We sailed straight from St. Croix to the Chesapeake. Well, that was the plan anyway. A nasty low pressure system in the north Atlantic swirled up and the wind and waves got too big for comfort. We diverted to Beaufort, NC and anchored in front of the USCG station for a couple of days to let the weather and seas calm down.
Once we got into the Chesapeake Bay, we spent a few days at anchor near Hampton to make sure we were cleared in properly, then headed around the peninsula to get to Deltaville, VA. We anchored out a few days in the wind and then found out we could anchor just outside the marina there in Jackson Creek. We had to wind our way through the narrow channel, which they had just had dredged. You had to go almost to the beach here before you turned left to carry on into the creek. It looks like we're going to run it onto the beach in front of this house...
But we turned left and kept this red buoy to our right side as we idled along the beach in the channel.
Sand bars come out from both sides, so keeping to the channel and minding the marker buoys was an absolute necessity here.
We spent a week just the other side of that green channel marker in Jackson Creek.
We visited the marina/boatyard a few times, courtesy of the Great Loopers group who were having events that included free food, beer and wine. The sponsoring yacht broker invited us to join the small group for free and we had a great time here. The Great Loop is a route that takes folks from the Atlantic, through the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River and around Florida to the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) and back up to New York. It's mostly trawlers and power yachts as you can't have a mast up to get under many of the bridges they go through.
We also paid a day fee for use of the facilities a few more days to borrow the marina's courtesy car for grocery runs and to use the laundry facilities.
We started on a few boat chores we knew we would have to do also, but s
ometimes Jason just has to catch up on other things and needs the laptop to keep track of his To Do stuff.
The day before we were hauled out, we moved around the point of the peninsula to get to the dock at Stingray Point Boatworks. The evening air calmed right down as you can see here. We're about at the end of the inlet; those boats at the center are the end of the channel here.
We offloaded a bunch of heavy stuff while at the dock as it was so much easier than trying to hand down things from the deck of the boat 10-12' off the ground once we got hauled out.
We're getting lifted out of the water in the morning. Not much space to spare on either side, but these guys did a bang-up job of getting us out with no problems.
The hulls have a bit of brown slime on them, but they weren't too bad.
A quick rinse with the power washer at the haulout slip and we were good to go.
Almost done getting clean here.
And we're off to our new spot in the long-term lot where all the boats for sale sit. They just had too many boats trying to get launched to leave us in the working area just yet, so put us way out at the end of their property and would move us when space became available and we were ready to start working on the boat. We had to get onto the work schedule as it's a very busy time of year here.
Chris and Rob confer with Jason about getting the boat set down level for us to stay on it for a while. The lift operator said he got heartburn if his head was lower than his feet and didn't want us to suffer such discomfort. They made sure we were safely supported and comfortable before they left us.
Rain was expected soon and we had to put our stuff under the boat and protect it with a tarp until we could get a U-Haul and load it.
Our view from the side deck, looking across an empty field towards the Stingray Point Marina.
Behind us were all the boats for sale in the long-term storage lot.
Our stuff is covered up, the dinghy is down and ready to leave. The yard provides courtesy bikes and we needed them to get back and forth to the bathrooms and office before they moved us into the working yard. We began to take evening bike rides around the roads in the area and I think we were on every road out on the point at least once.
YOLO sitting pretty in Deltaville.
Our bundle of stuff looks like a big blue caterpillar under the boat.
Higgins Lake view from our cottage after our arrival home. It was a wet, blustery day, with whitecaps on the water.
Our neighbors invited us to a steel pan drum concert at the local high school. They don't play island music on the steel pan drums, only rock music. A really different sound, but quite entertaining. And just by happenstance, all the steel drum players this year are females. A fan of the steel drum music who was impressed with the percussion band leader bought the school an entire set of the drums. Generous!
Our cottage at Higgins Lake when we arrived.
Our baby box truck from U-Haul. It was packed but got our first load of stuff off the boat in fine shape.
The inside of the cottage was already full. Our normal stuff that we left when we went cruising had been augmented by some of Stella's stuff from her cottage when it had to be cleared out quickly after the sale. We ended up just dumping most of our stuff into our storage garage across the lake.
Our living room is packed.
The loft in the cottage was the only place where we could move some of this stuff to.
Our lakefront looking west in the evening light.
The yard needs a bit of tending, but it hasn't changed much over the ten years we've been away.
Trees are growing up where we only had sticks before. Our U-Haul in the drive.
Jason cleaning under the dock sections that act as a side porch for us. They were packed underneath with leaves and dirt. A mini mulch setting.
This was a bounce trip home and we were only here long enough to get our van fixed and running and then we took off for Florida.
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