Oct. 16 - We head for the Poquoson River, just South of the York River today. Winds are 10 knots or so aft for the first half of the trip and we motor sail at a good clip. When we get to the Wolftrap light they turn light and squirrely and are dead aft, so we take down the sails and motor into the river. It’s finally sunny and warm and the anchorage is pretty. Have to get a whisker pole for these kinds of days when we’re South. Too hard to go wing on wing without it when the wind’s so light and variable.
Oct. 17 - Motor in a light head wind to Norfolk and stay at Ocean Marine Yacht Center (ICW Mile Marker 1) across Elizabeth River from where they are working on two aircraft carriers, pretty close to where Norfolk/Portsmouth come to an end. Will stay a number of days to catch our breath and do routine service on engine and generator.
Approx. 950 miles from Booth Bay to here and we retire our third Chartkit. New one is “Forfolk to Florida”. Now we enter the “ditch” (the ICW for those uninitiated) and a whole new episode commences. Didn’t really worry about going aground before we got here if we paid attention to our charts, but this will be a different story.
Oct. 18 - Usually like my cooking much better than most restaurants and generally cook on the boat rather than eating out, but had two great dinners the last two nights in Portsmouth. Café Europa is a formal mixed European cuisine restaurant in a terrific setting with lots of small dining rooms and The Still is a basement tapas style bistro like restaurant with great little dishes, great service, and a speakeasy like atmosphere. If you get down this way you should try both.
Oct. 19 - Took the water taxi across the Elizabeth River from Portsmouth to Norfolk. Very convenient. Stop is just a little walk along the River. Went to Nauticus, which is a naval museum associated with the battleship Wisconsin, which is moored next to the museum. Toured the battleship and the museum and watched two 3D movies, one about the herring runs along the East coast of South Africa and the food chain associated with them (kind of slow) and one about “Red Flag”, which is an annual gathering at Nellis Air Force base of fighter squadrons from the US and our allies that engage in mock air battles for two weeks as training. It was well done. Nauticus is definitely a worthwhile visit.
Oct. 20 - Walked around the historic section of Norfolk. Worth the walk. Some of the attached pix are from there. The others are from Portsmouth.
Oct. 21 - Left Norfolk at Noon after servicing engine and generator and had an easy trip to Great Bridge (Chesapeake City) where we stopped at the Atlantic Yacht Basin Marina which is right on the ICW and very convenient. Stopped early because would have been too late to get to Coinjock, which is the next stop.
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