The Great Chesapeake Adventure:
...begins when we leave our friends at TrueWorld in Beaufort (where we stopped for a little fiberglass work). We were able to meet up in Morehead City with our friends Bruce and Chris before he left on his 2600 mile voyage to Japan, Russia, the Bering Sea and to Alaska.
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| Homeland Security/Coast Guard on Core Creek, Beaufort NC |
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| Beaufort Pirate Ship |
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| And another kind of vessel we encounter frequently. |
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| Crew at work (or not?) |
From Beaufort we went up the Neuse River and across the Pamlico Sound and Pungo River to Belhaven NC, Albemarle Sound and up the North River to Coinjock on the North Carolina Cut. Beautiful cruising.
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| The Albemarle Sound was like glass, as you can see. |
From Coinjock we headed for the North Landing River and the Albemarle-Chesapeake Canal, which connects the Albemarle Sound to the Chesapeake Bay at Norfolk. We spent nearly a week in Chesapeake VA at the Atlantic Yacht Basin, having some air conditioning repairs taken care of and waiting out Hurricane Arthur.
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| Albemarle -Chesapeake Canal Great Bridge Lock |
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| Docked at Atlantic Yacht Basin, Chesapeake VA |
It was the perfect place to wait it out and we took advantage of the break and spent a day in Virginia Beach and another in Williamsburg.
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| General Lafayette at Williamsburg |
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| In Williamsburg |
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| Williamsburg Horse and Buggy |
We left Norfolk behind on July 8 and entered the Chesapeake Bay.
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| Thimble Shoal Light, Chesapeake Bay |
The southern part of the Chesapeake had the roughest water we've
had so far (worse than off the coast in the Atlantic.) Mal in particular
did not like it and continually voiced his opinion, which of course made
Carol even more nervous.
Our first port of call in the Chesapeake was Deltaville, VA which is ALL about boating and boat building. A very nice museum is there and they had an extraordinary art exhibit going on: John Barber's Chesapeake: 50 Years of Maritime Art
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| Deltaville VA |
Next stop was Onancock VA on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The dockmaster at Deltaville Dozier's Yacht Haven recommended that we go there, especially because of an Italian restaurant that he thought we should try. More and more often we seem to pick ports because of restaurants!
It was a lovely town with many stately older homes. We stopped in a gallery where the artist, Willie Crockett, had just finished an oil painting that we loved. So we decided that would be our "souvenir" of our Chesapeake voyage.
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| Onancock VA |
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| Oxford Cottage |
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Knapp's Narrows, Tilghman Island (and it really is!)
Chesapeake Bay Bridge |
The Sailing Emporium, a marina located in Rock Hall MD, had the nicest landscaping we have every seen in a marina, with lovely gardens, a pool and statuary.
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| Rock Hall MD |
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| Marina Chair |
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| TT at Rock Hall MD |
From Rock Hall it was on to the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, with connects the Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware River just south of Wilmington. We had been warned and expected it to be much busier with commercial vessels than it was. Still it is weird to be eating dinner in an outdoor restaurant and have some of these go by.
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| Barge on the C&D Canal, Chesapeake City MD |
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| The Chesapeake-Delaware Canal |
From Chesapeake City we finished the canal at the Delaware River then down to the Delaware Bay and into Cape May NJ. This is supposedly the first seaside resort town in the US and is full of Victorian homes. Like many such towns it has a large promenade with shops and restaurants and a huge beach. This area was very crowded and the traffic was awful. Then the other side of town had very large cottages overlooking the Atlantic. It was quite beautiful and we saw almost no one around.
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| Utsch's Marina, Cape May NJ |
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| Cape May "cottage" |
While we were in Cape May we decided to visit Philadelphia, as Carol had never been there. Mal worked in Camden for a while but, try as he might, could not find the hotel he lived in.
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| Independence Hall, Philadelphia |
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| Liberty Bell through glass viewing area (long lines to actually go inside near it. |
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| Cape May morning |
From Cape May we ran on the outside (very calm) off the coast of New Jersey to Sandy Hook, where we anchored just outside of New York Harbor.
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| In the Atlantic off the coast of New Jersey |
The day we cruised through NYC was very hazy, so our photos are not very clear and somehow my IPhone took them with a greenish cast.
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| Manhattan skyline - New World Trade Center |
We cruised up the East River, through "Hell's Gate" (I wish that they wouldn't give that kind of name to certain cuts- it wasn't that bad) and in to Long Island Sound. Carol's brother-in-law, Tom Dillon, was kind enough to set us up with a guest mooring for a week at the Larchmont Yacht Club, one of the oldest in the country. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and our visits with Tom and his wife Therese.
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| Fishing`at the LYC?? |
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| Sailing School for youngsters |
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| Sunset Sail |
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| The LYC pool is salt water that is pumped in from the Sound. |
| One of the largest of its kind. |
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| Larchmont Yacht Club and beach, which is actually part of the pool. |
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| Larchmont Sunset |
We made an overnight stop in Clinton and then we were on to New London CT. We have docked at the US Navy Sub Base New London, at a base marina we have military retiree privileges. Good thing because your average marina is very expensive in this area- nearly 4 times the cost of Florida marinas. We will probably stay here through Labor Day. To reach CT by boat was our goal, and this is as far north as we plan to cruise, except for some excursions out from New London.
Holly enjoying the Atlantic sun
