virginia

Day 59-Onward to Onancock

karenstark

Monday May 17, 2021.
Temp: 70/51, Humidity: 41/86%, Top Wind: E11 mph, Precip-none, Miles Traveled: 48

***************

Onancock (oh-NAN-kok) is a small town on the Onancock River at the bottom of the Pocomoke Sound. And I thought Washington state had some weirdly named places. 🤦‍♀️. It was founded in 1680 and is one of the oldest towns in the United States. That was our destination for today, so we pulled lines at about 8:00 and headed out of Cape Charles.

Read more →

Day 56-Fort Monroe

karenstark

Friday May 14, 2021.
Temp: 69/46, Humidity: 24/93%, Top Wind: NE9mph, Precip-none, Miles Traveled: about 6 in Stuart, and 4 on foot.

++++++++++++++++++++++

It was such a quiet and still night! Sooooo nice! We woke up to very bright sunshine blazing through the windows of Island Girl. It was beautiful. Our first mission today was to get up to the Glazed Doughnuts shop while there were still some donuts to be had! They have lots of big expensive donuts. 🍩😋. It was another one of these places with a little sign that you might miss if you aren’t looking for it.

Read more →

Day 55-Hampton Roads

karenstark

Thursday May 13, 2021.
Temp: 67/47, Humidity: 32/86%, Top Wind: NE13mph, Precip-none, Miles Traveled: 14

*********************

This geographical area of the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay is known as Hampton Roads. It has had this description for hundreds of years. In fact, here is a civil war map of a historic battle between Union and Confederate ships in 1862. At the top of the map is Hampton where we are headed today, where the rivers flow out to the right into the Chesapeake Bay. At the bottom right is Norfolk and Portsmouth on the Elizabeth river, where we are now. On the top left is Newport News on the James River.
The term ‘Hampton Roads’ is a centuries-old reference that originated when the region was a struggling British outpost nearly 400 years ago. Designated in the 17th century as the name of the largest natural harbor where the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth Rivers pour into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Signifying the safety of a port, “roads” in nautical terminology means “a place less sheltered than a harbor where ships may ride at anchor”.

Read more →
Day 54-USS Wisconsin

Day 54-USS Wisconsin

karenstark

Wednesday May 12, 2021.
Temp: 59 (at 4:00am)/50, Humidity: 38/70%, Top Wind: N14mph, Precip – Rainy morning, Miles Traveled: 4 miles on foot

##################

Our mission today was to go visit a Battleship. We’ve never seen a battleship, so I really wanted to go check it out, and it’s literally RIGHT HERE, like two blocks away! The day started out cold and rainy, and it actually got colder as the day went on. The sun finally broke through the clouds about 7:30 this evening, so tomorrow looks to be a brighter day.

This is the USS Wisconsin, an Iowa class ship from the World War II era. Look at how loooooong she is!

Read more →

Day 53-From Swamp to Civilization

karenstark

Tuesday May 11, 2021.
Temp: 68/55, Humidity: 38/87%, Top Wind: NE 7mph YES!!! Under 10mph!!!, Precip – some rain, Miles Traveled: 20

**********************

What a peaceful night! This little free dock was a gem. The night was calm and quiet, with no wind or waves bouncing us around, no traffic noises, and no critters on the boat. I thought we might have racoons or something, but the garbage cans up by the bathrooms didn’t have covers on them, so I guess rascally critters aren’t even a problem here. I’m so glad we stopped here! We were up and pulling our lines to leave by 6:45. The view of the canal as the sun started to peek over the tree tops was serene.

Read more →

Day 52-Change in plans

karenstark

Monday May 10, 2021.
Temp: 73/54, Humidity: 61/89%, Top Wind: SW15mph, Precip – some rain, Miles Traveled: 9.5

*****************

It was warm last night, only getting down to about 70 outside. We slept with one window open and the fan running. I started out with the hatch over our bed open , but with the threat of rain, didn’t think that was very smart. It did sprinkle a little over night, and everything was wet outside in the morning. At least we were dry, if not a bit sweaty, inside. I got up before 7:00 and checked the weather. Still looking like thunderstorms early afternoon, and wind anywhere from 15 and up with higher gusts once we get out of the swamp. I went back to bed thinking… what’s the hurry? We don’t HAVE to go anywhere, so why are we stressing over it? And it’s free to stay here! So even though we don’t have power to plug into, we have great batteries and a generator for living without shore power. We both looked at the forecast again, and finally decided to just stay. We kind of had a deadline to make the decision, because there would be boats coming north about an hour after the 8:30 lock opening. The catamaran sailboat that was on the wall had departed, so there was an empty wall spot. If we were going to stay, we should un-raft from Seeker, and go grab the spot on the wall. I texted Ann on Hallelujah! since I could see that they were coming. She said there were SEVEN boats coming that locked through together! YIKES! We would definitely have boats rafted to us. The sailboat Monarch decided to peel-out before the flotilla arrived, so that left another open spot on the wall. We went ahead and untied from Seeker, and made our way over to the end wall spot. That way if we ran our generator, it was pointed toward the trees. While we waited for the boats, I tried another flower portrait, and at least this time there is a stem attached to the flowers. 😉

Read more →

Days 65,66: The Potomac and the Patuxent

karenstark

5/16/18:  Today we found ourselves coasting down the Potomac River and then cruising up the Patuxent River.  When we looked at the hourly forecast for Wednesday, it showed Zeus’s lightening bolts on every hour of the day.  Great, just great.  We don’t like boating with Zeus – the Greek god of lightening.  At final check before going to sleep, we might have a 4 hour window in the morning without Zeus.  Alarm set for 5:30.  😳😴  With eyeballs barely open, get up and check the latest forecast.  Not that we can actually stay here another night anyway because they’re booked (we asked) but what will our plan be?  It looks like there may be less Zeus activity than previously predicted. OK then – let’s get going! I bailed out poor Stuart.  The way he sits on his cradle, a lot of water lays in the V bottom before it will get high enough to drain out the hole in the back.   We untied about 6:30 and cruised out of DC, and past Alexandria.  With all of the rain that we’ve had the last two nights, there was a LOT of debris in the river!!  So far, so good.  A little bit of rain, but no thunder or lightening.  Our plan B was to go up Breton Bay to Occaquan if we needed to get off the river after about four hours.  We’ve heard it is a neat town.  But the weather was mild and cooperating, so we kept going with plan A to go back to Colonial Beach.   With the next 5 days showing lightening storms every day all day long, we decided to go as far as we can, when we can, to make progress to the next place that we planned to visit.  Unfortunately, once that decision is made, it turns into about a 70 mile trip, because there are very few places to stay in between on this River Potomac.  So I called Mr. Bill at the Boathouse Marina in Colonial Beach, and he said our same slip was open and waiting for us.  He is such a nice man!  Plan A it is! Read more →

Day 61: Washington’s Mount Vernon

karenstark

5/12/18:  I woke up at 5:00am to the combined sound of 5 dozen bass boats, all running and ready to go!  Sure enough, at 6:00, they started scooting past us like they each had a license to fly.  I have always thought it funny that a bass boat needs to be able to go 80 mph so that it can zoom to it’s favorite spot, then putt along with an electric motor at 1/4 mph, then zoom 80 mph to the next spot, and repeat.  But when there is a tournament involved, it makes sense – get there, get the fish, get back for the WIN!

We pulled up anchor and headed out of our beautiful anchor spot, although not nearly as quickly as we expected.  It sure is a good thing that Plumber Kenny made the wiener dog hose work as an anchor wash down.  Oh my grubby goodness the anchor chain was caked with mud!  It took anchor goddess Karen about 15 minutes to bring up the anchor…about 4 feet at a time, while spraying a steady stream of water on it.  What a mucky mess!  But the anchor held great, and the wash down worked great too! Read more →