Monday 10/16/2017

We were up at 5:45 for the 7am bridge opening.  Between the boats leaving from where we were docked and the ones coming through the 7am lock opening, we had a cluster of about 10 boats - ranging in size from my 31 to a 75 to 80' power boat.  We all rushed south, only to realize that the Centerville Swing bridge did not open until 8:30.  The owner of a Pearson 34 was the first to the bridge and tied up along a seawall just before the bridge.  When we came up, he invited us to raft along side to wait for the opening.   We had an interesting talk after establishing that we were both Navy Nucs.  We hoped to make it to a creek near where the North River dumps into the Albamarle Sound. 

About 1/2 mile before the North Landing swing bridge, with the boats all backed up again, I ran aground close to the center of the channel and almost in line with where other deeper draft boats had been .  I hit a tree stump and was able to back off.  However, I was able to spin off in forward and finally got off by heading back north.  Of course, I hit a second time even harder but that time didn't get stuck.   The rest of the day was uneventful except for the NNE winds at 15 to 20 and the rain that came at about 3pm.  The good news was that we had current with us mot of day and were still able to get into our anchorage by 4pm.  It stopped raining just long enough to let us get the anchor down.  Once inside, it started pouring again.