Back to the Corrotoman River VA USA

Leaving Sarah Creek

We had seen Yorktown and the battlefield but, having lost a day because of rainy weather, Jamestown is still on our list of places to visit.  Perhaps one for next summer when we come back this way.  For now though we had some appointments in our diary and so needed to be heading further north into Chesapeake Bay.

Creeping over the shallow patch in the entrance to Sarah Creek.  The George P Coleman Memorial Bridge and Yorktown are ahead and a bit left of us on the other side of the York River

A great beat up the Rappahannock River

So, on a clear, blue skied but slightly cool Monday 29^thOctober, we upped anchor in Sarah Creek at 0815hrs and headed back out into the York River.  With 10 knots of wind from the west-northwest, and more forecast for later, it looked set to be a good sailing day.  As soon as we were out into the York River we hoisted the sails and switched off the engine.  Initially we were blown downwind but once clear of the York River we hardened up and started making brisk progress.

By midday we had a reef in the mainsail and were blasting along close to the western side of the bay.  We left Wolf Trap lighthouse, Fishing Bay and Deltaville all reasonably close to port and just after lunchtime we were at the entrance to the Rappahannock River.  Here we had expected to have to give up sailing and motor dead into wind for the last 15 miles of the passage.  However, we had made such good progress that we had more time than expected to get to the Corrotoman River.  Rather than giving up and motoring we turned onto port tack and started to beat our way up the  Rappahannock River.

‘Just a couple of tacks and then we’ll probably have to motor’, we thought, but with a flood tide helping us up the river the angles worked out well.

Sailing under the Rappahannock Bridge

We ended up tacking all of the way up river, under the Rappahannock Bridge and then into the Corrotoman River; it was a great sail!

Blue Velvet on the end of Bill and Lydia’s dock next to Dragon Run

Our good friends Bill and Lydia were waiting for us on their dock to help us with our lines when we we finally arrived at 1730hrs.  When ‘Dragon Run’s twin’ (as the neighbours have dubbed BV) was all secure and put to bed, we retreated into the house to catch up on the latest news and to enjoy a lovely dinner.  Bill and Lydia had some exciting events lined up for the next few days and we talked through the associated logistics as well as finding out about a delivery trip from Newport that they were planning on doing and, of course, discussing the sailing adventures we had all had since we had last seen each other in the summer.

The leaking galley tap (L & top R) plus the
slightly tired looking one in the forward heads

Tuesday was an admin and a ‘prep for leaving the boat’ day.  Nicky did some laundry and removed all the curtains and took them in to a dry-cleaners whilst I bashed the computer to track down some spare parts.  The galley tap had started to leak and from previous experience with a similar one in our house I knew that the best thing to do was to replace the complete unit.  An e-mail to the  supplier in the UK confirmed that our exact model was no longer available but I found the more modern looking version of it.  There was even a supplier in the USA although I’d have to check the sizing of the connections and maybe get an adaptor.  It was all looking like a quick fix until the USA supplier dropped the news that they only supplied trade clients.  An e-mail back to the UK solved the problem albeit with a larger shipping charge; more spares for delivery to Phil and Lesley’s house up in Great Falls!  We also took the opportunity to order a new tap for the forward heads because that was starting to look a little tired and by ordering both from the UK we had the added bonus of knowing that the connections were all compatible with those on BV.

In the late afternoon Bill and Lydia gained extra guests, Marie and Dieter on a very impressive aluminium yacht, Greyhound.  Lydia had arranged for them to moor on one of their neighbours’ docks and we had a lovely evening talking sailing over barbecued hamburgers.  We’ d seen Greyhound in Las Palmas, just before Dieter and Marie set off on the ARC, so it was lovely to hear of their exploits in the intervening 12 months and to talk about their plans for the Pacific.

The following morning, despite all our work the previous day, it still seemed a bit of a mad rush to pack bags, empty and clean the fridge and generally shut down BV for the nearly 2 weeks that we would be away.  Add in a little time in Bill’s workshop drilling out and putting together some new engine anodes and packing Bill’s car up to the gunwales and somehow the morning completely disappeared.  And so, directly after lunch, we were off, on the stage of a fairly extensive road trip around Virginia.

Corrotoman River, Virginia, USA