06/18/2011
Heading into Norfolk was very interesting. We've never been someplace that had so such a large amount of shipping traffic. It was a lot of fun listening to them all on the radio checking in with the Chesapeake Bay pilots. The most interesting though was the Russian warship on it's way into the Navy base in Norfolk. As we crossed over the Bay Bridge and Tunnel they were right behind us and apparently decided we were in their way. They blasted their horn 5 times to tell us to move. I was at the wheel and did a circle so they could go past us.
We anchored next to Portsmouth, VA, across from the Norfolk harbor for 2 nights and enjoyed the activity and some time ashore.
| Delmarva 2011 |
|
Comments [0]
We headed 40 miles off shore and south. Unfortunately we didn't really have much wind to sail. We set up a watch schedule so one of us was always on deck and checking to see that there were no ships in our way. I was remembering all those fishing boats that were leaving Cape May. We didn't see any of them. We didn't see much. There were dolphins every day up until now, but none during our two days at sea.
Bill didn't get seasick at all - which was great, and I only got a little queasy. We had a good experience - and that is a good thing.
| Delmarva 2011 |
|
Since the point of the trip was ocean time on Moonraker we decided to head north up the Jersey coast so we would have a longer distance to go to get to Norfolk. We headed out the Cape May inlet and up within site of the coast and spent the next night anchored behind an Atlantic City casino hotel. It wasn't a very calm anchorage - but the light show on the hotel was pretty interesting.
The next night we spent anchored in Barnegat Bay, which is half way up the New Jersey coast to New York. It was great sailing past the light house we have spent so many summers standing next to watching the boats go by. We went to shore, had dinner at a restaurant, and walked around looking for someplace to buy saltine crackers to prepare for our ocean voyage.
| Delmarva 2011 |
|
On our way in to the Cape May Canal we were called over the VHF by the Cape May ferry - he told us to hold back because we were going to be in his way. Of course, we did as he asked. As we approached the canal we came across another sailboat from Annapolis. We chatted over the water about the most important thing in both of our futures - were we going to be able to fit under the bridge? We watched them go first and they actually did touch the bridge with their antenna. Our mast was shorter than theirs - so we weren't too worried.
In Cape May harbor we anchored right next to the Coast Guard base where Bill went to boot camp. We enjoyed watching the Coasties drill. We spent two nights at that anchorage watching all the fishing boats go out to the ocean, and spending a nice day walking the town. Each night we experienced a very odd phenonmena. Little shrimp feast on the bottom of the boats causing a noise that sounds very much like either a motor is running on your boat, or that it's raining - none of which was true.
| Delmarva 2011 |
|
We went north on the Chesapeake Bay to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. It's been a while since we were there - and it was our first time on Moonraker. The canal has some cool bridges and we anchored for the night in Chesapeake City right next to one of them. We went for a ride around the anchorage in our dinghy and said hello to a man and his daughter on a teal hulled boat. Imagine our surprise when he asked us if we were anchored in Reedsville last October! Here was a man in a boat with a hull color you never see - and yet he remembered our boat and we didn't remember his! Yes!! He had anchored by us 8 months before!
We had a nice night at anchor and moved up the canal, across the Delaware Bay and up the Cape May Canal.
| Delmarva 2011 |
|
We knew we were planning on moving on the boat at some point but we had never spent more than a couple of days in a row on board. Last year we managed to take an 8 day trip on the bay - but we needed some ocean time on Moonraker before we could be sure the "big trip" was something we could handle. We decided a 2 week circumnavigation of the Delmarva Peninsula was a good start. We got the boat all ready, and provisioned and set north on the bay. Our first day was great sailing and we got all the way to Still Pond on the Chesapeake Bay. So far all familiar sites and marks.
| Delmarva 2011 |
|
