Out of the wilderness, into the cities

Large tug on a small canal

Indefatigueable Pete steers us through the North Carolina back country

Pete and Jeff had a transitional day today.  Pete took Elise's place on the boat when she had to return to St. Petersburg to work for a week.  We have been snaking up the ICW for 3 days, rarely more than a single home in view at a time, and most of the time only each other and the endless Eastern North Carolina to keep us company.  Today that all changed, after starting out from Centerville Turnpike, Virginia, we went from rural, to suburban, to urban in the course of a few short hours, hard to do in a 6 MPH sailboat.  Great barges passed us on the canal, and then, suddenly, was the huge port of Tidewater (Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Hampton Roads), Virginia and we were spat out like a seed into Chesapeake Bay.  One more overnight trip, a good wind, a flood tide, and a little luck, this will all be over in 24 hours.

Beautiful homes along the river in Virginia.

Cypress stands less than a day from Norfolk