Dear family and friends, I am having a hard time getting spacing right with pictures so keep scrolling.
I realize that my messages are not getting through and I have completely lost our trip through Virginia. I will remember the best I can and try again to get it to you.
We were up early at Alligator River Marina because we wanted to get across the Albermarle sound when the wind and water were low. It has quite a reputation for bringing boaters to their knees if conditions are wrong. It is a large body of water and there are a lot of shallow spots. It was like glass and we had no problems. Our next stop was Norfolk. We had left our friends, Forrest and Lewis but they caught up with us. We came in to the largest naval facility in the world, passed a huge air carrier guarded by patrol boats armed with sub-machine guns and docked right across from the navy seal training center. We awoke with reveille and the star spangled banner being played right across from us. We were looking forward to having Lang and his family come on board on the second.

When they arrived, all three children were excited and covered the boat in minutes. They were starving so we had a very early dinner. Sandy and Langdon took Bradshaw and Audrey swimming and Langdon and Lang wanted to fish. We thawed out some chicken and they caught a few croakers. There were people there crabbing so when the other two got back, they shifted over to that. We did not have the right equipment so were not successful.
We woke up the next morning with the wind and rain. It was time to leave for Yorktown The rain did not slow the kids down nor was the captain deterred.
It was not long into the trip that the 1 to 2 foot seas we were expecting turned into 5 to 7. What we had mercifully been spared from on the Albermarle Sound, the Chesapeake Bay made up for. The wind and waves were coming on the starboard beam (out of the east). This was where the British took significant damage to their fleet in the Revolutionary war due to bad weather conditions. They hightailed it back to New York. Several of us would have been happy to hightail it back to Norfolk. Dooley and Audrey particularly who succumbed to sea sickness. These rough conditions caused door and drawer slamming, and objects to fly off shelves. Dishes were moving around in their cabinets. The conditions Langdon and I encountered earlier in the trip had spoiled me. Nothing had been secured . We were in this situation for over an hour until we were able to get in the Lee of the land. We were glad to get to Yorktown.