Mike
10/30/2007, Norfolk, VA

Tuesday...Deltaville to Norfolk

We left our anchorage early... around 7:30, which is daylight here. After winding our way out of the river, we joined a train of four sailboats heading south ... the wind was on the nose for the second day in a row and since there were no convenient stop offs, we motored into the waves again. The wind died from 25 knots to about five and the water flattened out for about three hours and then as we approached Norfolk, it picked up to about 30... but without much fetch, it wasn't a problem.

We arrived at Hampton Roads at about 3:30. On the way down we passed all the rivers that McClellan used in his first bungled attempt at the South . . . and Yorktown where we accidentally won the revolutionary war. History is everywhere around here.... Hampton Roads is a huge expanse of water. I was of the opinion that it was a place where a number of tributaries came together before emptying into the Bay ... but no way. The place is measured in miles. We entered and turned south after about two miles..and couldn't see the west end of the area. After turning south we motored past the US Navy. Again, the slips and dry dock area were miles in length. There were old aircraft carriers and new boats with stealth technology that look a little weird. I forgot to mention that while on our way down the Bay today, we were entertained by whales (I don't know what kind yet) dolphins, and two US Navy Hover Craft that were about 100 feet long and were flying around all afternoon. My guess is that they can hit at 60 knots.

The anchorage is on the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk. It's called Hospital Point and is fine except for the boat traffic makes things a little rolly. Hospital Point is also mile 0 of the ICW. The first 8 miles of the intracoastal is through town with 2 bridges that need to be opened for us to pass. Then we are faced with the choice of the Virginia Cut or the Dismal Swamp which was a ditch partially built by G. Washington to log off parts of the swamp that he bought for next to nothing. It is now a nature preserve and has been recommended by some people whom we listen to...

Kathy called the North Carolina Visitor's Center on the Dismal Swamp today because there is some question of water levels due to drought conditions in this area of the country. They have reduced the lock openings to twice a day but say that there is enough water for us. It is supposed to be rainy for a few days so I am not sure that we'll leave here tomorrow or Thursday. We also need some fuel and water before we hit the ICW.

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Mike
10/30/2007, Godfrey Bay, VA

Oct. 22

We left this morning about 8am and motored directly into a good south wind all day long..... It was long day. In the afternoon we ended up tacking into the waves to avoid pounding ourselves to death. We anchored in the Piankatank River directly across from Deltaville in Godfrey Bay. The normal anchorage here is Fisherman's Bay on the north side of the river but with south winds 15 to 20 knots forecast for tonight, we opted for the southern shore. It was a motoring-not-much-to-say-about day.

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Mike
10/30/2007, Solomon's Island, MD

October 21

Sunday... Solomon's is a very nice area. There is a dinghy dock at the Holiday Inn close to where we're anchored so we putted over with the old Nissan 2.5 and checked things out at about 10am. There was a very nice "gourmet grocery" about a block away in a strip mall that also has a laundry and a sea food store. We took a right and walked about a mile to the real mall where we made a few purchases at the Red Lion and Boater's World. Then it was back to the boat for lunch. Kathy thought is was a shame to be this close to a laundromat without taking advantage of it.. so we loaded up all our dirty clothes and went back to shore. I left her there and returned to bed the spindles of the taff rail...with the promise to return to help her carry everything back. I was 10 minutes ahead of the appointed time and met her walking back with about 60 pounds of clean cloths.

Later... we took the dinghy to try to find our fiends Lenny and Ceil. We explored the Back Creek and found their boat but they were our with some friends.

We had a wonderful dinner of sea scallops sautéed in butter with bacon and garlic ... and salad of cucumber and onion slices in sour cream with fresh dill.


Bye...

Ps... Matt Tree and Duke... Although the eye patch thing is a good low light hedge, people today who worry about such things use red lighting at night. We unfortunately are not equipped with red lights yet, so eye patches may be in our future... however, we are proud to report that all our interior lights are LED's.

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