After an extended stop in Hampton, VA, we are rejuvenated, re-provisioned and ready to tackle the bigger bodies of water we'll encounter over the next couple weeks to get to New York. We enjoyed our time during the Easter Holiday with friends and family in MI very much. Upon our return to Hampton we got a surprise visit with dear friends from FL that were visiting their family in Virginia Beach for Easter. Who knew you had to be 1,000 miles away from home to see friends that used to be right in your back yard?!?!?!
During our visit, we did get to go over to the carousel I mentioned in my previous post. After lunch we also toured the grounds, including the cemetery, of St. John's Church in downtown Hampton. St. John's Church is the oldest Anglican parish in continuous existence in America, established in 1610. The church itself was erected in 1728 in the shape of a Latin cross, with 2' thick walls. When all of Hampton was burned down, this church survived. Some of the headstones from the 1700's are nearly worn smooth from time and weather.
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| Hilary on the Hampton Carousel |
Over the past couple days, we've completed about 140 miles of Chesapeake Bay and plan to finish the last 45 miles today. As much as we study wind, current, etc. we still get surprised. Our first day on Chesapeake Bay we covered 55 nautical miles in just under 8 hours and it was not a pleasant ride for us. In the morning we were taking 2-4' waves on the bow, which wasn't terrible, but enough to cover Make Me Smile in salt and required pretty regular use of the windshield wipers. Mid-day the wind changed and so did the waves. All afternoon was 1-3' beam seas. About 1:00pm, our Captain pushed the throttles up by 2,000 rpm to move us along a little faster. No lunch for us that day as it was too rough to move about the cabin safely to prepare it. Just snacks while we held on, literally, held on, for the afternoon ride. We chose to anchor at the end of the day and found a safe and protected spot about 4 miles off the bay. The location was just south of the mouth of the Potomac River. We read that crossing the mouth of the Potomac River where it meets Chesapeake Bay (11 miles across) can be unpleasant from confused seas and we wanted to cover that stretch early in the morning when the water is typically the calmest.
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| 04-23-2025: Hampton, VA to just south of VA/MD state line |
On thing that is critical when anchoring is to make sure you have good holding, especially for an overnight stay. One of the tools to help us sleep better at night is the use of a drag anchor alarm. Each of us has an app on our phone. Basically when you drop the hook, you "set anchor" on the app and then set an acceptable swing radius from the anchor for the amount of chain you've let out. If the app detects a distance greater than allowed, a police siren sounds alerting you that your anchor is dragging. We run these apps all night while sleeping to ensure we maintain good holding if/when wind, current, tide change in the night. It is not uncommon to go to sleep with Make Me Smile facing one direction and and wake up with her facing 180 degrees in the opposite direction.
A bit of anchoring education on how much chain to let out. A typical ratio is 7:1 meaning 7' of chain for every 1' of depth. In the case below we were in about 8' of water plus 5' from water line to bow pulpit requiring a minimum of 91' of chain (13x7). We let out another 20' to be safe.
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| Screenshot of Hilary's anchor alarm. Current status was 113.3' from where we dropped the anchor. If the anchor were to drag by a little more than 15' the alarm would sound. |
Our second day on Chesapeake Bay was quite pleasant. We had planned to do only about 40 miles but once we got started we changed plans and pushed hard and covered a new record of 78 nautical miles over 10 hours. A very long day.
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| 04-24-2025: 90 statute miles in one day. A new record for us! We chose a marina at the base of the Bay Bridge on Kent Island. |
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| View of a very calm and flat Chesapeake Bay. A rare sight. |
As I mentioned at the start of this post, we plan to finish Chesapeake Bay today. We will either be in Chesapeake City or Delaware City tonight.
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