We stood down Hampton Roads right at 0800, just as the Navy warships there based called their crews to morning colors. It brought back so many memories of mornings stretching back to the Summer of 1960 in USS Roberts, DD749. Then so many others; Tico, Enterprise, Ranger, Oriskany, Lexington. All great ships, and all gone except Enterprise, the ever ready battery of the fleet.

We sailed past the stern 16 inch guns of the Wisconsin, the entire Atlantic Amphibious Force, and two new Carriers, CVN 71, and 73. I don't even know their names. They were brutally awesome. But the Chesapeake opened up in front of us as we crossed over the tunnel between Norfolk and Hampton, and even those monster ships grow small as mother ocean draws us into one of her small corners of peaceful waters.

The farther north we got the prettier turned the weather. From rain and choppy waves to blue skies, flat seas, and sadly just a soft breeze from the north east. But, after getting the boat squared away we raised the sails anyway, not wanting to look bad on the bay.

About half way to Deltaville we raised the most interesting sight I have seen on the water in these travels. What appeared to cross our path for about a mile was what looked like a fence in shallow water. What was on our charts was something called "wolf trap". Didn't know there were aquatic wolves. Very strange because the "fence" ran right across the preferred route up from Norfolk to Detaville. We'll have to ask after this one.

Deltaville. What a nice, hidden, little backwater. A creek entrance off the famous Rapahanock River. Full of history from the Revolution to the Civil War. Home to the family described in the famous story of "Soldiers at My Door". A beautiful cove full of boats and summer homes. A town of less than 1000 souls. And a fabulous new restaurant, Cocomos. Great seafood, and for the price of dinner we had a free place to tie up. No electricity or water, but the weather was perfect and we needed neither.

While we were at dinner we watched a very interesting old Coronado 28 Ketch with only a mizzen mast work up and down the cove and finally back into a slip next to ours. It turned out the owner, Tom, was a rigger and electronics repair guy at the Deltaville Ship Yard. He saw that we were having a problem re rigging our number 2 reef line down the boom and lent us his talents to get the job down as we watched a beautiful sun set over tall Virginia pines.

We dropped the outside canvas to keep out the possibility of mesquitos and settled in for desert and calls to our wives in Austin while watching a harvest moon ghosting up over the bay.

Day one then was another success in ZT. Tomorrow we head up to Solomons Island. I don't know where my kindergarden is, but it will be interesting to close that loop in my life. It's one of the few places of my youth that I have not returned to since leaving in 1949. Then on to Annapolis.