Great Falls Virgina

Great Falls

It seemed entirely appropriate that, as we were staying in the Great Falls area, we should take a trip out to see the waterfalls and rapids that gave the area its name.

Phil, Nicky, Lesley and me with Great Falls as the backdrop. Jack’s behind the camera

These are really quite close to Phil and Lelsey’s house but because we visited on the final day of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the Great Falls park was extremely busy and we hit a huge queue ‘near’ the entrance (signs warned of a 45 minute wait to actually get to the park entrance). Not to be deterred, we turned around and Phil and Lesley took us on a major detour to the other side of the park (no queues to get in but not a lot of space left in the carpark) from where we set off on a half hour walk to get to the falls themselves.

Flood High Water Marks

The falls aren’t high but the sheer volume of water piling down the river was very impressive. Perhaps more so was that with really heavy rain storms the water level can rise over 30ft higher! Just beside the main viewing point we looked at a post showing the flood high water marks, the highest of which was well above head height (1936) and the banks at that point were least 25ft above the river. And we’d been having a lot of rain!

Beside the river at this point are the very faint remains of a canal which had been dug to allow river traffic to bypass the falls through a series of locks. This canal had actually been a business venture set up by George Washington. Given the regular flooding it’s not really surprising that there isn’t much left of the canal construction but we did see the odd stretch of wall and the line of the canal as a shallow dip in the ground.

So after having streatched our legs it was time to make our way back to the car and head home for another of Phil’s amazing gourmet feasts.

Great Falls, VA, USA

Leesburg Wineries

On Sunday 27 May we decided that we need a grown-ups’ day out. Jack was away for the weekend with one of his friends and Georgia would be visiting one of her friends out near Leesburg about 20 miles to the north west of Great Falls. She needed a lift there which was ideal for us because the countryside to the north of Leesburg is full of vineyards, or wineries as the Americans tend to call them.

Bluemont Vineyard

Dropping Georgia off at her friend’s house, we were given a great tip about a nearby winery; Bluemont Vineyard. The restaurant and tasting rooms are housed in a building which sits on top of a nearby hill with the vines laid out in neat rows below. The winery was already very busy but we managed to find an empty table on the balcony.

The fabulous views down over the Virginia countryside from the Bluemont Vineyard

From this vantage point we had a superb view down over the Virginia countryside. It’s a great spot to try out some of their wine. They had excellent 6 glass holders, each with a different one of some wines produced on site. Testing was great fun and a good accompaniment to the really nice wood-fired oven pizza we ordered to keep hunger pangs at bay.

However, this was a grown-ups’ day out [Ed: not lunch out], so visiting just one vineyard was not enough. We pored over the map and some internet sites and picked our next venue, Stone Tower Winery.

Stone Tower Winery

This was close by but had a completely different feel to it. The large outdoor terrace was busy but inside the bar area was crammed. You could enjoy a tasting with commentary from one of the bar staff but, instead, we decided to buy a bottle to enjoy on the terrace. We picked out 4 wines that we thought might be nice and found whittling the list down to the one to buy was made much easier when the barman poured us a taster of each of them.

Reassured that we had made a choice that we would all enjoy, we relaxed on sofas out on the terrace. There was a wedding and reception going on in the rooms and terrace below us and we saw that another building out to the west was used for whisky tasting. From the balcony there was a pleasant view over the winery but it wasn’t in the same league as the one at Bluemont. Nevertheless, it was a most excellent way to spend the afternoon and it gave us ample time to continue our conversation with Phil and Lesley about how they found living in the USA. And of course, the conversation frequently returned to how President Trump’s recent actions on the diplomatic stage seem to be polarizing American views in a ‘love him or hate him’ fashion.

Returning to Great Falls it was time for a traditional English roast dinner. During our travels we had missed that culinary pleasure and so it was a delight to be spoilt with a beautifully cooked roast chicken and all the trimmings produced by Phil.

Leesburg Wineries, VA, USA

Visiting Friends in Great Falls

On Friday 25 May we hired car. This was interesting for 2 reasons. Firstly, we started to get an insight into how spread out everything is in the USA; it was a 55 minute drive just to get to the hire car centre. Fortunately for us, Bill and Lydia were happy to give us a lift there and tie the journey in with a trip for them to the garden centre. Fabulous!

Secondly, we very nearly hired the car without any insurance. In Europe a hire car fee always includes the insurance. It was only because we asked a couple of questions about the excess (deductible) if we were to have a bump that we discovered that insurance was not included in the quote. That turned out to be $25 a day extra which, for an 11 day hire, made it significantly more expensive than anticipated.

However, with the paperwork done and after a short detour to fill up with fuel we were all set for the 110mile drive up towards Washington DC and out to the west a little to get to Great Falls. The route took us through some of the parts of Virginia that were settled first and also past the sites of many of the military actions in the 1812 War. At nearly every mile there was a sign recording any historic activity in that area.

Phil and Lesley’s home in Great Falls

We had expected the journey to be very slow because of the anticipated extra traffic from people escaping for the Memorial Day Bank Holiday weekend. But, as it turned out, we made very good time and arrived at Phil and Lesley’s lovely house by about 1330. We hadn’t seen Phil or Lesley since they moved to the USA 10 years ago and so, as you would imagine, there was an awful lot to catch up on. We planned to use their home as a base for the next 11 days which meant that we’d be able to share two good weekends with the whole family and also make some touristy trips out during the week when the rest of the household would be busy with school and work.

Great Falls, VA, USA

Sailing to the Rappahannock and Corrotoman Rivers VA USA

The Onancock anchorage

The morning of Thursday 24 May was totally windless at Onancock and the anchorage was like a mirror. It was beautiful sight to wake up to in the morning and it almost felt like a crime to break the mirrorlike surface. But break the mirror we did as we took the dinghy ashore to meet up with the others for an excellent breakfast at the café in what had been the town’s General Store.

Heading out through the Onancock Channel

Delightful as it was, we had couldn’t stay all day because we needed to head back across Chesapeake Bay towards the Rappahannock River.

Dragon Run

The forecast was for very light winds and so we were very pleasantly surprised when we cleared the channel and found 8-10 knots of wind in the bay. We were heading the same way as Dragon Run and the sail in company provided a great opportunity to get some photographs. Messing about in close formation we managed to get some worthwhile shots from most angles.

The Rappahannock River Bridge ahead

However, once we got into the Rappahannock River the wind died away. Progress was further reduced by the current and so we motored for the rest of the passage. The Rappahannock River Bridge or, more accurately, the Robert O. Norris Jr Bridge spans the river between Lancaster and Middlesex counties [Ed: Sound familiar?].

The bridge was opened in 1957 to replace the steamship service and today more than 8,000 vehicles cross it each day. We were more interested in whether or not we could pass safely underneath the bridge. As we approached, despite the 110ft/34metre vertical height at the centre span, it still looked tight as we looked up the mast. Previously, I had done some calculations in case we needed to travel up the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW). The ICW has some fixed bridges with a 65ft clearance and, by my calculations we have a 63ft air draft (distance from the top of the instruments on the top of the mast to the waterline). So, the ICW is a possible routing for us, but if this bridge across the Rappahannock felt tight, a 2ft clearance above the mast would be very stressful to watch. Perhaps we should get the tape measure out and double check my calculations!

Corrotoman River

Once under the bridge we turned right into the Corrotoman River for the last part of our journey. This is wider than the Onancock River but we saw some equally impressive mansions lining the waterfront.

Following Dragon Run, we crept slowly into the bay where they have their dock. Positioning to reverse into their slings mooring position was made a lot trickier by the slalom course of crab pot markers laid out across their mooring area by a local fisherman. It was neatly done though, and with Dragon Run secure we were given a green light to position Blue Velvet on the end of the dock.

Blue Velvet’s home for a few days, moored on Bill and Lydia’s dock

With the boats moored securely to the dock, Nicky and Lydia took a trip out to the supermarket to get the makings for dinner whilst Bill and I tinkered with the yachts to put them to bed. In our case that meant starting to shut down everything on board so that we could leave BV to travel to Washington DC.

Nicky and Lydia returned from their brief shopping trip which prompted the start of a lovely evening with Bill and Lydia in their beautiful home. Great company, great food and all in fabulous surroundings.

For the next stage in our travels, Bill and Lydia will be keeping an eye on BV for us whilst we visit Phil and Lesley in Great Falls near Washington DC. Phil was our best man at our wedding and we haven’t seen Phil or Lesley since they moved to the USA 10 years ago. That’s far too long and so we are really glad that it’s all come together so that we can meet up. We are, of course, indebted to Bill and Lydia for their part in the plan.

Corrotoman River, VA, USA

Onancock VA USA

Doug on SY Ithaka

Chesapeake Bay is big! So much so that when we set off early on 2 May we couldn’t see the other side of the bay because it’s over 20 miles away. We left Fishing Bay Harbour, near Deltaville on the west side of Chesapeake Bay, at 0700hrs and headed out northeast aiming for a navigation mark just to the west of our destination; that was to be the rendezvous for us with Ithaka and Dragon Run, the two other yachts escaping for a couple of days to Onancock.

As it happened, Bill and Lydia on Dragon Run were running a little late coming out of the Rappahannock River but Doug, on Ithaka, came out from Fishing Bay Marina pretty much the same as us, and was just a few miles behind us. Lydia spotted our AIS signal and radioed in a new, slightly later rendezvous time and so we backtracked a little to sail in company with Doug.

Doug leading the way through the Onancock Channel. The sea ospreys like to use the navigation marks to build their nest on

The entrance to the Onancock Channel is wide and shallow. Our rendezvous was at the outer marker where we dropped our sails and started to motor the 4½ miles upstream. Dragon Run was still a little way behind and so Doug led the way in Ithaka. Now, it’s always worth asking a few questions when you are following another yacht and so Nicky got on the VHF radio to confirm the most important one; what is Ithaka’s draft? It turned out that she has a lifting keel and so had we blindly followed her, we might have run aground. Doug, however, was up on his game and once he knew that that we needed 7ft of water to stay afloat he checked for any shallower patches. But, there was only one real area of concern because the rest of the channel was dredged and so we made good progress.

Once the river narrowed we passed some beautiful houses with land opening out onto the waterfront. Both of us were reminded of motoring up Beaulieau River on the south coast of England both because of the scenery and the size of the houses.

Onancock Wharf

Turning the last bend, we came into a small anchorage area with, ahead of us, Onancock Wharf. As it was mid-week we had not booked ahead and, to our surprise, discovered that there was no space for us in their slips. That prompted Lydia to suggest that we rafted up alongside them…

Bill and Lydia on SY Dragon Run

…and so we held position to allow Dragon Run to pass.

For us, rafting up is normally an easy affair, certainly much easier than coming alongside the wooden piles of the average eat coast quay (‘dock’). We’d noticed that the US yachts all have a metal rubbing strip running along the widest part of the boat. We don’t have one of those [Ed: yet!] and so our concern was that a conventionally hung fender would just pop out and allow BV’s wooden toerail to grind on the wooden piles. In preparation for coming alongside the quay we had strung all of our fenders up horizontally, which required that we put an extra line onto each of them. It was a true cat’s cradle that needed to be untangled so that the fenders could be hung vertically for coming alongside Dragon Run. That all took us a short while to organise but we were soon nicely positioned alongside Dragon Run. And then we plugged into the USA for the first time and were pleased to discover that our new adaptor plug worked.

Onancock was founded in 1680 and with a population of around 1500 is one of the largest towns on Virginia’s remote eastern shore. It was once a regular stop for the steamboat service which transported passengers and goods around the area and the streets are filled with homes from the late nineteenth century.

Summer does not officially start in the USA until Memorial Day weekend (last weekend in May) and Onancock still had a quiet, sleepy feeling about it as we wandered about.

Being one of the oldest towns in Virginia and it is fitting that the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society base themselves there in the grand-looking Ker house which was built between 1799 and 1803.

The other really old buildings in the town are predominantly the churches, of which the town has several. Architecturally, bricks were used for the footings and the chimneys but the rest of the buildings were constructed in wood. The lapboard and wooden frame construction is still copied today across the state and so generally you have to look carefully to work out what is old and what is new. However, in Onancock pretty much all of the buildings are original and well kept; it’s delightful.

Mini OCC cruise gathering (LtoR: George and Frances Sadler, Lydia and Bill Strickland, Nicky, and Doug Selden)

Tuesday night was spent on board Dragon Run with a lovely pot luck supper, Doug squared away breakfast in the morning and then in the evening we reconvened on Dragon Run for cocktails (pictured above) before moving across to Mallards at the Wharf for dinner. George and Frances Sadler, each recovering from surgery of one form or another, had booked a room in the Charlotte Hotel and joined us for drinks and dinner making a very convivial gathering.

In a previous life, Mallards at the Wharf was the Hopkins and Brother Store which thrived from 1842 to 1966 supplying the needs of the town and steamer passengers. As we entered the restaurant we walked through a mini museum area with the original ledgers, till and accounts office. Comparing ‘now and then’ via the black and white photos was fascinating.

Stepping out onto the decking area we found a found a table and settled ourselves down for lovely meal. Nicky and I both chose the soft shell crabs on a bed of mash and ‘greens’ (asparagus) – delicious!

For our second night in Onancock we had moved BV out into the anchorage area a lovely spot and very photogenic as the sun set whilst we were at dinner.

Onancock, VA, USA

Fishing Bay Harbour Deltaville VA USA

We anchored off Deltaville on 16 May and it was raining. Since then it has rained more than it has been dry and some of that rain has been absolutely torrential, so much so that our dinghy, left in the water overnight behind BV, ended up with 15 cm of water in it. As you can see from the photograph above, we have put up our cockpit tent [Ed: all but the back panel because it is very humid] which hasn’t been used in anger for several years but is now one of the most useful bits of kit on BV. To say that the contrast from this time last week is extreme, is a major understatement!

On Friday night we invited our friends Lydia and Bill (OCC, Dragon Run) onto BV for drinks before they went off to a dinner at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club but the weather was so foul with warnings of flash floods and torrential rain, that we called it off. Lydia has assured us that this is most unusual for weather for the Chesapeake at this time of year.

Fishing Bay Harbour Marina

We are anchored off the Fishing Bay Harbour Marina and, because all of the foreshore around here is private, we are using the marina as our way ashore. For a small fee we can leave the dinghy there, borrow bikes to cycle to the shops, or a pickup truck for big stuff, and use their laundry facilities [Ed: not that I was inclined to do the latter until the rain stopped].

Now Fishing Bay Harbour, Deltaville is not where you would normally expect a visiting yacht to head for first when getting into Chesapeake Bay; Norfolk, Newport or Hampton would be much more the norm. However, we are using Deltaville as a base location because Lydia and Bill have been recommended a couple of boatyards here and if you get hauled out they actually allow you to do the work on your boat yourself rather than having to employ the yard’s labourers. One of our first tasks was to work up a timeline for the next 5 weeks which will include, preparations and bookings for a haul out; visiting our good friends Phil and Lesley who live just west of Washington DC; a historic cruise in company in Chesapeake with other members of the Ocean Cruising Club (organised by Lydia and Bill who live in the local area); followed by getting BV lifted out and put on the hard for a week for annual maintenance. We are also going to take the opportunity to get BV surveyed whilst she is out of the water to keep our insurance company happy (routine business because she hasn’t been surveyed since we bought her 11 years ago).

Deltaville is not a big place but, as the sailing centre for Richmond, it has a huge West Marine chandlery; a fab local hardware store that will supply anything for boats and aims to undercut the big chain; a canvaswork and covers maker; and a sail loft. With several boatyards and marinas in the immediate vicinity and the support services to go with them, we should be able to get anything that we need organised. We’ve produced a list of servicing kits, metric bolts, paint and other boaty gubbins that we will need when we get hauled out in the middle of June. Sam, at the hardware store, has taken the lead role in getting us the parts we need and has appreciated the generous lead time that we have given him to do that. We’ve also managed to get the right USA marine plugs to make up a lead so that we will be able plug BV into the shorepower when we are alongside. Next purchase we’ve now realised will be the right connectors so that we can attach our hosepipe to the US taps!

A typical lapboard style of house in Deltaville, this one dating from 1840

Despite the rain we have also been exploring ashore, not least of which to get to the grocery store. It’s a huge contrast from the Caribbean but it really is a lovely area. We have cycled past cornfields and dense woodland on our way to the shops and all the while passing the pretty lapboard style of housing which is traditional in this area.

Everyone is also incredibly friendly and helpful. Every time we have cycled to the grocery store, we’ve ended up getting a lift back to the marina with the bikes in the back of a pick-up truck and these lifts have been from complete strangers just wanting to help us out.

The Fishing Bay Yacht Club close to where BV is anchored

On Thursday we briefly went over to the Fishing Bay Yacht Club so that we knew from where to pick up Lydia and Bill for drinks on board BV on Friday [Ed: before the rain killed that social!]. There were a couple of members there, one of whom said, “oh just take a look around if you want” and proceeded to unlock and let us in, “Just close up when you go, I’ve gotta leave.” It’s a lovely clubhouse, or more accurately 2 clubhouses, with waterfronts on both sides of the Stove Point isthmus, one for yachts and one for a hugely active dinghy fleet.

The yacht waterfront and moorings on Jackson Creek (N side of the isthmus)

The setting is delightful and the creeks around are all dotted with really rather nice-looking houses too….

…. and it was even better when the rain finally stopped and the sun came out on Sunday. Sunday, however, for us was a day of work.

As a precursor to working on the forward holding tank pump [Ed: it was always going to be a delightful task, so it’s not surprising that we had put that one off for as long as possible!] we needed to empty and try to clean out the tank and the pump, so we took the opportunity to go alongside at Fishing Bay Marina’s fuel dock in the morning. Here we flushed and pumped out both holding tanks. It was quite satisfying that back in July 2013 we had had the foresight to buy the right adaptor to link our holding tanks to the US pump out machine nozzle. With those tanks empty we proceeded to fill up the fuel tank and discovered that we’d used less fuel than we had expected; useful for calculating our fuel burn at low revs. With some extra water taken on board as well we felt that we really ought to clear from the dock to make space for the cabin cruiser that had been circling and harrumphing. We had expected him to move onto the dock with us as there was just space for that but, amusingly, the marina staff wouldn’t allow that. “You don’t want him anywhere near your boat when he’s at that wheel”, more than hinted that perhaps they didn’t rate his boat handling skills.

The forward holding tank pump (left) and the service kit bits than needed to go into it

Back at anchor we could put off the dirty deed no longer; it was time to pull apart the forward holding tank pump. Not a difficult task, just not one you really want to do. However, it was definitely overdue a service because the joker valve was very distorted. With it all back together and the whole area sanitized Nicky then spent an hour re-stowing the spares that we keep on top of the tank and rebuilding our bunk. We’d earned a beer after all of that!

In and around the planning for the lift-out we’ve also drawn up a huge list of maintenance and cleaning jobs that we have been putting off, probably for far too long, whilst we’ve been enjoying the Caribbean. There is a lot more than just the holding tank pump to service and so our plan was to use the next week and a half to tackle that backlog. However, plans are here to be broken and Lydia and Bill have just come up with a much more fun idea. “Now that the rain looks like it has stopped, lets sail over to Onancock, it’s such a dear little place”, and so that is exactly what we are doing. Sewing, varnishing and other maintenance tasks have, for a few days, been put on hold.

Fishing Bay Harbour, Deltaville, VA, USA