Day 8 - Solomons Island, MD to Hampton, VA
We left the dock at 7:20 AM this morning. It was very dewy and even with a squeegee it was tough to see until the sun warmed things up. Today’s ride was pretty uneventful. We were offshore so there weren’t too many sights to see until we pulled into Virginia. We did see either whales or dolphins way off in the distance. We are in Hampton, VA just across the way is Norfolk, VA. Our ride today was 91.4 miles and it took us 3 hours and 40 minutes. We took on 167.7 gallons of fuel at $3.19/gallon. We stayed at a place called Bluewater Yachting Center. The dockage rate was $2/foot and shore power was $10/day for a 50 amp hookup. It is super clean and the people were very friendly. The restaurant on-site was very reasonably priced and the food was great. It is a very busy place but we got in without a problem. The surrounding town is gorgeous. Hampton University is across the channel from where we stayed. The homes are old but meticulously maintained with their own docks. I will post some pictures in a little bit. We took a dinghy ride up the different off shoots of the main channel.
Doug did a thorough washing of the boat. We had so many dead bugs on the gunwhale last night that is was pretty gross. I cleaned the cabin, dumped trash, etc. Even though there are only two of us there is always something that needs to be done.
I should also mention that Doug fixed the galley faucet the other night. While he was washing the boat today he sprayed the TV antenna that hasn’t worked for the last 5 days. When I tried to scan channels today we got 48. You would have thought we won the lottery!! I am sitting here with decent wi-fi and watching the Sox. What could be better?
Doug worked on his course for tomorrow as we start on the ICW. We pass through a lock tomorrow which will be a new experience. I also get to deal with fender boards tomorrow which is another new experience. Hopefully, we can tape the lock passage. We are unsure how fast we can go tomorrow so we are winging the final destination. We would like to make the Alligator River but we may end up short of that.
We have about 480 miles to Charleston but we really don’t know how many days it will take to get there. Our total trip will be about 1300 miles. We have gone approximately 540 miles as of today. We gave ourselves 3 weeks to get Florida and get the boat pulled until we return in February. Even with the 3 extra days in NJ we aren’t doing too badly.
The weather today was gorgeous. Very sunny, no wind, and the temperature was 82 degrees. We are getting warmer as we head south! The wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow and get colder. Oh well. We have most of the offshore travel under our belt so we are hoping weather won’t be such a factor on the ICW. Time will tell if that is a correct assumption.