We got off to a late start from the Atlantic Yacht Basin, at least by "butt crack" standards, but are still happily back to boat cruising. Well, some of us anyway. More about that later. First thing we had to do was wait for the Great Bridge Bridge to open and then immediately move into Denise's first lock. At least it was an easy one, only moving up a couple of feet and she handled her line perfectly.
We had a couple more bridges to wait for on the way to downtown Norfolk, but in both cases the wait was cut a few minutes short because of other traffic that doesn't have to wait. Once the Coast Guard and another a barge. But even after clearing the second bridge I had to stop and wait because I heard on the radio that the adjacent railroad bridge was closing, we went around in circles for a few minutes until the train passed. Most people don't get it, but at least Denise does, I like trains.
We then came to three extremely large supply ships all tied to the same dock.
I took dozens of pictures of various Naval ships and won't post them all here, but will post a couple from the Naval base of active and ready ships.
Along with all the Naval ships came constant air traffic, like this helicopter that I thought was coming for us.
The confluence of the James and Elizabeth rivers, along with several other smaller rivers is known as Hampton Roads and is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. With that comes an abundence of commercial traffic.
Eventually we cleared all the hubbub of Hampton Roads and made our way into the Chesapeake Bay. It was a little rough with 2 to 3 foot waves on winds out of the east / south east. Eventually we wanted to head north, but I thought it best to keep the waves on our bow for as long as possible so that the left turn to the north became more of a north westerly direction, putting the waves on our stern, which is more comfortable. It also made the gathering storm clouds behind us seem like they were getting further away. Needless to say, when we eventually turned to the north west the storm clouds all of a sudden were closer and moving fast.
I have to admit I became a little complacent with keeping tabs on the weather. After all its been pretty nice for a long time. But now we're in big water and trouble can appear in a hurry, which made my first mate a little uneasy.
I was a little more prepared and donned my special issue rain gear.
And my first mate prepared for the worst.
But these were "scattered" thunder storms and we luckily found a patch of less severe weather and let one storm pass in front of us and another behind us. I did get a little wet as we headed for an anchorage, but was dry by the time the anchor was down in Mobjack Bay on the western shore of the Chesapeake just north of Hampton, VA. It rained pretty heavy again before my bedtime, but the first mate was lights out and missed it.
Before getting underway this morning I decided we couldn't be complacent with the weather anymore and appointed Denise as Tranquility's new Weather Officer. Her duties, which are already many, now include checking the NOAA marine forecast on the internet each morning and also periodically throughout the day. This action has already paid dividends as the Weather Officer warned of nearing bad weather today and we were able to duck into tonight's anchorage just before the thunderstorms came rumbling through. Not only did the boat get a much needed washing, but we also got to see a nice rainbow.
This is in a little cove near Sandy Point, VA just off the Potomac river. Its about 20 miles due east of Langley Airforce base. It was tough at times today as I was trying to spot the source of the frequent loud jet noices while keeping the boat on course. I was able to spot a few, but couldn't get the pictures before they were out of sight. I think we get a little closer tomorrow so I'll keep trying.
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