Deltaville VA

Well we made it to the finish line. Not without some excitement at the end. We left Norfolk at 8 am with a good forecast and sunny skies and light wind. Our destination was Doziers Regatta Point marina in Deltaville VA about 50 miles north. We had a uneventful first 6 hrs but around 1pm we noticed it was getting dark up north and after checking the Internet weather it showed a strong thunderstorm right over Deltaville. We contacted the marina and they confirmed a storm so we decided to turn around and motor south back toward the clear weather until the storm moved on. About 30 min after we turned around we looked back and saw a wall of water heading our way from the north. We put on our lifejackets and tethered in. We soon got hit with 45 knot winds and 5 ft waves! We rode this down south for a while and called the marina again and they said they had blue sky and they told us that another storm had developed and it was down where we were headed. So we turned back north and banged into those 5 ft waves to make it back toward the marina and avoid the new storm. No such luck, we eventually got hit with driving rain and lighting striking all around us! This went on for about 45 minutes, eventually we broke out of it and got up to Deltaville and were able to dock the boat with no issues, just before another storm came over the marina.


The marina is great, staff is wonderful as you would expect from a marina owned by the people who own Doziers waterway guide and skipper bobs ICW handbook!

We have been to town several times by bike and using the free loaner cars that the marina makes available. Pretty small place but they have a huge West Marine. One small grocery and a couple of eateries and a huge west marine......Also many many marinas.

Will be flying back to Texas July 5th.


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Norfolk

Arrived in Norfolk on Thursday after a very cool motor from coinjock. Great weather and really beautiful scenery on the way. The Virginia cut is a very scenic stretch of the ICW. Everything from marshland to the canal spliting gorgeous stands of cypress trees. As we approached Norfolk we had to transit several bascule bridges and our first lock. Everything went well and we reached the Norfolk, Portsmouth area about 3 pm. Went under a new super tall bridge(Jordan) and several huge lift bridges. They have to be because this is the largest naval area in the world. Our marina was about half way into the area where the ships are built, stored and repaired and we passed aircraft carriers, submarines, and large attach boats we think were cruisers or destroyers. We stayed at ocean marine marina. It was built on the first naval dry dock in the US! We got the boat tied up and washed down and the walked a few blocks to downtown Portsmouth. Very cool historic area. Some photos are below


Pic speaks for itself...big


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Huge new Jordan bridge on the ICW in Norfolk









Submarine at navy base Norfolk









Some kind of big troop ship I presume













One of the lift bridges we transited in Norfolk





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River Dunes marina

Left Beaufort Sat at 8am, we were forced to stay at Beaufort dock for 4 days due to 30 knot winds that lasted 3 days. Beaufort is really cool and we saw every inch of it. Been reading about this place for years and glad we got here. But really expensive so we needed to get down the road. We left out with a forcast of winds on our nose up the ICW at 10 to 20, what we got was steady 20 with gusts to 30. We encountered 3 to 5 waves in the Neuse river. We decided to go past oriental and head to the more protected River Dunes. After 2 hrs of bashing up the river it was great to turn into rhe River Dunes yacht basin. Completely protected basin surrounded by a beautiful development and tall pines. This place is incredible.Its a new development with a great clubhouse, pool with fireplaces, great dressing rooms, floating docks, fire pits, bikes and a loaner car! And with the marina life discount just 1 dollar a foot instead of the 2.30 at Beaufort .

We used the loaner car Sunday and took a trip to Oriental! So we got the best of both worlds. It's really cool to be back in the pines and the feel of the lake we sailed on for years inArkansas! Off tomorrow up the ICW! Some pics






The pool at river dunes




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The docks at river dunes







Another shot of the pool at river Dunes







Neat little church at the river dunes development





Shot of the basin at River Dunes






Pic of the boat shop at Beaufort





Neat house in Beaufort




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Beaufort NC

Well we arrived in Beaufort on Tuesday afternoon after anchoring for the previous night just outside Fort Legune marine base. It was blowing like stink gusts to 25 knts. Got a slip at famous town docks in downtown Beaufort. Very cool the docks run paralel to the main street of historical Beaufort. Cool places to eat and many nautical shops. We took the double decker bus tour that takes you around the town and narrates the history behind. We used the loaner car to go to the grocery store. Very expensive but a low pressure system off the cape is keeping us here for 5 days. Hope to leave Sat for Oriental and parts north. Pics below




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Needy in front of the maratime museum




140 ft yacht parked on the t head in front of us.




Main street looking left from the front of the marina







One of the eating places off the docks





Looking down the mains fr our boat




Discovery docked before the mega yachts arrived

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Southport to Wrightsville beach

Had a great short run from the mouth of cape fear river to Wrightsville beach NC.stayed at Sea Path marina. Pic of Discovery docked at Sea Path below.



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Pic of Sea Path marina below





Got up early and continued north on the ICW toward Beaufort.

On the way we crossed paths with some of our marines on their high speed boats, below






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Hello Charleston

We left Saint Augustine at 8 am Sat June 2nd. Had a two day nice weather window. Motored for the first few hrs then motored sailed, got surprised by 23 knts in the middle of the night, made for a exciting night. We averaged 7.5 knots, we did 225 miles in 31 hrs. Arrived at 230pm on Sunday. Washed the boat and took a water taxi for old charleston and had a gear low country meal at pookies porch. Next day we did the ft Sumtner tour and the Yorktown aircraft carrier that's parked next to our marina. Hope to leave here after 3 days of bad weather, thursday should be our departure day.





Needy and I in front of the b 25 hanging in the Yorktown





Parade area in ft Sumtner








Approaching ft Sumtner






Battery added to ft Sumtner in 1897






Sunset on our first nite out to charleston from saint Augustine






Had lunch at shimm creek, it's about 2 miles from our marina, neat Resturant area by the shrimp fleet







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Another shot of shimm creek



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