Responders to my last thread were right. Moving certainly does improve the mood. Of course, that’s been pretty much the central theme of the last two years of my life.
I took Buck420’s advice, given while putting two new gold crowns on my rear lower molars, and ran up the James River. It started as a beautiful day with wind that came and went and shifted directions so I alternated between sail and power several times. Passing the huge Newport News shipyards was impressive.
By the time I passed the reserve fleet of mothballed ships, the wind was stiff. I passed Jamestown Island in short, current whipped, freshwater waves. There wasn’t a lot of spray but I was glad to get into the shelter of the Chickahominy.
The holding ground above the bridge is great. I put out an anchor trip line because of seeing cypress trees and snags inshore and could hardly get the anchor broken out in the morning with the trip line. The wind during the night had buried it deep.
The Chickahominy is certainly worth the trip up the James. The western shore is mostly wildlife preserve and it is probably the most beautiful a place I have seen in the bay area. I saw at least a half dozen to eagles and there seemed to be some kind of Match.com event for the birds going on in one tree.
The wind started to blow early and cold. I intended to explore the river as far up as I could run and spend a couple days there but it was cold motoring into the wind and I knew from Google Earth that I would encounter civilization around the next bend. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out and exploring beautiful creeks and marshes in the past months but done very little sailing. The prospect of a sleigh ride back to Hampton became irresistible so I set the sails and turned around.
It was indeed a sleigh ride, winds gusting to 30 knots according to the buoy reports. Much of the time I was a knot over my best speed under power and it was free.
There is always some risk going out of the marked channels in the bay area due to possible obstructions in the marked fish trap areas. The odds are on your side though and it’s tempting to take short cuts. I was on a warp speed beam reach just south of Jamestown Island running along just outside the channel when I saw the top of a piling flash by about 20 feet away. Only about six inches was showing in the troughs and I could tell by the waves that it was fixed to the bottom. That gave me religion, I tell you. I’ll be staying inside the marked channel lines for at least three or four days now.
I spent the night in Hampton again and am about to move down to Portsmouth.
I took Buck420’s advice, given while putting two new gold crowns on my rear lower molars, and ran up the James River. It started as a beautiful day with wind that came and went and shifted directions so I alternated between sail and power several times. Passing the huge Newport News shipyards was impressive.
By the time I passed the reserve fleet of mothballed ships, the wind was stiff. I passed Jamestown Island in short, current whipped, freshwater waves. There wasn’t a lot of spray but I was glad to get into the shelter of the Chickahominy.
The holding ground above the bridge is great. I put out an anchor trip line because of seeing cypress trees and snags inshore and could hardly get the anchor broken out in the morning with the trip line. The wind during the night had buried it deep.
The Chickahominy is certainly worth the trip up the James. The western shore is mostly wildlife preserve and it is probably the most beautiful a place I have seen in the bay area. I saw at least a half dozen to eagles and there seemed to be some kind of Match.com event for the birds going on in one tree.
The wind started to blow early and cold. I intended to explore the river as far up as I could run and spend a couple days there but it was cold motoring into the wind and I knew from Google Earth that I would encounter civilization around the next bend. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out and exploring beautiful creeks and marshes in the past months but done very little sailing. The prospect of a sleigh ride back to Hampton became irresistible so I set the sails and turned around.
It was indeed a sleigh ride, winds gusting to 30 knots according to the buoy reports. Much of the time I was a knot over my best speed under power and it was free.
There is always some risk going out of the marked channels in the bay area due to possible obstructions in the marked fish trap areas. The odds are on your side though and it’s tempting to take short cuts. I was on a warp speed beam reach just south of Jamestown Island running along just outside the channel when I saw the top of a piling flash by about 20 feet away. Only about six inches was showing in the troughs and I could tell by the waves that it was fixed to the bottom. That gave me religion, I tell you. I’ll be staying inside the marked channel lines for at least three or four days now.
I spent the night in Hampton again and am about to move down to Portsmouth.
