A not so fun trip... NC to VA

I am so far behind in updates to the blog because I can't get reception on my Mac at the boat; I have to go up to the marina office and camp out at a table or inside. Needless to say, with school having started that doesn't happen very often.


So this a quick recap of our trip from North Carolina to where we are now in Hayes, VA (near Yorktown & Jamestown).


On our way back up the ICW from North Carolina to Norfolk, VA we spent a night in the Alligator River. By the way, we have been up and down this river twice and have never seen an alligator. Anyway, rather than spend $ staying at the marina (even though it was my birthday), the ever frugal me decided that it wasn't worth the cost for one night of sleep tied to a dock when it would be just the same (and cheaper) to be at anchor. Actually, we prefer to anchor, it just takes longer to get off the ICW and find a good place.


So, we thought we found a good place, out of the way, protected, quiet. Until around dusk. These tiny flying insects by the tens, then hundreds, started descending into our cockpit. We rushed to close hatches and install screens to keep them out. They were everywhere inside and even worse outside. We smushed them all over the ceilings and walls (freshly painted!) . We thought they'd be gone in the morning when the sun came up, but no, they were everywhere, you could barely see past them out the door.  They were everywhere and on everything that was out of the wind (in the cockpit, sails, transom), seriously everywhere!  I spent the morning inside, wiping bug guts off the walls and ceilings from the night before. Bill spent a good hour trying to get them out of the cockpit so we could leave, although he couldn't really get rid of them. They covered the steering wheel, electronics, seats, sails, everything! And, to top it off, there was a green slime (poop?) that also covered everything . When he'd try to swat them away, a swarm of them would fly off around his head and then come back and land in the same place. He tried washing buckets of water over them, but that only got rid of a few, the rest landed back where they were.  We really had to swat and kill them to get rid of them. Luckily we have a team of boys that don't mind swatting and killing bugs.


We still aren't sure what they were - like a gnat but bigger.  The positive side: they didn't bite or sting.  Someone told us they were called No-Sees but I'm not really sure what they were. Then, to top it all off, there were masses of their dead bodies stuck in the tracks of our door and under the cockpit sole, in sail folds, etc. that after a day of baking in the sun, the stench was horrific.  That spurred me to do a thorough washing of everything in the cockpit to get it down to liveable conditions. Glad that part of the trip is over and I hope we don't have another encounter like that.


It was after Norfolk that we headed slightly up the Chesapeake to Hayes, VA and the marina we are now docked at. We plan to stay here another month before heading south.  To exactly where, we are not sure.