Coinjock, NC 20 December 2007

Since we won't make it to Florida for Christmas this year, we decided to decorate the boat with this wreath. We also got some cornish hens, candied yams, cranberry sauce and other "fixings" for a Christmas dinner on the boat. We hope to be in Beaufort, NC for Christmas. We had our refrigerator updated so it is really keeping the food frozen-of course we really won't be able to test the refrigerator until we are in the warm waters of the Caribbean!














One of the aircraft carriers at Norfolk. When we were crossing the shipping channel we spotted an aircraft carrier about a mile ahead of us and we were soon visted by a helicopter flying around us to "check us out". We got on the radio and let them know we were headed into Hampton, the coast guard replied "thanks ". On the TV news we heard that a fleet of ships were coming in the following day after deployment in supporting our troops.







The Captain had to bundle up as we crossed the shipping channels in Norfolk, Virgina. He has the auto pilot on but is watching to be sure we stay on course. The first mate is taking pictures and watching the container ships and Navy ships along the shipping channel.






























One of the many bridges we needed to go through as we left Norfolk, Virgina. We have had to wait for bridge opennings on this trip once for 45 minutes and once for a half an hour because of the timing between our arrival between the bridges.

The autumn leaves are gone but the beautiful golden sea grass and evergreen bushes are lovely along the intercoastal waterway toward our next port of call Coinjock, North Carolina. The winter daylight hours are short which makes our journey along the intercoastal waterway shorter between ports of call. We can't see the waterway markers at night and the water is shallow if you get out of the patches of serpintine waterway channel so we really concentrate on staying on course in the cold winter days of limited sunlight. Also we have shorter trips-because of the distances between marinas.