Yorktown to Chesapeake and beyond |

As the boat lays up for a few weeks in Yorktown area, we look to plan the future passages following the blue line to the back of the bay cross over the C&D canal, run south down the Delaware bay to Cape May NJ, and finally turn north to Atlantic City. Hopefully we’ll hit a big one at the Nugget.

We returned to Gloucester Point, VA on a Monday. We brought a good friend to help us prep the boat and then he drove our car back home. Of course, we had to have a chance to meet new friends and have a few good meals.

Live music
Shopping for Oysters

The marina had these jelly fish everywhere. They said that you could get one in your strainers so to be sure to have gloves in case this happened.

We tried to catch some crabs for dinner but only captured small ones. We stocked up the refrigerator and got ready to leave dock.

stocked n ready

We saw a window of good weather so on Wednesday, we said goodbye to Daryl and we pushed off and headed to Reedville, VA. Our first stop in our quest to get to Chicago in late August.

Bye Daryl!

As we cruised out to the bay we got one last look at the bridge and some ospreys. We also saw a light house at the end of Mojack Bay. The water was calm and it was a beautiful day. The marina we selected was a small one. We pulled in to refuel and pump out our waste tank. The fuel pump was broken and they wanted $25 for a pump out! We passed on both after it took 15 minutes to pump 6 gallons of fuel and just paid for our slip. We had a nice quiet night.

We saw a lot of open water today and we crossed into Maryland, but once we reached Solomon’s Island, we had a lot to see. We watched kids practicing sailing. They all did awesome. We decided we liked to have the motor on our boat and not sails.

Nice Sun Rise
Captain Chris
Harbor Island Marina
Learning to Sail.

We then went exploring and found…. A Tiki Bar!!! It was a neat place to hang out for a few cold ones! We tried a couple restaurant. One for appetizers Island Hideaway. It was very good, but we noticed that a storm was brewing so we wanted to be closer to the boat. There was a restaurant right at the dock, so we returned to the boat and closed the windows then went in and had dinner. A new waitress did not submit our order, so we waited extra long to get our food. We did not mind since it began to rain really hard and they gave us each a free drink and a dessert.

This morning we followed this fishing boat out of the harbor. We saw three commercial cargo ships today. They were moving amazingly fast at 18 to 20 mph, so we had to make sure we stayed out of their way. We motored up pass Annapolis, MD to a place called Rockhall, MD. Along the way we saw a number of small light houses and sail boats out enjoying the nice day.

Followed these guys out.
Light House
Light House
Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Rockhall was a nice little town. The marina was in a small harbor with a few other marinas. As we were settling in, we meet another couple on the Great Loop who also started in Cincinnati! Chuck and Peggy on Paradise lives in the Eastgate area and we learned that we had our boat dock in the Warsaw KY area at the same time.

We found another Tiki Bar!!!! We had to try it out for lunch. We then settled in for a little “self” time. It takes it out of you when you travel each day and only spend one night at a marina at a time. But we wanted to take advantage of the good weather we have been having.

Today would be the last we would have in the Chesapeake Bay. Left a little later in the AM and with it being a Saturday, there were many fishing boats we had to dodge and also a lot of pleasure craft out enjoying the good weather. We traveled through the C&D (Chesapeake and Delaware) Canal. It was a nice ride since it reminded us of the river.

Light house at begining of C&D Canal
Busy with boats
Marina just off the C&D Canal

We stayed at Delaware City Marina. This is a historic town. The houses and buildings are very old, and you can take a ferry to Fort Delaware. Fort Delaware is a former harbor defense facility. During the American Civil War, the Union use it as a prison for Confederate Prisoners of war. We walked round and got some pizza and ice cream

Long dock at Delaware City
Ferry to Fort Delaware
Ramp – low tide – muddy!
Fort Delaware

Sunday was another good weather day. We pushed off early and headed south on the Delaware River. We briefly met another looper boat Desiderata as we moved out from the dock. They were headed south also. Winds were less than 8 mph and the waves were less than one foot. We passed the Salem Nuclear Power Plant an hour into our trip. There were these lighthouses that chimed a long foggy moan, Also had commercial ships that we needed to move out of the channel for. We were headed to Cape May, NJ. There is a canal that we needed to go into, but we had to wait for a Ferry that carries cars and people to Delaware to come out of the narrow canal before we went in. The boat traffic was heavy since it was a nice day and on the weekend.

Salem Nuclear Plant
moaning lighthouse
Cape May Canal

We got into our slip at South Jersey Marina and in the slip across from us was Desiderata! We formally introduced ourselves to Lee and Cynthia. They were just starting the loop from Newport News, VA. We discussed our next few stops, and they will be heading to the same general areas but not the same marinas. We are sure we will bump into them again in the canal systems. The marina was very nice and had restaurants nearby in walking distance.