October 20 Solomons to Cape Henry 41 Miles

It was cold in Mill Creek last night, in the low 40s -- a two cat night. We have no heat except when plugged into shore power so we closed off the doors to the forward head and the salon, making the pullman cabin small, and with all three blankets, two cats and two humans, had a comfortable night.

The morning was warmer and calm in Mill Creek and we set out for Deltaville, which we had somehow bypassed on all of our prior trips.  On the way out, Lene got us onto the sand at the right side of the channel but we dropped the sail and were able to back off in reverse.

Out in the Bay, we were close hauled on a starboard tack but true wind was only ten knots and we were able to make our way close to the turn west for Deltaville using full sails.  It was early so we decided to continue on to Yorktown. But then the wind came up and we had to use the smaller head sail and the chop came up so we needed to use an assist from the engine, and the wind veered a bit forcing us further east than we wanted.  I saw that we would have to tack near Virginias Eastern Shore and would have another twenty miles on a port beat, westward across the Bay and up the York River to Yorktown. We ended sailing almost seven hours, I was getting tired and the idea formed: Why not stay the night on the Eastern Shore?

Lene checked the cruising guide and the town of Cape Charles, with its Harbor of Refuge, a man-made basin cut into the coast line, containing its municipal marina, was close. It was approached by a well marked 2.7 mile long channel heading east and then NE. I love well run municipal marinas; they are a reply to those who think that government is the source of our problems rather than the solution to many of them. The town is about nine miles north of the actual Cape for which it is named -- the southern tip of the Delmarva peninsula. It is a quiet town especially when we explored it, late on a Monday afternoon, after giving ILENE her bath. We strolled the main drag and saw signs indicating new businesses were opening. The port is still largely for commercial fishing and barges for the cement factory across from us. But the sunset, looking across the Bay isnt shabby. Note the tanker on the horizon at the left; more on this later.

We had dinner at The Shanty, the restaurant located in the marina and I wont describe each dish (this aint no food blog) but the cooking was imaginative, well executed, delicious and inexpensive. We bought this PVC and driftwood egret there, to add to our aviary sculpture collection.

Speaking of sculptures, here are two mermaids, seen during out stroll through town.

Two sad things happened out there today. We saw several boats, close together, off our port bow, one giving off a plume of white smoke. We heard some incoherent VHF radio chatter about a fire. Normally, such chatter is about nautical events tens of miles away. We saw a helicopter overhead. We called to offer further assistance but got no response. Then, after we had passed, the flames ranged 30 feet high and great clouds of black smoke emanated.

Someones dreamboat is no more. News reports state that the boater was rescued by a good samaritan who got there before us; no one was injured.

The other sad event was the probable death of my Ipad. It fell out onto the swim platform and there was bathed in salt water. A smaller loss than of an entire boat, but more personal. It put a crimp in Lenes relationship with me for a while. "I told you not to leave it up here!" she said. She was in a foul mood; stewing in her anger. A few hours later I reminded her that after I had told her not to carry her cell phone in the dink unless contained in a zip lock, or stronger, plastic bag, she fell in the surf at Grand Turk Island. On that occasion I simply let her use my cell phone. Memory of that earlier comparable sad event of 2012 cooled out her anger.

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October 21 23 Cape Henry to Yorktown and Two Laydays There 23 miles

The crossing was done by motor, all the way, without raising any sails, less than five hours. The wind was in our face but only five knots true, not enough to raise any waves. The only obstacle was this guy,

last seen in the sunset on the horizon from Cape Charles, who lay on anchor right on our course across the Bay. I caused another problem by accidentally turning off autopilot while trying to turn on the cockpit radio, which gave Lene a scare. The York River is wide and deep almost to its shores. We entered against the tide slowing us somewhat.

Yorktown County government runs the modern efficient Riverwalk Landing Marina here, which we visited in 2006 and 2012. We asked about staying on the outward side of the marinas floating dock (so easy to get on and off) but the friendly dock master said: "No way am I putting you there!" He was right. Both days we were here the wind howled, the river was filled with large whitecaps and the large excursion schooner, "Alliance", tied up on the opposite side of the dock from us, pitched up and down like crazy.

In fact I had planned to move to our next port on our second day here, and with the strong wind at our back and then at our side, we could have made it. But Lene and the kitties have had enough rough rides for a while and there is much here to amuse us.

The reasons we keep coming back to Yorktown is that our friends, Stan and Carol, live in nearby Williamsburg. I met Stan up at Cornell 52 years ago; he has been teaching at William and Mary for the last 36 years. They are such wonderful hosts and lend us their car, though which we provisioned and visited barbers and the drug store as well. They also shared with us two delicious home cooked meals, we took them to a French restaurant and we had mango-blueberry pancakes aboard with them and also did some sight seeing. Their home is decorated with the Carnival glass that Stan collects and the imaginative quilts that Carol makes.

I visited the Watermans Museum, located immediately adjacent to the marina, which is at the river side immediately below the cliffs where General Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington, ending our Revolutionary War. Cornwallis surrendered after the French fleet under DeGrasse defeated the fleet of British ships containing the reinforcements that Cornwallis needed. The museum is housed in a large plantation house that was donated and transported to this site from the other side of the river on a large barge. Watermen are defined as anyone who makes his or her living on the water. As amateurs, Lene and I are not watermen. The battle of the Capes, which led to the end of our revolution is portrayed, as are piracy, fishing and shell fishing and wooden boat manufacture and repair. Here is the museums model of a fish trap,

also called a pole net. These run for considerable distances in an east-west orientation in the Bay. About half the fish that are brought up against it by the flowing tides will swim toward the trap and can be harvested periodically from the pen at the right. These traps are one reason to not sail in the Chesapeake at night. We came too close to one of them a few days ago, before turning away.  Running into this would likely damage both trap and boat.

I learned that a certain local Pirate, when captured and convicted in England, was fined 1000 pounds by the crown to be used to create a new school in Virginia, William and Mary. Thus unlike Harvard and Yale, which were funded largely on the basis of the profits of the slave trade, William and Marys founding moneys were the profits of piracy. I had only 90 minutes there and two docents latched onto me. Phil (wearing a "Tin Can Navy" hat) took care of me inside, followed by Bubba who filled my head with knowledge once I proceeded outside to the wooden boat sheds. Clearly, these knowledgeable gentlemen would have talked my ears off for several hours more if I had more time, which I would have enjoyed.

The next day, Carol took me to DeWitt Wallace and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museums of Art in Colonial Williamsburg, where I saw a lot of beautiful old quilts and wooden furniture, but found nothing  nautical to report to you.

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