Thursday, May 9, 2013

Hampton, VA - at Downtown Hampton Public Piers

Morning at our free dock last night
It was quieter last night than we had expected and very still so we were satisfied with the free dock. It provides easy access to the 9:30 opening of the Gilmerton bridge (which only opens on the 1/2 hour). On the way north you pass by the naval shipyards which looked very busy with many ships in for repairs or upgrades  Every shipyard had a patrolling boat with a rotating blue light to prevent anyone from getting too close. We dutifully fell in line behind a row of northbound boats at about 6 kts, they don't like wakes either.

Talk about be covered up! I guess there's a ship under there
There was no wind but the sun was out full and the temperature was 75 or so, a nice ride to Hampton. We docked at our of our favorite marinas. It's run by the city of Hampton and offers a 4th day free if you stay three days. You're within walking distance of downtown Hampton and the Virginia Air and Space Museum which is lots of fun. The Enterprise rental car agency is only about 200 ft away and as I said before, we're taking advantage of their weekend offer of $10/day rental. We plan on exploring the area, we have wheels! 

On the other hand, this guy was fully exposed!
The weather is not looking good for going north. There's a front coming through to be followed by north winds which, of course, create north waves (3 to 5 ft), not comfortable for going north. With that outlook, we may be here until Wednesday when the weather is due to turn with a south wind once again. However, who knows, certainly not the weatherman, so we'll just wait and see. Meanwhile, Don and Liz Bunch are due to arrive here on Saturday afternoon. We've never found the Chesapeake to be particularly good for sailing, at least not when we've been in the area.  

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