammy Ofer. 

Because we made good time getting to Norfolk -- even with the railroad bridge delays -- we decided to press on and cross the Chesapeake to Cape Charles, VA. We figured that we had stayed in Norfolk two years ago but Cape Charles would be a new port for us -- and it got good reviews in the cruising guide. Unfortunately, it was very sloppy crossing the Chesapeake given a stiff NE breeze. But it was over in a couple hours. Altogether we covered 90 miles in 8 hours today. 

Cape Charles had a nice marina but we didn't see much of the town, which was on the other side of the harbor. There was an excellent restaurant next door -- Hook @ Harvey -- and we were lucky to get seats at the bar. (They proudly displayed a certificate from Virginia Living magazine for third place in the "fine dining" category for eastern Virginia.) So this was three nights in a row for an excellent meal right at the marina.  

This photo of the harbor was taken the morning we left. Our marina was at the far end to the right and the municipal dock and town were on the left shore. The First Mate said there were some poor reviews for the municipal marina so we went with the other option.

And here is the sunset view after dinner. You can barely make out Craunological II just in front of the big boat behind her.

P.S. Admittedly a very long post today, but then Norfolk just has so many interesting ships!