Day four of our shake down sail to Oriental complete and Kel and I are tied up at a marina enjoying some electricity, internet and warm showers. We’re both knackered, and ready for bed at 8.32pm. Already I feel much more attuned to the cycles of light and dark, and morning weather forecasts.

Overall the mood is upbeat. It’s been a learning curve for both of us, particularly in handling the boat in marinas, docks and at bridges. We have shouted at each other a little, but normally when we’re actually pissed off with ourselves, not the other, but in denial. In summary we’re delighted to have made it this far, and to be within a couple of days of Oriental, feeling calm and in control.

The Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) is amazing, a feat of engineering created in the 1920s to link American ports without ships having to navigate in the hazardous conditions of the Atlantic. We’ve seen very little traffic on it so far, but we have been passed by a number of tugs towing or shunting barges to and from Norfolk. As we travelled today I was struck by how industrious it feels, yet also its beauty – we saw a few cool beasts of the air, 2 bald eagles, a few seagulls and cormorants.

We arrived in Coinjock at 1.30pm, tied up at the extortionate marina, and got to scrubbing our boat, which I’d been threatening for a while. Boats provide similar washing satisfaction to motorcycles, and it’s nice to proclaim it sparkling, even if I do say so myself!

Actually we wanted to introduce a few people who’ve been important to us up to now, and who we feel have contributed to our modest success.

Andy and Liza Copeland

Andy and Liza Copeland are cruising legends. They spent 6 years cruising with their kids in the 1980s, and we had them over for dinner in Vancouver to pick their brains about their travels, and what we should think about as we planned ours. In the end we’ve actually bought a sistership to their boat Bageera, and they were very generous in letting us crawl all over theirs to get ideas for modifications we may make.

Dave and Laura Dobson are also cruising know-it-alls (in a nice way!), and we spent two fun evenings over dinner in Vancouver – there’s a common theme here of course – listening to their stories of cruising the South Pacific, and talking about provisioning, planning and all that stuff. Dave was a sail maker in a previous life and he came over just before we left to give us a quick lesson on our new sewing machine so that we can make repairs to sails as we travel.

Finally our sailing instructor in Belfast, John Patrick. Probably the smartest money we’ve spent on this trip so far was with John. Two full weekends on his boat learning the ins and outs of  it all. He is a fantastic teacher, and was very easy with his boat, allowing us to get into a few messes in order to actually learn for ourselves. As we left Deltaville and made it safely into Norfolk on Tuesday night we both tipped our hats to John for his help.

Tomorrow’s a big one, probably 55 miles, and we’re planning to spend the next two nights at anchor which is exciting. It means no showers or web access of course, but it’s also free!