Great Loop Cruise Video

Spoken like a transporter. The pace does take some getting used to. We'll lay up in Norfolk for a day, and swing over to Elizabeth City after Coinjock where we'll launch the dink to take a cruise up the Great Dismal Swamp route (Not a place for the Hat). Then a stop in New Bern.

For those transiting the Chesapeake Bay or heading up to D.C. I'd like to recommend the Pt. Lookout marina at the mouth of the Potomac. I had 10' + under my keel all the way in at low tide, they have a nice little restaurant, a brand new dock with about 300' of side-to dockage, and 220V electric. Of the 4 marinas we stayed in on the Potomac (2 at the mouth & 2 in D.C.) this was hands down the best. It's also on the second marina we've been in so far on this trip that actually served up 220V (Canyon Club in Cape May being the other). What a pleasure it is to not have to hook up the second 50amp and spend the night resetting breakers.

Today we head down to Norfolk.

It appears that we were running between 4G coverage areas. That was the boring part of the run though. In about 1/2 hour we'll be coming into Norfolk, past the Navy fleet, and we should maintain coverage from here. Enjoy.

We aim to please. We just passed Thimble Shoal light. In a few minutes Ft. Monroe into view off our starboard bow before we turn to port towards the Navy fleet.

Yeah how about those day workers? It's hard to find good help these days.

Tidewater.

No. Outside Tidewater ther's an anchorage. Fairly empty today, but I try to maintain good habits and not cross anchorages. So I come down to the marina and the cut up along their wall.

Actually I just checked the time of your post and realized you must have been talking about when I was entering. They put me next to the marina office which required a couple of 90* turns and also a clarification on which fairway they wanted me to go down. When I turned to where I thought they wanted me it looked like a fairway that would call for some interesting maneuvers to extricate myself from as I saw nothing over 35' down there. Getting to where he actually wanted me was tight also, but doable. After I docked the owner walked down the dock to the stern, looked at where we came through and asked "How are we going to get out of here?" Response, "Very carefully". Stay tuned Tuesday morning for when we find out if I'm a hero or a zero.

Tidewater is a bit of a labyrinth with tight turns. So you can't see where you need to end up until after you've made a couple of 90's. I've been in here several times, but not in this section. One thing you don't want to do with a boat like this is get into a tight fairway and find you need to back out making 90* turns between boats....such as I'll have to do getting back out of here. This boat has poor visibility to rear from the helm, and my deckhands are a little green. I can't really count on them giving me accurate distances and circumstances.