Before we left the Atlantic Yacht Basin, we managed a few more kayak trips.  When the river flooded, it put lots of debris in the water.  We used our kayak to do good deeds… we picked up lots of trash and small branches that were floating around.  But the last couple of days we saw HUGE logs, and even bigger timbers.  Any of these can do serious damage to a boat, particularly the propellers.  One boat started south a few days ago, only to return shortly with a bent prop.  So we used our little foot powered kayak to push these big timbers out of the way, and hopefully keep them tangled in bushes on the shore.  A few were bigger than our tandem kayak, and one was about 20 feet long and two feet wide!  Took a bit to push it!

When we left, we went up the ICW to where it technically starts, mile marker 0, in Norfolk, Virginia.  It’s pretty cool to sail right by dozens of navy ships.  A great way to feel small! And not only were there big boats ships, but monster ship eating cranes and a hovercraft too!

We were planning on stopping just the other side of Norfolk, to spend the afternoon and evening and check out Ft. Monroe.  But our little 6 year old granddaughter was in the hospital, and we decided that Cherryl should fly there and help out.  So we decided to press on to Deltaville, Virginia.  We calculated the time required, and figured we’d be there with an hour and a half of daylight left.  Here’s where it gets very hard to write this…  as we were steaming into the harbor where our marina was, Cherryl was out getting our lines and fenders ready, and I was at the helm.  I swear I looked down at our farthest outboard chart plotter, to adjust the range and see projected depths better, for only a few seconds… but then I looked up, and we were bearing right down on a post in the water.  We were half a second from hitting it, and you don’t stop freight trains or trawlers in half a second.  So I sideswiped a post.   Damaged our pretty boat. AUUUGGGGHHH!!!  The good news is that nobody was hurt, except my heart. And Deltaville is a very good place for repairing and upgrading your boat.  I have a friend whose boat had a very nice battery upgrade done here, and I will need to do that before too long.  The other bad news is that there is a long line of boats waiting their turn for attention.  So who knows how long this will take!

So a BIG LESSON here is: don’t text and drive!!  I wasn’t texting, and wasn’t going much faster than some runners run… but even a few seconds at that speed changed my world.  If you text on the road the consequences could be far more dramatic.  Don’t!

The Bible gives me hope and assurance of forgiveness, even when I do something really stupid.  That’s what keeps me going.  But my daughter reminded me of another book that is also inspirational… Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr Seuss.  So I think I’ll risk the copyright police and quote some of it here…

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose…

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes you won’t.
I’m sorry to say so
but, sadly, it’s true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

It goes on in a very Seussian style to say you don’t quit, you just keep on going… even when it feels you are all alone, and decisions are hard to make.  It’s really a great inspirational book – if you haven’t read it in a while, re-read it.  It’s not just a kids book!

So here we are in a different marina.  I have no idea how long we will be here.  On our port side is a narrow dock and the back wall of a shed, with boats in the water but under the shed roof on the other side of that wall.  But the view out the other side of the boat is nice – a bit of open water, and other sheds and boats to look at.