Hampton, Jamestown & Yorktown

We spent an uneventful weekend at Atlantic Yacht Basin (AYB), south of Norfolk, as I wanted to talk to them Monday morning about summer storage.  AYB is a great location for storage, as the boat would be under cover, out of the rain and the sun (important for bright work survival) and the marina is known as a great hurricane hole as it is behind a lock on a a canal, so no storm surge during big storms.  After confirming we would bring the boat back at some point, we departed north for Hampton.


But first, we had to go thru the Great Bridge Lock.  This is the only lock on the ICW and our first time thru a lock.  Proved to be rather uneventful, and an opportunity for us to reflect on how far we had come.  1236 miles from Key West!












The trip thru Norfolk harbour is impressive.  I think this is the largest Navy base on the east coast, and we saw numerous destroyer and cruiser class ships, large supply and transport ships, one nuclear submarine, and three aircraft carriers, as well as the decommissioned battleship Wisconsin. Oh yeah, and a bunch of container ships and bulk carriers.  Navy police boats patrol near the carriers to warn you off in case you get too close, but here was no chance of that in our case.

Exiting Norfolk harbor you go east to sea, or north up Chesapeake Bay, which is over 100 miles long and 20 or so miles wide at the entrance.  As we got a late start from AYB, we planned on going to Hampton only, which is across the river from Norfolk, but gives a look a the size of the entrance to the bay.

Docked at Hampton pier, close to the city centre, under cool sun, but with a forecast of cool and damp weather for the week. Not a great week to head up the Chesapeake.

One of the engines had been running rough at low rpm so I decided to call a technician to have a look at it.  He tried a few things, thinking it might be a fuel issue, but finally concluded it was a more significant service issue.  After discussing the options available, we decided to return to AYB to be closer to the CAT dealer for the work to be done.

This diagnosis took a few days to get done, so we made the best of our time in Hampton by renting a car and visiting the Jamestown settlement and the American Revolutionary War museum in Yorktown.  Both were excellent. Jamestown is the site of the first English settlement in the US from 1607, and quite a contrast to the success of the Spanish settlement at St Augustine.  Terrific hardships and massive loss of life for the early settlers.   Yorktown is the site of one of the last significant battles of the Revolutionary war in 1781.  The museum just opened last year, and is very well done with one particularly exciting video of a naval battle.



We also visited Fort Monroe in Hampton to occupy some time while completing the engine diagnosis. The fort is the largest stone fort built in the US, and was just decommissioned in 2011. It is also notable for housing Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States, after the Civil War, for a few years.  I am standing by a 400 year old oak tree in the fort area.








One of the highlights for Judy was the 99 year old beautifully built and decorated, with hand carved horses, carousel. The ride had originally been at a beachfront location, and quite weather beaten as a result.  The city and a number of volunteers relocated it to an enclosed space in Hampton about 10 years ago.  One of the few remaining old-time carousels in the country.

We left Hampton Friday morning, in wind and rain, back thru Norfolk harbor for AYB, and arrived under dry but still cool weather.  The boat is great to travel in those conditions, steering from inside the main cabin, with the heating system running.

We docked the boat under cover, with just a bit of morning sun on her.

We rented a car again, but this time for the week, and Sunday drove south to Kitty Hawk, on the Carolina's outer banks, to visit the Wright brothers first flight memorial.  Nice day for a drive and a very nice spot to visit.  Tough to visit by boat as the inside waters of the outer banks are very shallow. Judy is standing at the launch point, and down the way you can see the stones marking the distance of the first four flights.





We will continue to Washington this week, but by car and not by boat, as the engine service is done, and return Friday for sea trial, hopefully.   Schedule is a bit uncertain as since this is such a large naval base, recreational boats get in line for service work.  So we will get to see cherry blossom time in Washington.  Although, not quite as planned.

From here, we will likely return home for a couple of weeks to deal with taxes (reality beckons) and the weather forecast here isn't all that conducive to continuing at this point.

We may come back in early May to explore a bit into the Chesapeake, before going home thru Kingston for Tristan's graduation.  So stay tuned.