Leg 64 - Cape Charles City Docks
We had a super visit with Kevin and Amy eating meals out in two memorable locations as well as dinner at their house – Amy is a great cook! We also toured around VA Beach and It has changed so much since we lived there we didn’t remember anything at all. We did manage to visit VA Beach Science Museum and Aquarium which was very nice. It was a great way to stay cool in the 97+ heat wave. We also were able to view Kevin and Amy’s pictures of their trip to Spain and Portugal they recently took. A short visit but great to catch up.
We got started around 9 am this morning to take advantage of some wind in the morning to help us cross the bottom part of the bay. We easily left the slip and into the Elizabeth River heading through the very industrial zone of Norfolk and Hampton Rhodes. We sped past commercial ships, Navy ships, Army ships, and MSC ships. Some were in major overhaul and some in maintenance availability. Many of the Navy ships still had their decorations from the holiday still up. We dodged all of the incoming large cargo ships and the out going barges as we made it out into the bay. As we approached the Yorktown channel we were greeted by a submarine and I chose to motor behind him as the lead gunboat kept screaming warnings over the radio. It was a very bouncy ride across the bay so I sailed off the wind to have it help move us along at speeds of 6.5 knots. But, when we were about 9 miles away I dropped the jib and we motored into the wind and waves into Cape Charles harbor. Docking was easy as they have very long finger piers and lots of room between the slips. We took time to relax and have a celebratory beer before ordering dinner from the nearby restaurant. Now it will be early to bed as we have 12 hours of travel planned for tomorrow. Our goal is to get to Solomons and anchor out and then get up Sunday morning and motor to Parkside.