We had intended to stay through the weekend and depart Monday from Hampton... but looking at the weather forecast for the lower Chesapeake Bay we decided to leave this morning... weather forecast to be unfavorable on Monday afternoon... leaving today put us far enough up the bay that the weather on Monday afternoon should not be an issue... at least that is what we are planning.

We had an awesome visit with Wayne and Judy... very short but nonetheless very enjoyable... always great seeing them as we travel north and south.

We left Wayne and Judy McPhail's dock at 0915 and headed out of the Salt Pond back to Chesapeake Bay... winds were variable less than 5 knots... seas flat calm.... just the way we like to cruise.

We were docked at approximately 16300 at Fairport Marina located in Reedville, VA at 37°49.945'N, 076°17.141'W. Traveled today for 7 hours and 15 minutes covering 49.13 nautical miles averaging 6.8 knots.

Layover day at Wayne and Judy McPhail's Home in Salt Pond, Hampton, VA.

I overslept this morning and did not get away from the dock at 0630 as we had planned... 0630 departure put us in sync with the first bridge of the day... "Bridges from Hell Day".

We need to arrive at the North Landing Bridge at the half hour to make a slow transit to the next bridge... Centerville Bridge and the make the Great Bridge Bridge on the top of the hour... which is the only time it opens... so we arrived at 1100 instead of 1030 at the North Landing Bridge... then 1 hour to the Centerville Bridge at 5 knots to make it's opening at 1200... but then we would have to wait until 0100 for the Great Bridge Bridge opening... I hate to lose that time so I made an attempt to make the 5 nm between north Landing and Centerville in 30 minutes to make the original 1130 opening we had planned for the day... before I overslept.

I pushed SAILS to the limit running over 8 knots... water depth slowing us down as we fought our own bow wake off the bottom... an approaching tug and barge we had to slow down for to pass... it was close... we arrived 33 minutes later and the bridge tender was nice and opened for us... that would of really sucked had the bridge tender been a pain and not opened with us arriving 3 minutes late for the 1130 opening.... but we made it and we also made the 1200 instead of the 0100 Great Bridge Bridge opening.

We transited the Great Bridge Lock with four other boats... a swift trawler of some make and two sailboats... no problems in the lock today.

Was a smooth trip the rest of day... well other than waves... it did get a little bumpy near Hampton as we headed out into the Chesapeake Bay... but once around the point we were in the lee of the wind and it settled down and we had a nice ride the rest of the way to our destination for the day... Salt Pond, 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 5 minutes covering 57.8 nautical miles averaging 6.4 knots.