June 30, 2010

Today was one of those "hurry up and wait" days. We traveled 28 miles and had to go through 5 opening bridges and one lock. We ended up yo-yoing with a few other boats. We had timed all the bridges based on their opening times and how fast we could go. A few of the larger motor yachts would speed ahead and then just have to wait in one spot for the scheduled opening. We couldn't figure out why they didn't just slow down.
This one female captain loved to talk on the radio. I think she just liked to hear herself speak. She also liked to race ahead, wait for the bridges and speak for all us other boats on the radio. One of the last bridges was a "opens on request" bridge. When the female captain hailed the bridge tender (who was also a female) she was told to wait until the boat behind her arrived. The female captain got a little snippy with the bridge tender and said " they are way behind and we are here, so we would really like and opening". From that point on it became a battle of the "Y" chromosomes.
Once the second boat arrived, the captain hailed the bridge again, and the bridge tender ignored her. Finally after the third time the tender responded and stated that she would not open until we arrived. We were bringing up the rear of our four boat caravan and at that point were more than 1/2 mile away. The captain should have known better than to tell another female how to do their job, especially when you are at their mercy.
It is people like that that make you want to turn off the radio. Although, sometimes the radio can provide a good laugh. The other day a guy got on the radio to call a marina, when he spoke he said "Midway Mawina, Midway Mawina" and then started laughing at himself. I am sure like us anyone else who heard him laughed too.
We reached Norfolk and anchored around 2 pm. We took the dinghy over to the marina so we could walk around town awhile. It is strange, but there is a distinctly different feeling even from North Carolina to Virgina. We are no longer in the south. I can't explain why or how, but it is just different.