October 18 & 19, 2014 Naval Tour and Art Festival

The local TV news gave us two ideas for something to do over the weekend. On Friday morning we got the Enterprise car rental weekend special, $33.63 total returning the car on Monday morning. On Saturday we traveled to Norfolk Naval Station for an event celebrating the 239th anniversary of the U.S. Navy. There were ship tours. We were able to go on board the carrier Theodore Roosevelt the ship that passed us on 10/17 on Chesapeake Bay. There was also aircraft displayed, various navy equipment, an antique car show, and a chili cook off. In the afternoon we attended a Navy Band concert on the Roosvelt. It was a fun day.

On Sunday, we spent the afternoon in downtown Norfolk at the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival. This event was held at the Stockley Gardens park in the middle of a beautiful neighborhood of old restored homes. The art show is an annual event with about 150 artists displaying their work. We enjoyed the afternoon and the artwork.

October 13-17, 2014

We spent the week at Atlantic Yacht Basin, doing maintenance on the boat and planning our trip back to Memphis. While we are away for the winter AYB is going to do some needed work on the boat for us:  New cushions in the salon and pilothouse, a roof vent in the pilothouse (it can get hot in the pilothouse and we can't have the doors open for fear of an escaping Adi cat), wax on the outside of the boat, and in the Spring new bottom paint. All this and the maintenance that I'll do on the engine, generator and other systems will send us off in the Spring ready for another six months of cruising before laying the boat up again for the winter in Brewerton, NY. As we sit at AYB on the outside dock we see every hour, when the Great Bridge Bridge opens, boats of all sizes headed south down the Albermarle and Chesapeake Canal to warmer waters.

Headed to the Bahamas?

Lots of commercial traffic on the canal.

October 13, 2014 Atlantic Yacht Basin

This morning we headed south through Norfolk, the Virginia Cut and Great Bridge Lock into the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. Atlantic Yacht Basin (AYB) is about a mile from the lock on the canal. We'll leave the boat at AYB for the winter at the end of October and Lois, Adi cat and I will drive home to Memphis.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard. 

Great Bridge Lock. 

October 10-12, 2014 Hampton

We arrived at Hampton on Friday at Bluewater Yacht Center about 1:30, pumped the holding tank and got into a nice slip looking out at the harbor. Friends John and Diane drove down from Williamsburg to visit and have dinner with us that evening. The next day we rented a car and took Lois to an urgent care to have her checked out. She has had a cold and cough for a couple of weeks that settled in her chest. The doctor examined her and gave her some meds and she is now much better. We got done at the urgent care at lunch time so I looked at Urbanspoon to see what restaurants were in the area and of course Urbanspoon hit another home run with Los Paisas Mexican Restaurant in Newport News. It was the best! We did some shopping after lunch and went back to the boat. We took the car back to Enterprise Sunday morning and had planned to head to Waterside Marina in downtown Norfolk in the afternoon but the day was cool and the wind was blowing 15-20 so we stayed another night.

View out our window. 

October 9, 2014 Another calm day.

Got up this morning at 5:30 and checked the weather. Another day with winds 5-10 and waves 1-2. This looks like the last good travel day for about a week or more. The destination today is Hampton, VA. Once we get to Hampton, the rest of the trip, 27 miles, to Atlantic Yacht Basin is in Norfolk harbor and other protected waters and the weather isn't as important. We started to pull out of Deltaville at 7:00 during nautical dawn when I heard engines running. I turned and looked over my shoulder to see a steady stream of fishing boats starting to pass us. It took about 30 minutes for all of them to pass coming out of every corner of the little harbor. Once out of the harbor they scattered along the oyster beds about a mile out. We left and Lois counted 82 boats moving in all directions bringing up oysters from the shallow bottom. We quickly passed them and headed out into Chesapeake Bay for the 50 mile trip to Hampton. Our only excitement was the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt passing about 3 miles in front of us on its way into Norfolk Naval Shipyard.  It's a 1092 foot ship.

The parade of oyster boats from Deltaville. 

Oyster boats everywhere. 

Up comes the sun. 

Travel wears Lois and Adi cat out. 

October 8, 2014 Headed to Deltaville.

The weather finally let up and we were able to leave Coles Point and head down the Potomac. We were underway just prior to sunrise at 7:00 AM. We traveled 30 miles down River to Smith Point and again into Chesapeake Bay. Smith Point is notorious for rough water and even on a day with low wind and waves we had an hour or better with 3 to 4 foot waves. Once around the Point the water calmed for the last 28 miles south to Deltaville. We had been to Deltaville early in the summer. We borrowed a car from the marina and drove to the market, purchased two NY steaks to cook on the boat and celebrate leaving Coles Point.

Sunrise on the Potomac. 

October 8, 2014 Still at Coles Point

We are still here at Coles Point, getting low on water, toilet paper, etc., and wondering if this will be another Carabelle (you may recall our 7weeks in Carabelle, Fl. last December and January, waiting for a weather window to cross the gulf), but here we are minus the restaurants, stores, and everything we enjoyed in Carabelle.  There is nothing here but an annoyingly shut-down bar and restaurant, an old condemned log cabin, and a few boats with nobody on them.  On the other hand, the view out our back window this morning was of the lunar eclipse and just last week when we were in DC it was the Washington Memorial... We are grateful to have a changing and always new and interesting view out our window. We have many blessings to count! The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow so hopefully we will be on our way to Deltaville, VA. The Adi Cat is curled up in one of her special spots, which reminds us to be peaceful and patient.

October 6, 2014 Update

Thursday, October 2nd we left Washington DC. We had a great time visiting with friends and seeing the sites. Headed to Belmont Bay Marina the morning of October 2nd down the Potomac then up the Occoquan River. We had a pleasant trip 29 miles. Stayed here until Sunday because of wind and rain. We rented a car to do some shopping; I also did some boat maintenance. Sunday was cold, clear and sunny with light wind. It was 39 degrees when we got up at 5:30. We were off at 7:15 just after sunrise for a 70 mile trip to Coles Point. We arrived at Coles Point at 3:15. We made good time as the tide was going out for most of our trip which gave us an extra 1 to 1 1/2 mph. Got up this morning, October 6th, to light winds at Coles Point but down at the mouth of the Potomac at Point Lookout it was blowing 16 mph and would be a rough ride to our next stop. It looks like weather will not improve until Thursday so we'll stay at Coles Point for a few days. We may be able to leave on Wednesday if things improve.

Sunrise at Belmont Bay October 5th. 

Sunrise at Coles Point October 6th. 

September 30, 2014

Today we were off to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I had been waiting to go to this museum to see the dinosaur exhibit. Well, as luck would have it the dinosaur exhibit is closed UNTIL 2019. 2019, what are they trying to do, bring them back to life. Well we enjoyed the museum without dinosaurs. The Hope diamond on display was beautiful.