East Coast Trip Summer 2022

                                             DAY 30 -- CRISFIELD, MD TO ST. MARYS CITY, MD                 We were underway a bit after eleven after getting fuel and a pump-out at the marina. Our destination was St. Marys City (no apostrophe, which drives spellcheck crazy), which is reported to have a lovely anchorage and an interesting museum. It was a 45-mile run, heading west across the Bay into a light SW wind, and the seas were only about a foot, with just the occasional whitecap. We passed a number of interesting sights along the way, including a barge load of trash trucks, the Solomons Lump Light (what a great name), and the Hannibal bombing area.                The trash trucks were enroute from Smith Island to the mainland at Crisfield. Presumably the ...

                                   DAY 29 -- GLOUCESTER POINT, VA TO CRISFIELD, MD               We started the day with Uber rides to and from a nearby Food Lion and Virginia state liquor store to stock up on some supplies. We were underway just after eleven with the goal of Smith Island, which is a 68-mile run. The Bay was a bit sloppy but bearable at speed -- wind out of the NE at 5-10 with 1-2 footers, but no whitecaps, more like residual from the weekend blow. But the wave action diminished as we passed Wolf Trap Light -- probably because the Bay widens out there -- and continued to do so as the day progressed, and the wind lessened and shifted to the NW. (There's all this talk about wind and waves because essentially the entire run was out on big open water, which was nice.)               Start...

                         DAYS 27 & 28 -- COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG & YORKTOWN                 We were lucky that  Janet managed to get us a reservation at the Williamsburg Lodge, right on the edge of Colonial Williamsburg, given the nice weather (sunny and low 80s) and a big arts festival in town for the weekend. The Uber ride took about 45 minutes, including the waiting time, and we arrived at the Lodge a bit after noon. After checking in we walked into Colonial Williamsburg and found a place to eat in Chowning's Tavern ( a recreation of a mid-18th century tavern without having to wait too long.                 It turns out that most of the buildings in Colonial Williamsburg are recreations, and the history of how the whole thing happened is interesting. Wikipedia has a good article on this, but in a nutshell,...

                      DAY TWENTY-SIX -- NORFOLK TO GLOUCESTER POINT, VA                We got underway at 1045 for a short run (about 39 miles) up to the York River Yacht Haven, a marina in Gloucester Point, across the York River from Yorktown. The plan is to spend the weekend here doing tourist stuff in Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg, as a front is coming through that will make the Chesapeake very rough over the weekend.                The day was very hot -- it was supposed to hit 100 degrees -- and once we got to the marina three hours later, we hunkered down in the air-conditioned cabin and worked on the blog and on plans for the remainder of our trip. We also did a load of laundry at the marina. We had dinner at the restaurant on site. While it was kind of irritating listening to the crowd all day, ...

                              DAY TWENTY-FIVE -- ELIZABETH CITY, NC TO NORFOLK, VA               We made it! Mile zero on the ICW -- 988 miles from when we joined it in Stuart FL and 1,167 miles since leaving Naples. (These are navigation chart mileages, not the actual mileage that we traveled given doglegs, backtracks, etc. I plan to post a little spreadsheet -- of course -- summarizing each day's mileage.) We will celebrate tonight with dinner in a fancy steakhouse in Norfolk. Our marina is right downtown so we'll be able to walk. Craunological II celebrated with full diesel and water tanks and a pump-out and a good cleaning.                This was one of our longest days on the water, even though we only traveled 50 miles, because 22 of those miles were in the Dismal Swamp Canal, which requires no wake, so...

                         DAY TWENTY-FOUR -- BELLHAVEN TO ELIZABETH CITY, NC               We had another very interesting, long, and quiet day on the water. We got underway at nine headed for Elizabeth City, which is pretty much the only place to stay if one is going to travel the Dismal Swamp Canal option on the ICW. This was another day when we were astonished at how remote and undeveloped parts of the intracoastal can be. We ran up the last bit of the Pungo River out of Bellhaven and then entered the Pungo River-Alligator River Canal. This canal was the last stretch of the ICW to be completed back in 1928. There were just a handful of houses along this 21-mile canal -- the rest was just a mix of pine forest and salt marsh.                The canal ended in the Alligator River, which was completely undeveloped. Not a sign ...

                         DAY TWENTY-THREE -- BEAUFORT TO BELLHAVEN, NC                We got underway at ten (after letting the Captain sleep in) on another hot and humid day. Our destination was the River Forest Marina in Bellhaven, NC, which I had booked the previous day. It looked like a nice place from their ad in the cruising guide, plus they offered free laundry facilities, which was timely.                 This was an interesting cruising day because we spent most of it out in big open water, not running in channels and canals like we've been primarily doing since we left Georgia. The day started with a 15-mile run up the Adams Creek canal to the Neuse River, which is over five miles wide but rather shallow (about 20') and can develop a nasty chop depending on winds and currents. We lucked out with a light SW win...