Downtown Hampton Public Piers - at a dock

Through the locks again

The forecast was not so hot with an overcast sky and the threat of rain in the afternoon. We quickly decided that if there was going to be a rain delay on our trip, we would much rather have that delay at Hampton than at Coinjock. After all, as much as we enjoyed the prime rib dinner, how many times can you do that? And, there is nothing else there unless your hobby is watching boats being squeezed in as tightly as possible. They actually wind up having more dock length than the added LOA of each boat!

Norfolk is always interesting - as long you don't get too close
Patrol boats were whizzing around between us and the big ships

When it's time to leave in the morning, they are not around to help. It's every boat for itself. Nevertheless, everyone got off fine. It helped that we were first in line so our departure was easy. We left at 7:00 am but most of the boats had already left - and we thought we were very early, ha!

Hampton is always nicely decorated

We hit all our bridges as planned and the lock too before the rains came. We motored in a downpour from Gilmerton bridge to just south of Hampton. Then the sun came out to welcome us to our dock. The marina is on the side of a river and the current runs crosswise to the docks so it's not as easy to dock as it appears. Adding more challenge is the half length of the docks themselves. They barely reach to the midpoint of Fleetwing.

Secure for the night. Note the short docks.

Downtown Hampton Public Piers is a very economical marina. The general cost is $1.50/ft but if you join their cruising club, the cost goes down to only $1.25/ft and every 5th night is free. We always stay here on the trips down and up. There is an Enterprise office just around the corner for renting a car, very convenient.

Our task is now to divine the weather on the Chesapeake and it may turn into another round of pitting the weather apps against each other with us as the guinea pigs. Well, anything for the education of our readers...