When we last left you, we were stuck in Coinjock due to high water closing a couple of bridges ahead of us. Well, fortunately, the delay was only a day. There were scads of boats leaving on the same morning, but we chose to let many of them leave before us, and it worked out just fine. We had a long transit day (9 hours/63 miles) and had to time 3 bridge openings and a lock. In order to make this all work, we stopped at a free dock between 2 of the bridges to walk the pups. The worst part of the day was the last hour or so going into Hampton. Once we cleared downtown Norfolk, we were more exposed to the gusty winds, and the section through Hampton Roads was rough. Fortunately, the wind was on our nose as anticipated, so it was bearable, but it would not have been fun for long. We saved the long AND rough transit for our next leg...more on this in a bit.
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| Coming into Hampton after 7pm, we ran smack into the middle of a weekly regatta. Fortunately, where we needed to go was in the channel after they finished their race. Still, it was a bit of a traffic jam getting in after a long day. |
We knew that the winds were going to be up for a number of days, and Hampton was the place we wanted to be to ride this weather out. We had reserved the same spot that we had last fall when we camped out in Hampton for a month...so it seemed almost like we were at "home". Sure enough the winds did indeed blow (along with some rain) which kept us at the dock for 5 days. We had been hoping for just 3 or 4, but it just didn't make sense to venture out any sooner than we did.
So, this morning (Monday) after days of deliberation, we and Corkscrew decided that the weather had settled enough to take a stab at our next bit of travel. We had 51 miles of the Chesapeake to transit (Corkscrew chose to tackle 65 miles or so) and we knew that it had a chance to be rough. This time we got what we expected and then some! It was a rough couple of hours. The total travel time for us was about 5 hours, and at least 3 of it was in 3' to 4' seas, with plenty of 5' and 6' rollers mixed in. We buried our anchor pulpit in a wave on many occasions. Again, we knew that we were going to be going into the wind, so it was a manageable passage...had it been on our beam, we would have turned around and hightailed it back to the dock. Even though it was rougher than our Gulf crossing last year, it wasn't as uncomfortable because of the wave direction and period. In any event, we are glad to have today done!
So, for tonight we are settled at a familiar marina in Deltaville, and it is a beautiful evening now that we are out of the wind. The winds are supposed to settle a bit more tonight, so we anticipate heading out again in the morning, with the expectation that the seas will be kinder!
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| A shot that our friends on Act III took of us on the Neuse River...much calmer conditions this day! |
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| OK...here's a fun shot. The boat on the left is not doing the loop (66' Hampton). But the boat on the right (25' Sea Dory) has done the loop twice already and is on their third time around! |
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