Deltaville to Annapolis

We stayed anchored for several days on Fishing Bay next to Deltaville. Deltaville has several marinas which seem to specialize in storing boats on the hard for hurricane season while the boat owners go earn enough money to make the run back down the ICW to the Bahamas. The Dollar Store is Deltavilles' Walmart, and yet they have 2 West Marine stores. It is a hard place in which to provision because the one grocery store is a mile or 2 down the main highway with no sidewalk. But it is beautiful.

I don't know how this home owner gets out the front door.

We left Deltaville and made our way to Mill Creek off the Wicomico River. This is our favorite anchorage to date. When we got there the anchorage was empty except for one boat, but not long after, it had filled up. We ended up with four Calibers in the anchorage our first night there. We had a great time visiting with Tom and Doris from Footloose, and Bill and May from Loon. We spent 2 nights there before heading up to the Patuxent River.

Footloose on Mill Creek.


When we got to Solomon Island on the Patuxent, we took a mooring ball for one night at Zanhiser Marina. That is the first time we have paid $40 for a mooring ball. This gave us the privilege of using their laundromat (the only one in town went out of business). So we stayed one night, used their Pee Wee Herman bikes (the chains stayed on), did laundry, then moved about 3 miles up Mill Creek (a different Mill Creek) and anchored. Footloose was there and invited the crew of Acapella and us over for sushi. Doris and Tom did the impossible and got Lisa to eat raw fish. It was great. Acapella was on their way back to the United Kingdom.

House on the creek.


Big bucks waiting for their next job.

Houses on the Severn River.

We got to Annapolis the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. The boat traffic was very busy for a week day. We went up the Severn River and anchored in Weems Creek, which was quite full the first night, but was not too crowded the rest of the weekend. The Coast Guard gave everyone in the anchorage a good look over. Friday morning we noticed a large number of sailboats outside our anchorage on the Severn River. The Coast Guard (in their orange inflatables) would race up to each boat and corral them to one area of the river. This went on for an hour or more before they let them move on down the river. It was graduation weekend for the Navy, and Obama was in town telling the Navy how much he loved them. So that was why they shut the river down for a while.


Pretty schooner for hire made its way through Weems Creek.


Lisa's sister Karen has been in the DC area, so we were able to spend a few days with her here in Annapolis. We had a good visit and took her on a long boat ride up the Severn River to Round Bay. We poked our nose into 4 or 5 creeks on the way back. It must have taken at least an hour.

Hampton to Deltaville

It was late afternoon when we finally arrived in Hampton. It had been a long day with the bridges and traffic, so we were ready to settle down. We had studied our 3 cruising guides, and they all recommended anchoring near a marina on the Hampton River. When we got there, we were not too thrilled as there was very little space, a decent current, and for sure not enough room to let out adequate scope. So we putzed around trying to find a spot to get us through the night. At 5:45 pm we finally dropped anchor in a marginal spot, and figured we wouldn't sleep much that night. After setting the anchor and backing down on it, we stayed in the cockpit for over an hour. I went below to do something and a little while later Lisa comes down to tell me we are dragging. This is the first time we have ever dragged. It had been set really tight and holding well, so it must have snagged on a rock and then let go with a wind shift. When we were hauling it back up we could hear the chain rattle on the bottom. I was ready to sail through the night somewhere up the Chesapeake, but Lisa over ruled and we tied up at Blue Water Marina where we had to track down the night watchman to make it all legal. By this time it was pushing 9:00. Blue Water Marina is pricey, but good, friendly people, and the facilities are nice--not to mention floating docks. We were supposed to get free WiFi there but we got no reception. Not even up by the pool. The funny part is, the cheapskate cruisers that were anchored (that normally includes us) had good, free WiFi.

We should have anchored at Mill Creek instead of going to Hampton River. For some reason we had disqualified it from our options, but it would have been a much better choice. I don't think Hampton River is a viable place to anchor, but there are those who think nothing of it.

 

This boat was docked at another marina downtown. It seems like every community we have gone through from the Exumas through Virginia, lay some sort of claim on the legend of Blackbeard.

 

We ended up staying 3 nights at the Marina in Hampton. We did a lot of walking, and were able to spend a bit of money at the Food Lion in town. Then we got to carry it back to the boat. The walks were beautiful with all the large trees and the flowers. I love the foliage in the Northeast.

We were only going to stay 2 nights, but we were low on propane, so we stayed an extra day so I could take a taxi to a U-haul store to refill the tanks.

 

As you can see, it was a little foggy and cloudy when we left. Hampton Roads is very busy with commercial shipping and the US Navy.
 

On our way out to the Chesapeake.

 

This is Thimble Shoal Light which is several miles from land. We pounded into square waves up to this point. It was a wind against tide thing you are supposed to avoid. But once we got to this point, we were able to change course and had a great sail.

We were surrounded by thunderstorms all day with tornado warnings. The clouds were wicked looking. We rolled in the sails a couple of times when it looked like we were going to be hit with strong gusts, but they kept missing us. Listening to NOAA is just an exercise. We are obligated. But they are not even 50/50.

Our destination was East River off of Mobjack Bay. We explored a creek that is recommended in a guide book, but decided to keep looking. On the way out of the creek we went aground in 6.9 feet of water. We only draw 5.3 feet. Could you do that? I didn't think so. We backed off with no problem, and found an anchorage a little way further up the river. It was very peaceful even though surrounded by homes. It rained very hard that night.

 

The next morning we moved about 12 nautical miles to an anchorage on the Ware River which is on Mobjack Bay as well. We were supposed to have very strong storms from a southerly quadrant, and this looked like a good spot to sit it out. We really liked this anchorage a lot. We stayed for 3 nights and got tons of rain, but no strong winds. Everyday for a week they issued tornado warnings. The boat is clean and fresh now.

 

We finally left Mobjack Bay area and headed for Deltaville where we needed to get mail etc. We were supposed to have 10 to 15 knots of wind for a great sail, but there was no wind, so it was the motor. But it was a beautiful day. Our destination was Jackson Creek, with Fishing Bay as our fall back choice. The entrance to Jackson Creek is VERY narrow and winding. It seems as though there is an osprey with a nest on every channel marker. We made it through without going aground, but were not impressed with the anchorage options. So we made our way back out and headed for Fishing Bay.

Ocracoke to Hampton

A ferry docking at Ocracoke. The town relies on the ferries (I'll leave that one alone), because there are no roads to Ocracoke.

The entrance channel from the Pamlico Sound to Silver Lake in Ocracoke is long and a little tricky. Not too difficult, but you have to pay attention. This is the anchorage at Silver Lake which offers good all around protection.

The tourist season had not yet begun, so the town was not at full throttle. A lot of the stores and specialty shops were not open yet. That didn't matter to us because we are definitely not into specialty shops unless they sell fudge.

We stayed for 1 day and 2 nights, and then headed for the ICW. This involved crossing the Pamlico Sound and going up the Pamlico River, then the Pungo River. We weren't so lucky crossing the Pamlico Sound this time around. We had 15 to 20 knot winds on the nose. So we pounded away until we reached the Pamlico River, and then it calmed down for us. We made it to our anchorage on the Pungo River just before 3:00. We were the first ones there, but by the end of the day there were 12 other boats to keep us company. The next day to Buck Island, was just under 70 statue miles and we had the anchor down around 3:00 again. We would like to have gone another 3 or 4 hours, but there are no anchorages after Buck Island.

The next day was the fun one. It is a long stretch, with no anchorages, 10 restricted bridges, and a lock. In addition to the 10 restricted bridges, there are several railroad bridges that are open unless a train is coming. If you are lucky and a train decides to show up when you show up, it will probably mess up the timing for your next restricted bridge. Some bridges open on the hour, some on the 1/2 hour and some on both the hour and the 1/2 hour. Most of them don't open at 8:00 am or 5:00 pm. And most don't open for rush hour (2 hours) in the am or pm. So some planning goes into the timing of your arrival at the different bridges and the lock.


On this leg, you pretty much get clustered with the same group of boats for the whole day. Behind us is the C&C Figaro and the Whitby 42 Sweet Surrender.


The guy on this Beneteau 40 was pretty good at holding his boat in one spot, but I wouldn't back my boat up to shore like that with all the tree stumps in the water. Especially with an unprotected rudder.


Traffic jam on the ICW. You don't see many tows on the East Coast ICW. They start to show up some when you near Norfolk. These are of the one barge variety, not the sick pack you see in Texas and Louisiana. But you still stay out of their way. And the bridges are not restricted for them. We all arrived at this bridge a few minutes before it was scheduled to open, but the tow just goes around everyone and the bridge opens a couple of minutes early.


This ocean going vessel is bigger than it looks in this picture. It has four huge tug boats escorting it. One on each side and 2 aft. The tow in front of us ducked in front of the bridge on the right, along with 3 other sailboats. At this point we are hoping Sweet Surrender gets moved over before the ship gets there. The Beneteau 423 in front of us finally moved up, but it was too late for us, we had to hold back. That's a concrete wall to starboard of the Beneteau, and I didn't want to get crunched. It only took the tugs a minute to get the ship to where the Beneteau is in this picture. The bridge tender is telling me to move closer to the bridge because "it's a very busy road". I wasn't about to thread the needle between the ship and the concrete wall. I was sure he would close the bridge on me, and I would have to wait for 2 1/2 hours for the next opening. But he held it for us. As soon as the ship passed, I was at full throttle hoping the bridge tender wouldn't drop the bridge. I slowed down just in time on the other side. There is a strictly enforced 6 knot (6.9 mph) speed limit in this area. And sure enough there was a boat cop right around the corner eyeballing us. After we passed, he turned around and left. Could you imagine getting a speeding ticket in a sailboat?

They shut this section of the ICW down for 72 hours 2 days after we went through. They demolished the second bridge in the picture above.

All in all, the day went as smoothly as we could have hoped for. We made it through all the bridges and the lock, and once we passed ICW mile 0, we had a brisk motor sail to Hampton. It was 73 1/2 statue miles. It was May 1st, so we easily made our June 1 insurance deadline.