Passage Horn Harbor Marina to Atlantic Yacht Basin, Great Bridge, VA
8:24 AM Underway
4:16 PM Docked Port Side to
8.1 engine hours 45.5 Nautical Miles

We started off having to delay departure to get propane. The oven quit last night just as we were finishing some skirt steak. A little more rare than I usually eat. But it was tasty and warm for the most part.
Today’s weather is supposed to be pretty calm for the Chesapeake Bay. The wind out of the East 5-10 knots. We are headed south so the wind and waves were going to be hitting the port side of the boat for 4 hours. Well part of what I said was true, the waves were hitting the port side of the boat for 4 hours. However, the wind was greater than forecasted and the boat and our bodies took a beating until we got to the calmer waters of Hampton Roads and the Elizabeth River. Thank goodness that was over. At least it’s not supposed to storm until late afternoon. WRONG again. Just as we go around Hospital Point the storm hit. Lightning and the strongest wind and rain we have ever encountered in all our boating years. Visibility down. My eyes are glued to the AIS display, and chart plotter with the AIS collision alarm going off almost constantly as tugs and other boats are still operating. I picked points further down the channel and had the autopilot do the steering while I evaluated the AIS targets to pass safely. Susan was below fighting a deluge of water entering the window tops! Never seen that before. The wind was blowing rain in directions that literally were fighting gravity. I was standing in a couple inches of water at the fly bridge helm. The bottle of sunscreen was floating. A sport fisherman with radar running had been trailing me decided to pass and then suddenly turned back around. I think he might have run past wherever he was headed. As I passed under a bridge the bimini top made some crazy sound. I looked back to see huge amounts of rain water falling from the bridge as if we drove underneath a waterfall. I guess it was the road guttering above dropping onto Liquid Therapy. This storm happened for about 30 minutes which seemed like much longer. I try do some calculations while fighting the elements and water on the flybridge and realize I’m not going to make the hourly Great Bridge Lock. I think about alternate marinas, but hovering in place until the storm lets up to dock would be more difficult than just operating the boat. I call the lock master and he told me he could hold the lock closure until 3:45PM. I add a few hundred more RPMs to the engine, cut as many channel markers as I dare and wham another storm pops up as we approach the Great Bridge lock. The rain is so loud I can hardly understand the lock master’s instructions. Susan and I have our rain jackets on. But it’s so much rain we are still getting drenched trying to pull into the lock and throwing our lines around the wall cleat to ride up in the lock. The storm passes while we are waiting for the lock doors to open and the sun comes out!. We still have the Great Bridge Bridge to open and that occurs precisely at 4:00PM . I think the bridge tender must be using an iPhone for his opening schedule as my iPhone app chimes 8 bells just as the siren goes off on the bridge. We pull into Atlantic Yacht Basin just on the other side of the bridge and dock without any issues. It does take some time to calm down. Yep just another typical boating day.
Today’s picture is a view of the trashed dash of Liquid Therapy after our stormy day.