7/25 to 7/27 Cape Charles

Cruising into Cape Charles 
What we originally thought was the lighthouse actually was just a water tower designed as a replica of it
The actual Cape Charles lighthouse (we got no pics of it) is the tallest in Virginia and the 2nd tallest in the US at 191

Many Tanker ships cruising up the bay as we approached Cape George

It was a very pleasant morning for the cruise from our anchorage at Onancock to Cape Charles with mostly cloudy skies and temps in the high 60’s and low 70’s and light winds making for fair seas.  After following the charts and channel markers closely out the few miles of the winding Onancock Creek it was a pretty straight shot down the bay.   The total trip was 43.7 miles and took us about 3.5 hrs as we arrived in Cape Charles just before 2pm.  Our usual routine of settling in at our slip and we walked Riva into town which was only 100 yards from the boat.  Stopping in at several small shops as we made our way up and back the Main Street we found a couple souvenirs (we try to get a fridge magnet to put on the boat at every town we can) and some goodies to add to our dinner menu.  We made one final stop for the afternoon for a pre dinner ice cream treat…YOLO!  The Brown Dog Creamery makes their own homemade flavors and coffee crunch was of course our selection and proved to be the bomb!   

Renee emerging with a scoop of ice cream to share 
Riva was patiently waiting with Erik on a bench outside for he pup cup

One neat shop had hundreds of crystal clear pictures (this one of Tangier Island) taken by the owner while flying over things to get spectacular aerial shots which he then prints onto aluminum backings 

Talented young street musician 

This was an original he’d written earlier this summer 

Back at the docks Erik cooked up a medium rare T-bone 🥩 and cut it into pieces to put over top of a local made red pepper fettuccini drizzled with a sweet onion and garlic balsamic vinegar we had picked up in one of the shops in town earlier accompanied by sweet corn we had scored at the Onancock farmers market this morning.  Two thumbs up for the concoction.  With satisfied tummies we took another bike ride up to the very nice park where 100’s of folks had gathered for their Sunday music series.  It was an entertaining evening listening and dancing to the big band music of ‘Good Shot Judy’.  The busy day finally landed us back aboard for showers and bed.  We highly recommend Cape Charles as a stop for anyone passing through.  

Gorgeous large park on a very active evening
There were kids and adults playing pick up games of soccer, lacrosse, whiffle ball, cornhole, and other games all throughout the park in nooks

Realized we hadn’t taken any selfies this trip
Also realized Erik’s hairline is receding and he needs a razor 😂

Bahaha 🤣 

Lots of people enjoying the show on a very comfortable July evening


Big band tunes with ‘Good Shot Judy’ 
No videos of Erik’s two left feet stepping on Renee’s though 

Back at the boat after the music to catch the last of the beautiful colors in the sky while sipping a cup of joe

Erik ALMOST missed the sunrise as he slept in until 5:30am…..unheard of! 😂.  After relaxing aboard for a while and having a light breakfast we set out on the bikes again, this time with Riva in her basket to enjoy the cool morning air blowing into her face.  Pedaling through the streets of Cape Charles we found many beautiful, large, well kept old Victorian homes to look at.  There is definitely some money in this town.  On the outskirts of the fairly small town is a new neighborhood of obscenely large homes, many right on the bay.  

One of many well kept old Victorian homes that lined the streets (many of them boulevards) 

Newer homes in Cape George along the bay

Neptune Maquette just off of the sand dunes that separate the streets from the beach

Returning Riva to the cool boat as the day warmed we had a light lunch and suited up for a beach day.  The beach was very nice.  Soft, fine sand that met the bay and water depths that were very shallow for 100’s of feet out.   The afternoon was perfect for laying on and walking the beach with quintessential blue skies and temps in the upper 70’s….ahhhhhh!   Conveniently enough the beach access we emerged from just happened to be right up the street from the Brown Dog Creamery, go figure.   They did not have our newly beloved coffee crunch today so we ‘settled’ for a regular coffee flavored and a Carmel swirl latte flavored cone.  The struggles we face are extraordinary but we somehow made it through.  

Love is in the salt air!

We mainly sat around and relaxed the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening. Prepared another pasta dish with the remaining fettuccine from yesterday; this time with chicken, garlic infused olive oil, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and red peppers.  We sat and made some plans for the coming couple of days and reserved a slip in Hampton Virginia.  As we were preparing to make a trip down to the beach to enjoy the sunset Renee noticed that one leg Of our power to the boat was not working.   After some investigation it was found that one of the two 30 amp power inlets was melted and scorched pretty badly.  Yikes 😳!   Lucky that we didn’t have a fire aboard.  The disconnects and breakers did their job fortunately. We shut down everything on that portion of the electrical and removed the inlet.   Renee found a replacement on Amazon and ordered it to be delivered to Hampton tomorrow where we will make the repair and in the meantime manage with power to only half the boat.  A late evening of some coffee, showers, and writing this blog, rounded out another wonderful day trudging the waterways of happy Destiny before we headed Off to bed.   

The culprit for loosing power to half the boat
😮
Not good