Sunday Summary #67

Mother Nature is a Tough Teacher + April Budget/Stats

Hi ,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 67th Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written aboard PIVOT, currently docked at a free dock in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Last Week.

Monday morning we left Ocracoke, North Carolina, and headed north to Manteo at sunrise. Our cruise quickly went from good to worse and turned into our scariest cruise yet, and second-worst day on the boat (second to Elliot breaking his wrist last May). As we were cruising north in the Pamlico Sound, we were getting hit on our beam with HUGE swell. Much more than forecasted. PIVOT was rocking and rolling as we’ve never experienced before and after one exceptionally large wave, we turned our course and pivoted from our original plan of Manteo. We decided to cruise to Belhaven which meant waves would be hitting us on our bow for the next several hours. Two hours later, I heard an alarm go off that I’d never heard before. I told Elliot and he opened up our engine compartment to see the lower part of our bilge was filled with water. We had about 50 gallons of water sitting in our bilge. Our immediate thought, like most people’s, probably would be, was we have a leak in our boat. We immediately dropped our anchor and assessed the problem. Long story short, our automatic bilge pump wasn’t working and we were nose-diving into oncoming waves, so the water was getting into the bilge from the bilge outport. We turned on the bilge pump, broke out our buckets, and 10 minutes later we pulled up our anchor continuing our cruise towards Belhaven. It was the scariest experience we’ve ever had on PIVOT and hope that never happens again. We have a new float switch arriving in Norfolk that Elliot’s installing today, to fix our automatic bilge pump. As we cruised toward Belhaven, we made the decision to continue our cruise to Alligator River so we could be in a better position for the following day’s cruise.

The next day we cruised up the Alligator River and crossed the infamous Albermarle Sound. Thankfully we planned this crossing with favorable winds (direction and strength), so it was much more enjoyable than our crossing of the Albermarle Sound last year or our experience the day before. Once we crossed the Albermarle Sound, we cruised toward Coinjock and the Virginia Cut. In this part of America’s Great Loop, cruisers have two options: The Dismal Swamp Canal or the Virginia Cut. We’ve cruised through the Dismal Swamp twice before; once last year (first lock, hiking the Dismal Swamp State Park, cruising the northern half of the canal, and our second lock) and a second time going southbound where we ran aground, saw the fall foliage and enjoyed Friendsgiving with our boat buddies. So this time we chose to go up the Virginia Cut and experience something different. As we cruised this route, we made our way into our 5th state of Virginia!

After anchoring past Coinjock Marina, we found a spot to hold out for the night with some bad weather. The following day we continued to cruise through the Virginia Cut and ended up on a free 48-hour dock in Chesapeake, Virginia. Going through the Virginia Cut, I had low expectations and honestly, didn't’ think we would enjoy it, but I was happily wrong. The Virginia Cut had a lot more boat traffic and bigger boats (read: bigger wake), but it still had a lot of undeveloped areas with natural vegetation, beautiful waterways, a grocery store within walking distance, free dockage, and hiking trails. It was great! We really ended up enjoying our time there and would do it again.

We spent two amazing days in Chesapeake, Virginia on the free dock, taking ‘one day off’ which means we were in sweatpants, slippers, glasses, and no make-up working the entire day on our laptops. If we’re being completely honest, we LOVE days like these! We can get a ton of work done without creating more content and adding to our very long to-do lists. It was amazing! And to top it off we were on a free dock which meant we were able to take Ollie out easily, frequently, and without any hassle of the dinghy. We loved it. It also allowed us time to just sit and observe the massive yachts going through the Virginia Cut and the local collegiate rowers out practicing.

After our 48 hours on the free dock was up, we proceeded to Portsmouth, Virginia where we docked on another free dock. We love these free docks because they really help us keep our expenses low.

“Try and fail, but don't fail to try.”- Stephen Kaggwa

This Week.

Today we leave Portsmouth and have a super short cruise to Norfolk, Virginia where we’ll be attending the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA) Spring Rendezvous. This event is 5 days long and goes into everything from Looping 101 to a Looper Crawl, which we’ll be opening up PIVOT for. We’re excited to meet some of our Patreons, meet other loopers, and learn more about some of the waterways ahead of us. It should be a great week as we’re on a marina the whole week and get a chance to learn a lot about the Loop.

 Videos. 

Incase you missed it, here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:

Blessing of the Fleet and a STUNNING twilight cruise through the Georgia ICW

This is why we love cruising the Georgia Coast! Sapelo Island to Savannah on the Loop

A REAL day on the Loop (Good, Bad, and Ugly) on the way from Savannah to Beaufort

How much does the Great Loop Cost! Our March 2022 Expenses at one Month on the Loop

Exploring Beaufort with a Food Tour while enjoying the historic Southern charm

 Blogs. 

Here are all the blogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:

• Monthly Expenses on America’s Great Loop - April 2022

• 25 Must Have Items for Boat Life

 Extra. 

We were interviewed for Voyage Jacksonville about our journey buying a boat, traveling around Great Loop, and the challenges of working while traveling.

 April Stats. 

As April has come to a close, here is our Nebo travel log:

Nights at a marina dock: 4

Nights on a mooring ball: 0

Nights on a free dock: 11

Nights at anchor: 15

 Great Loop Recommendations. 

We are looking for recommendations for destinations and spots along our Great Loop to go see, visit, and enjoy. It's been a real challenge for us to keep track and stay organized with the many wonderful recommendations we've received thus far. So we've created a Google Form to help us stay organized. Thank you to everyone sending us recommendations so far! We really appreciate it.

 Gratitudes. 

My immediate thought when starting to write this section of our newsletter was: not sinking. It's been my biggest fear and hesitation about getting a boat and doing this journey. After I asked Elliot what he was grateful for this week, he said “you staying calm when we had a lot of water in our bilge.” These “learning experiences” or “scary moments” are not something I’m proud of, but it’s part of owning a boat and leaving the dock. Just like the boat that ran into us when their motor died, having a lot of water in our bilge can happen to any boater who leaves the dock. Things happen, we do our best, we learn from our mistakes, and we keep going. It’s how we progress and learn. I’m grateful our new float switch has arrived at the marina in Norfolk and for Elliot’s installing it later tonight. No one said this would be easy, they just said it would be worth it.

Peace and love,Jenn + Elliot