We had a great layover in Smithfield with Wayne and Judy McPhail... sadly, we found out that Wayne and Judy are selling their beautiful home on the Pagan River and moving to a new home in Hampton, VA... this will most likely be our last visit to Smithfield. Their new home is on the water and we will still be able to stop and see the McPhails... but will miss Smithfiled.

We departed as planned today from Smithfield at 1200 and headed out the Pagan River to the James River and finally entering the AICW at the Naval docks just north of Norfolk. Since we left on a rising tide we had the current against us the entire trip today... but never got below 6 knots.

We arrived to Great Bridge lock at 1710 just after sunset and entered the lock at 1720... 15 minutes in the lock and then a short distance to the bulkhead just before the Great Bridge Bridge. This is where we docked for the night... secure at 1745.... N36°43.285', W076°14.506'. We traveled today for 5 hours and 45 minutes covering 32.4 nautical miles averaging 5.9 knots.

Staying in Smithfield another day to complete the installation of the new inverter/charger and catch up on some design work that came in. Plan to depart on Sunday after noon just before high tide.

Destination for today only 20 miles away... Smithfield, VA. We will stay at Wayne and Judy McPhail's dock behind their home on the Pagan River. We have to arrive at near high tide in order to get over Bob's Shoal on the Pagan River... typically about 6 feet at high tide.

We left Hampton at 0800 figuring a 3 hour trip to Smithfield which would have us arriving at very near high tide. We did have an incoming tide so we had a good boost of speed for the entire trip. Pushing over 8 knots at times. I had to actually slow down so we would not get there to early and have to sit and wait on the tide.

We arrived to Bob's Shoal at approximately 1030... still a little earlier than I wanted to even with slowing down. We proceeded across the shoal area slowly and had no issues... lowest depth I saw was 5.7 feet.

We arrived to Wayne and Judy's dock at 1045. We will spend the next few days here. I will be installing our new inverter/charger and catching up on our mail that was forwarded here. Have a new kitchen to design to start. Going to be very busy the next couple of days. Hopefully, we will get away on Sunday.

Our location for the night N36°59.502’, W076°37.456’. We traveled today for 2 hours and 45 minutes covering 18.4 nautical miles averaging 6.7 knots.