Monday, October 17th, Dozier’s Regatta Marina, Deltaville, VA

  It was a terrible night of howling winds starting about 2am.  Ken and I were both up at 3:30am listening to the wind.  We felt secure in our anchorage and with our anchor but once wakened, the gusts and howls kept us awake.  Our departure time was to be 8am, but NOAA was calling for a small craft advisory until 10am and Ken checked Serius weather which said there were 8-10 foot waves in the Potomac and the Rappahannock. 

  Other boats were leaving the anchorage and I hailed one to let us know what the conditions were in the Bay.  They hailed us back and said things were calm.  We pulled the hook and were on our way.  There were big swells like the swells in the ocean, reminiscent of the night, which died down near the Rappahannock.  Blue Planet was ahead of us and was having a hard time finding the channel due to numerous oyster boats milling around making it very confusing.  We pulled up next to them on a fingerdock. 

  Dozier’s is a beautiful place with a large deck with rocking chairs to watch the sunset cradling a rum punch; a welcome room with wifi, a TV and DVDs, books, magazines, coffee, doughnuts, and juice in the morning; large bathhouse with restrooms and showers; laundry room; and a courtesy car.  We took advantage of the courtesy car and went to West Marine and filled our jerry cans with fuel. 

Tuesday, October 18th,2011, Hospital Point, Mile Marker Zero on the ICW, Norfolk, VA

  At the first hint of dawn a parade of oyster boats noisily went out of the channel.  Ken unplugged the electric, brought in some lines, and readied the boat and we were on our way about 7am.  The sunrise was impressive—a huge ball of fire rising out of the Bay.

  We motored all the way into a mild south wind; the Bay was fairly calm with only a little chop.  We could see boats leaving all sides of Deltaville and we joined the line of boats going south, all of us trying to beat the approaching cold front.  We left Blue Planet at Dozier’s to get a later start when they were ready.

  At Thimble Shoal Light and turning west into Norfolk, leaving the Chesapeake behind us, we started for the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) but it seemed to take forever to get to Hospital Point.  We passed huge navy ships, marinas, a naval city along the waterway.  Finally we got to red marker #36 and saw boats anchored off the channel and pulled up and dropped the hook, right next to Exuberant, friends of Ken’s brother’s from Ohio!  Later they dinghied over and said hi, figuring there would only be 1 Plumpuppet.

  We sat in the cockpit and watched the sights:  tourboats, tugs, a huge (120’?)  sailboat named ‘MITseaALL’, huge trawlers and powerboats.  And the night was lit with all the lights around us.  Hospital Point was fairly sheltered and the boat sat pretty all night long.