Tuesday, April 22, 2014 On to Reedville, VA

Happy Birthday Chuck!

aircraft carrier on the river

This is going to be a good day.  We shoved off the bulkhead a little before 6:30 am.  I know we were ready to get moving.  We’ve stayed stagnant for 7 days.  The longest that we’ve been weathered in on the entire trip!  We had little activity with barges or freighters going up the Elizabeth River.  We did see one tug pushing a barge coming at us and a freighter that we weren’t sure what he was doing.  Here, two tugs were helping guide him while he was backing into one of the Norfolk terminals.  Of course the patrol boats were out doing their thing…back and forth…in front of the naval ships warning boaters not to get too close.  

It took us a little less than 2 hours from our dock in Portsmouth to the Thimble Shoal Light just ouside of the Hampton Roads Inlet.  From there, we turned to port and headed north up into the Chesapeake Bay. We had a great ride motoring out the river into the bay area because the tide and currents were going out.  We were cruising at 8.4 kph which is equivalent to approximately 9.2 mph! Wow, we almost feel as though we are speeding!  Once we turn north, the tide will be against us until 9:55 am.  Then it turns and will be coming back into the bay. Once we make our turn at the Thimble Shoal Light, we pop our head sail to give us a little extra boost.   At this point, we're not sure where we'll spend the night....Mobjack Bay is a bit too close....maybe Fishing Bay, or Jackson Creek, or Fleets Bay.  We definitely want to go as far as we can to make up for  lost                                                 time!  

Motor-sailing along pass the mouth of the York River, we can see 6 freighters off in the haze. They are anchored along the eastern shore waiting for a change in the tide.   Looking at them across the bay, they look huge! The captains are on the VHF, chatting with each other to pass the time....and complaining about the low water.  

Reedville in the evening

The winds are from the south.  Yeah, this is what we've been waiting for,  for the past 7 days.  I don't think the south breezes are going to last more than today from the weather reports.  But we'll take the favorable winds while we can!  So, we'll keep pushing, passing one good anchorage after another.  We still have quite a bit of daylight left, so I called Whisper to see if they are agreeable about going as far as Reedville, Va.  We stayed here in the fall so we know this is a great place to duck in out of the wind....and we know the winds are coming late tonight and continuing throughout tomorrow.  Once we made it down Cockrell Creek pass the Menhaden Fish Plant and on to Broad Creek, we dropped out anchor.  David and Rita followed suit, but had a difficult time setting their anchor. They tried 3 times.  Finally a property owner started yelling at David telling him how to anchor in the muck. The guy then yelled and told David to bring his boat over and use his empty dock.  Some people have all the luck....75 miles and a 12 hour day.