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Voyage 2015: Chapter 3

South to Winter Port

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09 Oct 2015, Hanging in Northern Virginia, 38 46.62 N/ 076 33.912 W

While the boat rested on the hard, we headed to Northern Virginia to get a grandkid fix. Lilli is an up and coming kitchen ball player, having learned a lot from Collin. Grandpa Bob is struggling to keep his record intact and Grandma does not help much. This day, she cleaned my clock. It was not my fault. I was stiff from too much boat stuff.
Later, we hung out with the g-kids and watched Lilli play Minecraft and looked at Collin's football and school pictures on the phone. We also, attended one of Collin's high school football games. Of course, Collin's team won. Sadly, we could only stay with them a couple of days as it is now time for the boat to be launched. Soon we will continue our way South.
We also spent time with our cruising friends. We had dinner with Connie and Jim (SV PlanetoSea) in Annapolis, lunch with JW and Jinny (SV Over Budget) at the Happy Harbor, and Steven and Beth (SV Nightingale) at the Japanese restaurant in Deale MD. We also met many new and old friends at the SSCA Gam at Camp Letts MD.Busy couple of weeks!

13 Oct 2015, Down the Chesapeake to the Dismal Swamp, 36 44.838 N/ 076 20.328 W

We left close to high tide as the north wind has been blowing the water out of the harbor for a several days. We got past the Herring Bay narrows with plenty of water. As the morning progressed, the wind abated and by 1300 the seas were flat. The first night, we tucked into Mill Creek near Solomons. Our usual anchorage was almost empty except for a rather larger catamaran.
Next day we headed for Hampton to hide from an upcoming storm. While sharing our boredom of another windless day, we admired Ann's near perfect circular surgery and thought maybe a tattoo of the sun was in order (just kidding). It turned windy last night, and our anchorage became lumpy. We waited for the current to turn in our favor before we headed up the Elizabeth River.
There is lots of big commercial traffic today, more than we have seen in the past. Hospital Point was empty and the free docks in Portsmouth were not full. We got stuck at one of the railroad bridges (not the Beltline which will close in a couple of weeks). We got to the Deep Creek lock around 1600, anchored just north of the lock to wait for the next day's first opening. We hope Robert will be there tomorrow.

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