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December 12, 4AM, and I am not feeling well at all :(  We were planning to get up and head out this morning to make a run with the winds down to Virginia Beach… and we’re at anchor, and I am sick, not seasick sick, just your run of the mill food poisoning/24 hour bug kind of sick, but sick none the less.  I tried to go back to sleep, and got up with the guys at 8AM to make ready and head out, only to realize that I was way to ill, and dizzy and feverish to be much use to anyone.  After a brief conference with the guys, the decision was made that I was going to go back to bed, but the guys were going to make the run and get us underway.

I tucked myself into the Port berth and went back to sleep.  Again I thank my Mom for the good genes that allow me to sleep through any kind of motion if I want or need to sleep!  Brian came downstairs at about 11 to take a nap, and I roused myself and went topsides with Mark.  We were quite a bit offshore, and it was howling windy and rough (8′ seas).  Mark was stoically at the helm piloting us safely along our way.  I sat (harnessed in) on topsides with Mark for about an hour and a half, at which point I was so dizzy and running hot and cold chills, that I had to go back below.  I set up the Starboard berth lee sheet and lay back down.  I was down for the count and out.  Next thing I knew, I woke up and it was dark and about 9PM.  The waves had subsided quite a bit, and Bri came and checked on me.  I was only awake for a few moments before I was back into a feverish sleep.  When I next awoke, it was light again, and almost 9AM (December 13).  I pulled my achy self out of the berth and went topsides.  I sat for a while topsides re-orienting myself to the living world before relieving Brian at the helm. Brian went below and brewed up some more coffee.  The guys will have to fill in more on this post, because I lost pretty much a whole day and missed all of the excitement of the epic run!

Mark came back topsides and took the helm as we came through into Virginia Beach.  Wow lots of HUGE military ships.  Brian went to catch a few zzzzzs and Mark and I took turns manning the helm down the start of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). We came through the last bridge, and just as I was saying to Mark that I felt like there should be a sign like in Bugs Bunny with the crazy arrows pointing you this way and that, sure enough, rising up out of the water, was a sign post straight out of Looney Tunes directing us to the right for Dismal Swamp, or the left for the Virginia Cut…  We’d already made the decision to go the Dismal Swamp route, having followed Skipper Bob’s advice and called ahead to the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center to make sure that there was enough depth to accomodate us and had found out that despite being a slightly slower route (because the max speed is 6kts) it is also substantially shorter! That, coupled with the fact that we can only do about 4.5 kts under power, and the additional appeal of no large boats on the route, made it an easy decision.