23 October 2009 Hampton, Virginia

The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Fri 23 Oct 2009 16:58
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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