Stuck in the reeds

09/24/2012 => Cockrell Creek, Great Wiminco River, VA

0800:  we left the mooring with clear weather and strong North winds!  By 1400, we were officially in Virginia!!! Our plan was to have a quick stop over for the night at this marina near Reedville, VA.  I noticed my cell/internet service went completely off a little after 1500, but figured we should be ok…its only 1 night. 

The marina’s only inspiring aspect according to Activecaptain.com, was its safe harbor and 20.00 a night slip fee…and really, they weren’t kidding.   The town of Reedville was once the highest per capita town in the US back in the mid 1800’s to mid 1900’s, due to a huge fish processing center.  Today, only 1 plant remains and is right at the entrance of the inlet..and holy cow, does it stink!  They are the largest manufacturers’ of non eatable fish…so all those Omega vitamins you may have taken more than likely started off here.  We pulled into the dock, as there was no answer on the phone or radio, and hoped off…to broken main dock! Ha.  But we figured, what the hell its only one night and its still cheaper than a mooring!  As we walked up the “good” portion of the dock to the main land, a big golden came to great us! We were escorted up a large hill to the main office…which was empty.  A large and rather barren, but for all the sailboat stored there, dry dock area was all we could see.  A couple of nice men working on their boats informed us the marina guy was in the shed, and to just “get his attention”.   As we walked around, the place had a very…beginning of a horror movie feel, but since it was only 1 night, we decided to risk it…(I slept in mike’s cabin that night, just to be safe)

Reedville Cooling Tower

 09/25/2012: stuck in Reedville!!

0725: our intentions were to head to the town of Deltaville, VA; only about a 5 hour sail south.  We followed 3 sailboats out of the river into the bay, and while they were newer (and faster motoring), we watched as one by one, they would turn around and go back to the river.  As we really didn’t want to stay in Reedville, we still kept going; even put the sail up to help push us along.   Once we were in the bay, we realized why the others turned around:  large and choppy swells were kicking our poor boats tush!  The wind was very strong, and from the south, rendering the sail useless.  15 minutes in, captain gave the order for Salty to be stowed below and for me to take the sail down, we were turning around.  Once I sort of got my balance, I headed up on deck to bring the sail down, listening closely for Mike to call out “big Wave!” so I would know to either sqat down or hold onto the mast for dear life.  We were getting sprav from the waves pretty frequently, so finding sure footing became tricky!  I finally was able to get the sail down and tied off enough to hop back into the cockpit.  It was when I got back in, that Mike mentioned he should have made me put on my lifevest to go up there.

Back into the marina we motored; upset but ok with only spending 20.00 for the night again…main problem was I was completely out of ice and needed to restock on food!  We agreed on a little bit of a nap, followed by a bike ride to town (hopefully would be able to get some signal on either of our phones in order to check weather!)

We knew from the cruising guide the main center of Reedville was not large, and the only food store was about a mile from its center…so while we were still a bit of a way down river, we figured we could bike it…So out came our bikes and Salty’s new bike carriage (it’s a child’s bike cart) and off we went…we were peddling..and peddling…and salty weights 36 lbs, plus the weight of the cart became a little heavy for me, so legs were burning!!!  There was no shoulder to ride on and about every 10 minutes a MAC truck would pass us by…not exactly a safe biking area.  We saw a person walking towards us and stopped to ask where the main town was, let alone the grocer.  He too was a cruiser, but knew the area well.  He said due to all the creeks off surrounding the town, we were still about 5 miles from it…and that once we saw the amin road, we would change our minds about going…and he was right.  A 2 lane highway, no shoulder and LOTS of trucks…so we turned around, defeated.  As we came back into the marina area, we noticed a little waterfront shack of a restaurant.  Mike went inside to check the menu for tonight’s dinner, as we were completely out of any meat, fresh veggies, or milk/eggs.  While this our door restaurant sat on the water, its main fair was not up to our liking (who’s special in a seaside village is Liver and Onions?) but they did at least have ice.  As we were in the parking lot, the same man we met on the road can over to say hello to us.  He was anchored up the creek a bit, just off the main town of Reedville, and had rowed over to the marina to walk to a used book store, hence us running into him on the road.  He mentioned that the winds would not be dying down until Thursday, and more than likely we would be stuck here again tomorrow…a dismal outlook, but we were still optimistic!

 09/26/2012: stuck in Reedville, again!

Once again, we attempted to leave…and before we even got out into the main channel to the bay, the water was rough!  High S winds too!! Mike and I both made the call to not even continue, and headed back up, this time passing the marina and heading further up to the town itself.  We scoped out a couple of boats at anchor…and were excited to see this old, salty pirate ship type of sleuth! 

 

We went into one creek, that supposedly housed the best anchorage..unfortunately with the S winds, it was blowing directly off the fish plant and stunk horribly!  So we went in search of a more..fragrant grounds.  Our final anchorage was directly across the town near a fellow stranded sail.  The smell was still permeating the air, but at least it was not as strong!  We planned on little naps before blowing up the dingy and rowing ashore.

Reedville is very, very tiny.  The main street ends with a restaurant (closed for the season) and continues to another major route out to very, very rural areas.  Along the main street are some very nice old houses, back fromwhen this town was the richest per captia...unfortuanately, this ended for them with the fishing, and the houses showed that :(

We ran into our pirate friend again and stopped to have another long conversation (seriously, this guy is hysterical!) 
As our food situation was getting desperate, we decided to try once again for the little grocer.  As we stood at the crossroads, debating which way to go (hate not having cell service/googlemaps!) a very nice couple stopped in their pick up and offered us the ride!  we took it obviously!  ha.

We promised ourselves to get a drink at one of the resturants (all 2 of them) that night, and we did!  Had a nice cocktail on a huge porch, salty was even given her own "drink", as we all looked forward to getting out of this little town tomorrow!