Small mountains of dirty, discarded snow blocked my view of the eastern branch of the Elizabeth River as I drove by to check on the boat ramp. Walking around the snow piles I saw the "closed until further notice" sign still in place, and the large concrete blocks too. I hope to be sailing within a month, but I suspect it will be out of Elizabeth City, N.C. where there is a very nice ramp.
Maybe winter will end - it snowed again today - and maybe there will in fact be further notice saying the ramp is open. I'm not counting on either.
9 comments:
I feel for ya.
Woke up today to 7" of snow in the Raleigh area and the power was off for about 15 hours.
The thing that keeps me eager to get back on the water is reading your travels on the blog.
Still want to get the Alligator River trip under my belt.
All the best,
Buck
Hi Steve,
Just checking to see if you have been to the ramp at Portsmouth City Park? I was there last year doing a site survey for some racing and was impressed. I plan to take my CLC Passagemaker there once she is complete.
I am with you on winter! Hope you continue to mend!
Rich
Yes, Rich, I'm aware of that ramp, plus the one on the southern branch in Chesapeake and the one on the Lafayette River. They are good ramps, but a long way from "sailing" water and on a typical day would involve a fair amount of motoring. Driving down to Eliz City is almost - not quite but almost - a break even situation with drive time vs. motoring time from those ramps. Plus the wind is nice down in E. City.
steve
It could be worse:
http://www.dailyadvance.com/features/if-you-think-winter-harsh-2803917
Four more inches in my area too (PA). I'm as anxious as you are!
Hey Steve, I don't know if you saw Andy Fox's breathless reporting from the boat ramp the other day, but it made me laugh. He was upset that the city was dumping snow on the ramp and letting it melt and run off into the river with all the salt and road chemicals. He wondered why they didn't pile it on the other side of the lot where it would drain into the storm drains instead. Sitting at home watching, I wondered how he could not know that all the storm drains drain directly to the river as well. There is no magical filtration system. Local investigative reporting at its best. Love the blog.
Chris
Chris, that's pretty funny. I know Andy pretty well and will give him some grief about it. If he had looked from the boat ramp towards the old Boat House about 15 feet away he would have seen the storm drain running right into the river. Too busy talking to look around, I imagine.
I do wish they would fix/rebuild/reopen that ramp.
steve
Billy (who did the past perpendicular vid) could help out with something here . . .
Definitely one of my favorite videos. Can't stop laughing. steve
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