23 October 2009 Hampton, Virginia
The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Fri 23 Oct 2009 16:58
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A week has gone since the last blog and lots has
happened!
We finally left Annapolis last Friday under a very
grey sky, rain, in short miserable weather. however, the wind was good and
we had a good sail to Oxford on the East side of the Chesapeake bay.As we
were the only ones in the bay, we had room to anchor although we were quite
restricted as where we could go because of our deep draft. So the good news was
we were securely and comfortably anchored. The bad news was that it was still
raining. And it carried on raining solidly until the Sunday! Still, we took the
dinghy and went ashore for a walk looking like Moonwalkers! See photo. Not many
souls around, a bit spooky, but we like Oxford. A lot of history, beautiful
houses, such an air of calm and tranquillity. Would have been nice to see the
place under the sun but that wasn't to be! On the Sunday we tried to take the
boat to the fuelling jetty and promptly ran aground (on soft mud) 20metres from
the jetty. So back to our anchorage!
On the Monday the sun came back and we could
finally get the boat, our gear ... and us to dry! We took fuel at another
fuelling station and went on our way to Solomon's Isles. Pleasant passage but
not much wind so had to motor. Solomon's is an interesting place with thousands
of boats in several marinas around the bay. Again we found a good anchorage,
went ashore for some shopping (food and boat stuff), a little tour of the bay in
the dinghy and back on board for dinner.
Left Solomon on Tuesday and motored to Deltaville,
Virginia. Once again, we discovered that it is a very pretty place and anchored
in Fishing Bay. this time of the year there are few boats around which makes
anchoring easy and "private". Went ashore and took a long walk to the 7 Eleven
to buy milk and cigars. Flat countryside with corn fields and huge beautiful
trees everywhere.
Got to Hampton at the end of the Chesapeake Bay on
Wednesday and have been here since waiting for the right weather conditions to
go round Hatteras. We had to motor all the way from Deltaville. Didn't even
attempt to put the sails up. The sea was looking like a sheet of glass, not a
cloud in the sky, warm, and not a breath of air! Amazing. Photos
below.
Big military place here lots of marine activity
with the merchant ships, fishing boats and yachties. But not particularly
beautiful. There is an area called "Little England" with very beautiful 2 or 3
centuries old houses.
Forecast predict Northerly winds for Sunday so
that's when we intend to round Hatteras. Strong winds are also forecasted so
hope all will be well. The weather generally looks bad for the whole of next
week so we'll see what await us!
More news when we next have a
connection.
Hugs
Catherine and Mike
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