As soon as Tommy arose, he began to reassess our situation. I stowed gear and prepared the cabin in the event we could make a mid-morning start today.

(Tom) As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we were waiting to hear if electricity had been restored to both the Centerville swing bridge and the North Landing swing bridge so they could be opened to allow boats to pass through. The Centerville bridge was restored into operation last night. However when we woke up this morning, the North Landing bridge was still closed. We figured we could wait until around 10AM and then still get to our intended destination in daylight if we knew the bridge was fixed by then. Not to be. The bridge finally did get power restored and went back into operation today, but it was too late in the day for us to take advantage. At this point (Tuesday evening) all the navigation alerts for our area are finally clear, and we are ready to go tomorrow morning. It will be a very interesting day tomorrow as we will try to get through 4 bridge openings as well as traverse the Great Bridge Lock. We’ve limited our total distance for tomorrow so as to leave a lot of time cushion for likely delays.

(Paula) We were invited to have lunch with friends on the Portsmouth side at “Lobscausers” a restaurant named for the traditional stew of old-time sailors, “Lobscause” made of beef, vegetables and ship’s biscuit (hardtack). We took the ferry, which features a huge paddlewheel and requires exact fare. Lobscauser’s was fully decorated for Halloween with dozens of flying witch dolls, each unique. The food was delicious and a tremendous value: plates heaping full of mustard coated fried catfish, sweet potato fries, collards and fried green tomatoes. A basket of hush puppies was served instead of bread. We toured Oceanside Marina, also very nice. We couldn’t help but notice in the marina and on the ferry that the waters are full of small debris resulting from the storm.

Back at Waterside, Jack returned with his wife, Buffy to visit our boat and share ideas and plans they have for their own (they have the same exact model boat as ours). This made for a very enjoyable time. It’s always fun to spend time with folks who share your enthusiasms.

We indulged in one more night out in Norfolk at Grace O’Malley’s with beef stew, white bean and bacon soup and salmon BLT.

Last thing before turning in tonight will be another review of strategy for the navigation of this next part of the ICW. This was our 9th day here in Norfolk waiting out the before, during and after effects of Matthew. If we had to wait somewhere for this long, we really couldn’t have picked a better place, but we’ll be very happy to be on our way again.