After transiting up the Dismal Swamp Canal, we spent the night tied up to the town dock at Little Creek. The town has built a nice dock for 4-5 boats between the lock and the bridge. They even have free electric power - very unusual. But with 70deg weather, we didn't need any power this time of year.
At 0900, it was time to enter the lock for the drop down to Chesapeake Bay water level. We were still the first boat in the lock but, with the water going down, not up, there is little turbulence. Just a slow ride down with fenders getting squashed between the boat and the lock wall.
We have blue skies today but chilly north winds. We will transit up to Fort Monroe then, wait a couple days for the winds to shift to the south in order to sail home.
Going down... We went down over 10ft, that's a bit more than normal. I was running out of line that is doubled up over the shore bollard. All worked out though.
Doors opening and time to head out on the next to last leg home. First we have to detour a bit south on the Elizabeth River to fill up the diesel tank at Top Rack Marina, then on to Norfolk.
We got through the one opening bridge in Norfolk, the Gilmerton with no delay. Fortunately, the Norfolk Southern railroad bridge closed a few minutes after we had passed through. That can be a 30-60min delay.
The old Jordan opening bridge has been replaced by a fixed high rise bridge. The new bridge is pretty majestic and has to be 135ft high to let large merchant ships pass through.
I thought it would be a motoring trip up to Fort Monroe but the winds were up and gusty. We sailed up along the Norfolk Naval Base with just the head sails and a couple reefs in the genoa.
Passing by the carrier piers. Harry Truman was the only carrier in port. Bush and Ford are deployed. Ike was in the Portsmouth repair yard.
Way up in front of us was a submarine exiting the naval base heading for sea. At first I thought it was heading for us and I was surprised not to see any security boats warning us off but, it was heading out to sea and we weren't going to be catching up. There was a helo scanning the waters ahead of the sub as he exited Hampton Roads.
It was a bit choppy passing through the narrow James River opening to the Chesapeake Bay but once we were behind the protection of the Hampton shores things calmed down for our entrance to the Fort Monroe anchorage area.
There were a couple boats already in the anchorage and a couple more came in later in the day. Fairly quiet night as the winds clocked to the north where we had good protection.
