June 19-21, 2014 Onancock VA

After a morning pump-out of our waste system, we were away at 7:20 headed for the Eastern Shore. Wind on the stern all morning made for challenging steering, but the deeper water after the first hour really helped. The Bay is so darn shallow that much of the time you are in 20 feet of water or less.

Judie found a shady spot on our porch just behind the bridge, sitting facing backwards, and camped out for the trip. She saw lots of what looked like some sort of ray or skate, some turtles, and a large pod of dolphins.

Made the Onancock Creek entrance about 11;00 and enjoyed the ride up to town at the head of the creek. About 4 miles of the prettiest ride we have had. A good mix of house sizes, but all very well kept. Yards and seawalls in pristine condition -  from our point of view.

The marina is small but rebuilt after Sandy with new office/shower/laundry facilities and many new docks. The harbor master is retired Microsoft and claims to have a large block of Linked-In stock. Talked about donating $6 mil to renovate the rest of the docks. Good restaurant next door - Mallards. We shared fish tacos for lunch.

In the afternoon we walked into town. Many older homes from late 1800's but somebody got a sale on vinyl windows and siding and many have been, what is probably "saved" with these products and it really takes some of the appeal away. Found one house (with a small graveyard in the back) that is for sale - bet you can make a deal on that one. Lots of older or closed stores, but found a great antique place with lots of building supplies from, probably, all the renovations that were done. Also a great old bank converted to a coffee shop and bistro. Stopped at the Blarney Stone Pub for a beer about 3:30 and left some time after dinner!

Mike, outside the Blarney Stone Pub, resting up for the walk back to the marina.

 

 

Where Judie wants to put Gerry!

Lots of pretty flowers

Had a real rainstorm about 7:30 - just 5 minutes before we needed to walk back from the showers - wet again! Lots of thunder and lightning and it rained until about 9:30. Ger went out in the middle of it as the wind was stronger than the fenders we had out and needed to double them up to keep the boat off of the pilings. Wet again!

Day 2: After sleeping in again, Judie walked to the bakery for some sticky buns that she had seen yesterday during our touring. She arrived at the bakery at 7:15 only to find out that the buns are not ready until 8:00. So back to the boat, chat a little and back up the hill (half mile walk) to secure the buns! Mmmm good!

Judie, Lois and Mike caught the 9:40 bus to Cape Charles, 32 miles to the south. They stopped at, what seemed to be, every grocery store, post office, gas station, housing project and restaurant along the way.And after their 2 hour ride on public transportation, have a new understanding of the plight of the poor in rural eastern shore Virginia. Lot's of very nice, polite folks; but definitely struggling to keep going. Cape Charles was a bit of a disappointment, with the hardware store being the highlight of the town.

The local hardware store

Judie's favorite accessory for her bike. A coconut insulated drink holder!

Ice cream always helps to make a good day.

Ger meanwhile stayed at the boat to catch up on blogging, plan for the future stops, study charts and establish routes - just historian and navigator duties. Had to do much of the work in the laundry room at the "folding" table to utilize the weak wifi signal - as I am now! Went back to Mallards for a light dinner and then to the old time movie theater in town for "The Million Dollar Arm" - nice upbeat movie.

Judie returning with her sticky buns.

Looking out at he Onancock Creek from the boat.

We decided to stay an extra day for two reasons. 1. the weather forecast calls for rain all day today - mostly wrong so far. and 2. Charles the harbormaster gave us a free nights slip rental! Had homemade bread from the bakery for breakfast followed by a trip to the farmer's market for veggies and fruit. Judie doing some laundry as I write this and then headed to the historic Ker House for a quick tour.

June 13-18 Deltaville VA / Rappahannack River

Friday, our first full day in Deltaville was an easy day. Sleep in a little (7:30); walk the marina, visit with folks, and "docktails" on the porch with the folks from "Sno Daz", another Monk 36 that had stayed over after the Monk rendezvous that had been the week before.

Next day Mike rented another car and we went to the town of Urbanna. Great little community. Went to the farmers market - mostly local crafts but did buy some local produce. Had an old general store turned into a nice clothing store for men and women. Went to a great bar-b-que restaurant for lunch and visited with Jennifer and Mom at the local upscale food and furniture/accessories shop. They had lots of tails to tell and shared freely. Afterwards we looked at some building lots that Mike was interested in and found some beautiful sites and very nice creeks. Back at the Marina there was a wedding, and Ger wound up in charge of getting all the boats to blow their horns when the toast was offered - a great surprise for the bride and groom.

Farmer's Market

Lunch place - look closely in lower left corner for Gerry's ghost.

General Store

Just a nice house

Sunday we headed for the north shore and driving tours of Irvington and a few other small communities. Found a great little sandwich shop for lunch. Then headed to the grocery store and return to the marina to get ready for a great cook-out /pot-luck supper. We had 7 couples from the marina and the food was fantastic; broke up about dark when the bugs emerged.

Ger about to get Corked at a local winery...

Monday was some fiberglass repairs from the docking at Fernandina Beach FL and odd jobs on the boat. Tuesday was more of the same and Bingo at the local Volunteer Rescue Squad after dinner. Judie won one game and it covered our expenses! Yahoo!!!

Wednesday we visited the newly rebuilt and re-opened (after a 2102 fire) Maritime museum. They had an exhibit of over 50 paintings of Bay area scenes by a local and famous artist that I can only remember his last name - Barber. You will see some of his work attached.

Restored 1907 Log keel boat

June 10-12 Leaving the Norfolk Area

Up early to be ready to go about 7:30 and get in line for the 8:00 bridge opening, followed by the 8:10 Locking and the 9:00 opening of the next bridge. Success! We did have to stop for one railroad bridge but only for about 10 minutes; mostly while they lowered the bridge and locked it into place.

Cruised thru the downtown Portsmouth/Norfolk area - the waterside of what we had seen a few days earlier. Past Hospital Point, the Naval Station Norfolk and close up views of all the ships we could not take pictures of on our tour!  We then said good-bye to Lois and Mike as they headed into Hampton for a few days and we headed into the Bay.

My magenta line is gone! (the magenta line is just that - a magenta line on the charts that shows you were the Atlantic Intercostal Waterway route is. Just like a street map, and you basically follow the line.) In the Chesapeake Bay, there is no set line/pathway/"street"/road to follow - you have to plot your own. Good thing we had spent some time with the charts the day before plotting courses and locations. We were prepared, but a little piece of the security blanket went away.

Any member of our family remembers Dad turning into Captain Bligh: and the heat and humidity caused him to make a limited appearance today. But with Judie's help and some progress, he went back into hiding.

After 20 miles of running in the open waters of the Bay, we turned into Mobjack Bay and then the Severn River off its south shore. We found (from the software program Active Captain) a nice quiet anchorage. Fixed a "too nice" dinner of pork chops, corn-on-the-cob and sweet potatoes (should have kept it cold and simple meal). Had a few drinks on the bow, and after a cool shower, hit the sack.

Next day we launched the dingy and motored into several creeks to look at houses and property. Saw lots of water fowl, turtles and a wide variety of homes. That afternoon was naps, reading, and re-wire the new fan for a 12 volt plug-in connection.

The morning of the 12th, we awoke to light fog, overcast, and a light wind from the east. The forecasts were for clearing, a partly cloudy sky and our anchorage was expose to the wind from the east, so we decided to head for Deltaville and the Rappahannock River. The first two hours were wonderful as we eased our way back into the Bay. Fog was lifting, wind was 5 mph and we were happy. BUT as soon as we turned northward, with the wind on our beam, the wind began to build and eventually went to 15-20 mph and 4 foot waves. An hour later, the fog decided it had lifted enough and was returning to the surface and visibility went to patchy and 1/4 mile at times. Ok we are making good time rocking and rolling and have seen only one boat all morning. BUT, an hour later the rain decided to join in the fun and the next 1 1/2 hours was a pain in the ass.  We got wet thru our fowl weather gear, a little woozy from the rocking and cold and hungry. We had made the decision earlier to stay on the fly-bridge rather than move to the inside steering station because of the better visibility from the fly-bridge. Judie was a real trooper, making, what seemed to be, at least 100 trips below for "stuff" in really poor conditions. She learned how to butt scoot!

About 12:00 we finally made the entrance channel to Dozier's Regatta Point Marina in Deltaville, only to miss a turn to port, and ran softly aground. Simply reversing the engine, increasing the throttle, and being calm got us right off. Got a little help tying up in the rain and as soon as we finished by our selves, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and the words hazy, hot and humid became a reality.

Inch-n-along showed up about an hour later and we all went into town via a courtesy car for a late lunch and a little touring to get acquainted with the town.

Slept like babies.

An open railroad lift-bridge

Building and re-fitting ships.

A marine assault ship

Stealth??

Ship??

Our first Bay light/marker.

June 5-9, 2014 Norfolk Area

We are at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake VA. A working and maintenance marina with lots of service going on. Weekdays there is a lot of activity pulling boats out of the water, doing maintenance, and mechanical repairs. They do a wonderful job with wood and make it look fantastic. Most of their permanent slips are under covered sheds and the marina is fresh water with no tide or currents. May keep R Island here for the winter.

June 5: Inch-N-Along (Mike and Lois) are here with us. This is where they bought their boat and we are, more correctly, here with them! Mike rented a car a few days and we loaded op late morning and headed to Norfolk to tour. First stop was the Navy Base where we took a 45 minute bus tour of this 43,000 person facility along with the 13 piers/docks. Saw, but could take no close pictures, 3 submarines, 2 Marine assault ships that hold helicopters and boats, cruisers, and an aircraft carrier.

After lunch at Hell's Kitchen (no relation to the TV show), we toured the Nauticus Museum and battleship Wisconsin on Norfolk's waterfront.

these girls are everywhere

Unlawful photo - oops!

BAC  (Big Ass Carrier!)

The Battleship Wisconsin

Men's Room at Hell's Kitchen

And the Ladies room

Wisconsin again

another mermaid

Ger and Mike resting.....

Judie taking lessons from yet another mermaid!

June 6: Another field trip - this time the Outer Banks and Kitty Hawk NC the Wilbur and Orville Wright Monument. Those guys did a lot without computers, auto-cad and much help. I was amazed that they built their own engine, sewed the muslin wing material on their mothers sewing machine, and worked out all the calculations for pitch, roll and yaw utilizing data from over 1000 glider flights the previous year. Also, much of their time was in Ohio and they were at Kitty Hawk for only 4-6 weeks per trip a few times each year. I guess I should have paid closer attention in school 50 years ago!

On recommendation from the office manager here at the marina, we went to the small town of Manteo for lunch. This older waterfront community has several restaurants and boutique shops in an older restored setting rather that many of the newer buildings closer to the ocean drive.

Stopped at Coinjock Marina on the way back and were treated to a parade of beautifully restored boats (up to 80 feet in length) from the early 1900's that were on their way to Norfolk for a festival.
Also stopped at a farmers market to stock up on fruits and veggies.

Beautiful and accurate reproduction

The glider that provided all the info!

the kitchen in their "camp".

they slept in bunks hung overhead.

Overlooking the area from up on the monument. Note workshop and camp building. markers on the left indicate flight distance from the first marker for the 4 flights that day 125-850 feet.

The balance of the stay at AYB is being consumed by laundry, grocery shopping, engine routine maintenance, washing the boat and other miscellaneous chores. Judie and Lois did take a few hours on Saturday to go out to lunch and do some shopping - girl stuff!