A new day dawned as we awoke from a good nights rest in Cape Charles. We were content with having a slow and easy morning, sitting aboard, drinking our coffee and counting our blessings. We called over to the Cape Charles yachting center when they opened at 8 AM to see if they had the 30 amp electrical inlet that we needed to make our repair to the boat; They did not. We called ahead to the dock master at the docks @ Downtown Hampton to inform them that we would have a package being delivered today if they could please keep an eye out for it. She also informed us that although the official check-in time was not until 1 PMwe were welcome to come in whenever we wanted. Renee did the usual planning and route creation to be entered into the Simrad and shortly after we untied the lines and were on our way. It was again a very nice cruising day with slightly warmer temperatures than we’ve had so far and reasonably calm waters. Many large tanker ships were still anchored out in the bay just off the coast from Cape Charles; A little internet research revealed that area is an official Coast Guard staging area for vessels that are awaiting their turn to come into ports (Norfolk, Baltimore, Chesapeake, etc.). About midway through the days voyage out in the middle of the bay we came across a small fleet of several commercial fishing vessels, as well as many smaller, personal fishing boats. Some more Internet research informed us that the commercial vessels were fishing for Atlantic Medhaden (known as Pogy) which is a small oily bait fish that is caught and turned primarily into omega-3 dietary supplements. They are also nicknamed “ Most important fish in the sea” Because they act as filter feeders that clean the water column, and are the bedrock of the food web serving as the primary food source for whales, dolphins, and predatory sea birds. Apparently, it was not a coincidence that nearby the fishing vessels, we saw huge flocks of sea birds on the water as well as spotting our first pair of dolphins that we had seen on this trip. In the distance, we could see the expansive spans of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. To our portside, we had nice views of Norfolk with the many huge military vessels. On our starboard side were nice sandy beaches and good views from the water of Fort Monroe and the Fort Monroe lighthouse. As we exited the bay onto the Hampton River, we stopped in at Bluewater Marina to get some gasoline. Another short 1 mile or so up the river brought us to our destination for the next couple of days, The Docks @ Downtown Hampton. We plugged in the one side of the boat that we still had a working inlet and turned on the air-conditioning in the aft cabin; The afternoon sun was bright and hot, and we figured we might want it. Hampton is by far the most urban stop we have made thus far this year, but also very dog friendly. A 60 yard or so walk in one direction brought us to a nice small, well shaded dog park and a 50 yard or so walk in the other direction off the docks to another bigger, very nice park.
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| Sunrise in Cape Charles |
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| Fort Monroe Lighthouse as we come into Hampton |
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| Fort Monroe |
A major downer for the day happened as we got news from a friend in McConnelsville of the passing of another longtime friend of ours. Sincere condolences to the Gridley family. May you rest in peace Julie!
We made some phone calls to touch base with people at home and Renee reached out to uncle Chris and aunt Pat who live in this vicinity (Williamsburg) and made plans to meet up for dinner. We did not want to venture far from the boat or Marina because we were expecting the Amazon delivery of our part. Renee received notification on her phone that it would be delivered between 3 and 6 PM. She could see on the apps GPS that the delivery driver was in the vicinity and had several stops before us. However, when it indicated that we were the next stop, it showed the driver driving around the block multiples of times apparently unable to locate the marina 🤪. Erik stayed back by the docks while Renee set out on foot with the tracking map of the truck on her phone to try and track him down. She found the truck parked and hung out by the truck for 10 minutes or so until the driver returned and was successful in laying hands on our package. Very shortly after Chris and Pat arrived and we jumped in the car with them to go a couple of miles up the road to a restaurant they were familiar with from years back. We had a nice evening of good company and food before they brought us back to the marina. Erik spent a half an hour or so installing the new power inlet onto the front of the boat and we were able to get all of the electrical working properly again…yay! We rounded out the evening as the sun was beginning to set by heading out again on our bicycles for a short, 1/2 mile ride to a church to attend a small AA meeting where we met some nice folks; A couple of old timers who were quite the characters and a young newcomer lady with just 1 week sober. Just 27 years old, she has had enough ‘scrapes’ to recognize she has a problem and is reaching out for help. Prayers up for her to hold on tight one day at a time! After another trip up to the dog park with Riva we settled in to our now comfortably air-conditioned quarters for a good nights sleep.
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| Sunrise in Hampton |
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| You can’t have too many Sunrise pictures |
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| One more for good measure! |
Morning at Downtown Hampton docks began with Erik making breakfast sandwiches. We did some research on next stops and on finding antifreeze for the winterization process we would be doing when we return to Deltaville. Mid morning we hopped on the bikes and headed for Fort Monroe to do some sight seeing before the predicted afternoon/evening storms. Fort Monroe was an amazing stop. The visitors center had much history of the area before fort Monroe was built. This was the site of one of the first recorded ships bringing in African Americans into slavery. Many slaves came through, and many later came for freedom and education as later Hampton College opened providing education to many African Americans. Next was the Casement Museum that displayed the inner workings and layout within the walls of the fort. Many more history displays and cannons set up at the windows as they would have been when protecting the fort. Our walking tour began with the first stop being the pet cemetery at the top of the fort. We ended up walking the full distance around the fort on the top of the exterior walls. From here we saw all of the old historic buildings within the fort as well. On the way back to the boat we stopped at Food Lion for a few provisions.
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