We had awesome few days in Hampton visiting with our friends Judy and Wayne McPhail and Michelle and Mike Mazzenga… hated to leave but there was small break in the weather forecast for today and we wanted to take advantage of it and get up the bay as far as we could... weather coming again on Sunday late.

Up bright an early at 0530 to check the weather again... all looked good and we left Judy and Wayne's dock at 0640... Judy and Wayne normally see us off but I think it was a bit early for them... we get a wave as we passed by Michelle and Mike's home... :)

As we exited the Salt Pond the conditions were ideal... Sun coming up and light winds out of the west... winds were forecast to increase late afternoon well after we would arrive to Reedville, VA our destination for the day.... approximately 8 hours.

As we were approaching the mouth of the York River the winds started to pick up... see 20-25 knots out of the westand a few gusts to over 30 knots... seas had not yet picked up to match the wind but it was not long before we had 4 foot seas on the beam... I altered our course to approach the shoreline and get as close to the shore as we could... but we would not reach the area where we would be in the lee of the shore for about 90 minutes... so we had an unanticipated bumpy ride till we had crossed the mouth of the York River and reached New Point Comfort Point where the seas subside to 2 to 3 feet.

So, with higher winds coming earlier we followed as close to the shoreline as we could to minimize the wave height... typically 2 to 3 footers the rest of the day... not really a smooth ride but easily tolerable.

We normally got Fairport Marina in Reedville... today we decided to try a new location... Reedville Marina and The Crazy Crab Restaurant... thought it might be dock and dine.

We arrived to the docks at approximately 1415... they were 90 degrees to west winds blew right in to the docks... not much docking skill involved with this docking. we were docked at 1420 at The Crazy Crab Docks...
our location tonight is 37°50.286'N, 076°16.788'W. Traveled today for 7 hours and 40 minutes covering 49.7 nautical miles averaging 6.5 knots.

After docking we asked and it is not dock and dine... $1.25 per foot dockage rate.... oh well.

No cruising today... we spent the day here in the Salt Pond Hampton, VA. Lille and Herman got groomed... I caught up a ton of cabinet design work and we spent some great time with our friends here in the area.

Weather is approaching so it looks like we will be staying here until the bad weather crosses the area and the Chesapeake Bay calms down.

We departed from Coinjock this morning at 0645 and headed north on the ICW... a few boats had already left and were well ahead of us... was again a nice sunny day... although a bit windier than the last couple of days... but overall a nice day to cruise.

This is the day I usually call the "bridges from hell day" but today I was just not going to worry about them and their crazy opening schedules... we did North Landing Bridge at 1030... Centerville Bridge at 1130 and Great Bridge Bridge and lock at 1200... had one other boat transiting the bridges with us... believe it was a 65ft Hatteras... "Safe Havens"... they were docked behind us a Coinjock and caught up with at the North Landing Bridge and we stayed fairly close until they stopped for the day at Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth.

While at Coinjock we decided to give the restaurant another chance... in the past have never been thrilled with it... We met a very nice couple on the dock and invited them to join us for dinner... they accepted and we had a very pleasant evening with them... and the restaurant is back on our "good" list.... food and service was great!

We did have a lot of commercial traffic going through the Portsmouth / Norfolk area... one in particular that delayed us a few minutes as it passed under the Norfolk and Western Railroad Lift Bridge... the bridge is located right on a bend of the ICW and they basically took up the full width of the span to make the turn... was tight quarters getting past them.

Our destination tonight... Salt Pond in Hampton, VA.
We were docked at approximately 1600 at our friends Wayne and Judy McPhail's dock in the Salt Pond Hampton, VA located at 37°03.544'N, 076°17.051'W. Traveled today for 9 hours and 15 minutes covering 57.7 nautical miles averaging 6.2 knots.