Doin' Deltaville

Three navy ships directly behind our marina

Big ship in the shipping channel

All types of navy ships

The New Orleans built ship??

Warship 61

Family & crew of Warship 61

An aircraft carrier

Warship 61 underway and Confetti in front

After spending over two weeks in Portsmouth, it was time to move on. We said goodbye to our marina friends and headed into the Chesapeake Bay. The bay is a little over 170 miles long, so our first leg of around 50 miles would take us into Deltaville on the Rappahannock River. But before we entered the bay we got to cruise past the Norfolk Naval Yard. There we so many ships along this stretch that we began to wonder if this couldn't be another Pearl Harbor. There were many different types of ships and, with the exception of the aircraft carriers, we really were not able to discern their function. We saw one ship that we thought we had seen before. It was similar or the same ship as the one that was launched from the Avondale ship yard in New Orleans last fall. We watched this launch on TV and we thought we recalled that the ship was heading for Norfolk, but we couldn't recall the name of the ship. As we proceeded through the shipping channel one of the navy ships announced that "Warship 61 at pier 2, berth 6 was preparing to get underway for all concerned traffic and would be monitoring channels 2, 12, and 16." They announced that it would be about 45 minutes before they got underway. About 15 minutes later we passed the ship in her berth and got to see the sailors and their families on the deck and pier. After we got in the bay we could see the ship in the channel turning to head for the sea. It was really cool to witness this.

Warship 64 in York River channel

Wolf Trap light

The trip up the bay was rather uneventful. We ran about 3-4 miles offshore and outside of the shipping channels. However, when we got to the York River shipping channel we encountered Warship 64 which was very similar to the one we had seen earlier. Then to the northeast we could make out another very similar navy ship that was heading in our direction. It was too far away to identify it, but we began to wonder if there was some naval exercise or operation that was being conducted. It just seemed too coincidental that 3 similar ships would be underway in the same vicinity at the same time. After we crossed the entrance to the York River we encountered light rain for the next couple of hours. We passed the unique Wolf Trap light and made our way to Stingray Point at the entrance of the Rappahannock River. Stingray Point is supposedly the sight where Captain John Smith of the Virginia Company was stung by a stingray that almost killed him. Pocahontas reportedly nursed him back to health and they lived happily ever after.

Throw us somethin', mister!

Upscale houseboat- no white trash here!

Grillin', dinin', and lyin' with the loopers

We got the boat docked and checked into the marina. We were really impressed with Dozier's Regatta Point marina. They had services of every kind, including courtesy cars and bicycles, very clean restrooms, a captain's lounge with satellite TV, propane & charcoal grills, and free coffee, juice doughnuts and a newspaper every morning, all at very reasonable rates. Plus they had a recent hatching of the cutest baby mallard ducks that would beg for breadcrumbs next to your boat. When Jane went to check us in, one of the ducks followed her into the office, and she had to explain that she wasn't with the duck. For staying two nights we got a third night free, so we figured we would be here at least 3 days. The next day we took the courtesy car into town to get some marine supplies and groceries. When we returned we got our bikes down and rode through the countryside trying to find a park on Stingray Point that Capt. Larry thought he had read about, but after an hour of riding into dead end roads we gave up and returned to the boat. We had decided to grill that night and were invited to join some fellow loopers in the picnic area. We traded stories over dinner and had a wonderful time.