Through the Chesapeake and Around Hatteras!

Continuing South Through Chesapeake Bay

Our adventure continues on the beautiful SV TraSea.  Our trip through the Chesapeake Bay took us from Pasadena, MD with a short first hop to Galesville where we anchored on the Rhode River.  From there, we visited Solomons for a short overnight stay.  continuing on our way south, we transited the bay to the east side and spent the night at Tangier Island, staying at the Parks "Marina".  I say marina, but it is really a couple of old wooden docks.  While Active Captain says that the marina can accommodate several boat - its really about two.  

Mr. Parks, the marina owner is a real character.  He's 90 years old and still going strong! Tangier Island is an interesting stop.  Being just above sea level, the locals say its sinking.  It may very well be, or is it rising sea levels or both?  I am not sure - but still an interesting visit while it is still there.

Tangier Island

The community on Tangier Island consists of a small village with a couple of restaurants and shops.  Most were closed when we visited, but we did get a good meal at Lorraine's restaurant close to Parks Marina.

The town is dry, and you can't take your own alcohol into the restaurants......but other than that, it was a cool spot to visit.  The local industry is of course crabbing  and we had a delicious crab soup at Lorraine's

Bridge at Tangier Island

From Tangier Island, we continued south crossing back to the west side and stayed a night in a marina at Deltaville called Dozier's Regatta Point.  This was a nice marina located at the mouth of the Rappahannock River.  The marina is quite a hike from the town of Deltaville, but luckily the marina does have a couple of courtesy cars.  We took advantage of this and made a trip in to town to replenish some provisions.  Deltaville is a boat oriented spot and apparently has three times as many boats as residents!

Old Point Comfort Marina

From Deltaville it was south again, getting close to the mouth of the Chesapeake and our exit point to the Atlantic.  After a day-sail, we anchored at Old Port Comfort, near Hampton, VA.  We dinghied in to town and also to a local brewery called Oozlefinch - apparently named after a mystical bird.....or was it named by a drunk customer?  Either way, it had some interesting beers, and a food truck that made excellent fresh pizza!  In town, we found a quaint little wine bar - of course!

Oozlefinch Brewery

The next day, we motored across to Norfolk.  We saw some cool things along the way, especially as we passed by the Naval facility.  After all, its not every day that you get passed by a submarine!  

It was a very cool sight!  And there was quite a collection of naval ships in port.  Norfolk is a busy shipping port with both Naval and commercial ships passing by frequently.  

We visited the town of Norfolk, staying right downtown at the Waterside Marina.   We really enjoyed the day and overnight stay here and its certainly a stop I would recommend.

Norfolk - Maritime Museum

Tourist Day-sail

It was great to see some of the old sailing ships under sail.  These boats are now used for tourist day-sail trips from downtown Norfolk

Naval Ships - Norfolk

After an overnight stay in Norfolk,  we went back to the anchorage at Old Port Comfort ready to leave early the following morning.  Our next leg was to take us out into the Atlantic headed south around Cape Hatteras down to Beaufort, NC.  We had to go "outside" for this leg rather than using the easier route of the ICW due to S/V TraSea's mast height.  At 67 ft. she is too tall for the 65 ft. ICW bridges.  So the next leg of the journey would take us outside the Outer Banks, down past Cape Hatteras - known as the "graveyard of the Atlantic".  So we had been watching carefully for a good weather window, and believe we had one the following day.