20090801: south pam goes, and i tag along for the ride

20090801

leaving anchor was much quicker than usual today, because we didn't have to wash off all that silty, gooey chesapeake muck from the chain because all we had to do was take a line off the mooring, and off we go! fun!
we motored over to the city dock and pumped out the holding tank. pam did another fantastic job at docking our ol' cricket. of course it didn't hurt that the dockmaster was there for us to do some line handling. colin. nice guy. he reccomended that we check out yorktown's saturday farmer's market, so we picked up a few peaches and a cucumber, and while we were at it we got cups of coffee, and some ice cream for breakfast (mine was oatmeal raisin, so it was a good breakfast, eh?). the coffee shop and ben & jerry's is one in the same there.
then it was off up the york river, and on south toward the james river and the sea! good winds for most of the day, even if they were somewhat contrary. a bit of tacking was neccessary to move on down. pam, again, did a fantastic job of captaining and piloting. she pretty much soloed all day! single handedly did most of the steering and tacking (including pulling on the sheets and such!). i lazily hung out down below, admiring her sailing skills. we're trying to allow eachother some time to singlehand to that we know we can do it if neccessary.
we ended up anchoring along the west side of the bay, right out there out from the coastline, in the open. we're just south of the huge navy docks in norfolk, va, just east of newport news.  lots of condos and houses and beaches all along the shore. the waves have plenty chance to build up before they visit cricket's hull, and are making us rock and roll, but the anchor seems to be holding well. the biggest worry of the night are all the power boats going to and fro. i hope they all see our little anchor light... we also added another little light on the stern, just to be sure we're more visible.
way off in the east, towards the sea,  right at the horizon we can see a long, long string of lights right near the water. this is the chesapeake bay bridge and underwater tunnel system. the bridge is very near the water level, but goes underwater (and underground) to allow the huge ships to come and go. it's kind of pretty to look at at night!