Norfolk Virginia

Tuesday, October 10

We crossed Chesapeake Bay one more time from Kent Narrows to Annapolis with Jean’s parents. After a great visit on board they returned back to Ontario, leaving Maryland in 85 F temperature and arriving back in Ontario to the first snow storm of the year! We stayed the night at the Annapolis Yacht Club

Wednesday. October 11

From our dock at Annapolis we motored straight down Chesapeake Bay to the Solomon’s Island. Here we found a dock at the Catamaran Restaurant where Chief Joe and Bartender Tammy looked after us. Gary had 4-inch porterhouse steak. Jeanie had seafood pasta with lobster and shrimp. It was the best!

We stayed at the dock 2 nights free but without power or water. On the second day wind came up (gale force winds) and the temperature dropped.

We decided to move on.

Friday, October 13

we left the dock at Solomon’s Island at 9am. It was a beautiful sunny day, but cold and as we traveled down to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. It started to get rougher and the wake from the freighters were huge. There were lots of barges, shoals and of course crab pots.

Once again we had to keep a watchful eye out for those crab pots so they won’t get tangled in the propeller. The crab pots sit on the bottom of the bay with a rope attached to a floating marker on the surface of the water. Sometimes there is a flag on these floating markers, but most times they are simply coloured floats. They can be any colour and can be mistaken for seagulls floating on the water. The blue ones are the hardest to spot.

The shoals on both sides of the bay make the passage narrow, (called Thimble Point shoal, so you have an idea of the size).

At 6pm we arrived at the bottom of Chesapeake Bay, fueled up in Portsmouth then crossed the river to The Waterside Marina in Norfolk Virginia.

This is definitely the most difficult and largest harbour we have entered. There is a huge military presence here as it is the worlds largest navel base where they build and repair naval ships. The enormous wake of these huge ships is the highest we have encountered so far. Planes and helicopters seem to be dive-bombing at us as we are going by a target range. We also heard that there are unexploded bombs in sunken ships in the harbour.

We are glad to arrive at The Waterside Marina. The temperature is 64F and we are happy to have hook ups for water and power. We have the heater going and warm up.



We are now at the Mile Marker Zero for the Eastern Coastal Waterways. There are two options. The Virginia cut which is deeper or The Great Dismal Swamp, which is more scenic