Hampton VA USA

Leaving Fishing Bay near Deltaville

Based upon the weather forecast for the next week or so, we decided that leaving the Chespeake Bay and going outside Cape Hattaras would be very uncomfortable, verging on stupid/dangerous, so we made the decision to start making our way south on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).  With the DuoGen fitted we were all set to go and left the Fishing Bay Marina at 0845hrs on Wednesday 21 November for a 40ish mile passage to Hampton.

The bulk of the passage was uneventful and we were able to sail from almost as soon as we were clear of the Fishing Bay area.  The forecast had suggested that the wind would be quite light and we had expected to motor much of the way which, given that we were about to undertake a further 4 days of motoring we had thought would be rather disappointing.  But we had wanted to get moving and in the end had a surprisingly good sail south, following the western coastline of the Chesapeake Bay down to Hampton which sits on the north bank of the James River, opposite Norfolk, just inside the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay.

As well as the lights and normal houses you’d expect to see, Hampton Roads and the approaches to Norfolk have all sorts of depots and accommodation blocks giving the area a distinctly military feel.  It’s not surprising really because Norfolk is home to the largest US naval base on the east coast.  Clearly we’d see more of that when we continued on to Norfolk in the morning, but for now we turned right towards Hampton on the north shore.

The Hampton River (left) Bluewater Marina (right) the east shore

We’d visited Bluewater Marina at Hampton by land with Bill and Lydia at the end of October and from chatting to some of the Salty Dawg Rally participants understood that it was possible to anchor up the Hampton River, close to the marinas.  There’s also an area up near the fixed road bridge (vertical clearance only 28ft so we wouldn’t be going beyond the bridge!) which is a recognised anchorage.  As sunset rapidly approached we entered the river to try to find a suitable place to spend the night.  The river seemed quite narrow and not knowing how much traffic there might be (it was the day before Thanksgiving so we rather hoped not too much) we weren’t keen on dropping the hook where we would swing into the channel.

Towards the top end of the Hampton River (for us).  Just around the corner to the right is the road bridge (vert clearance 28ft), with the yacht anchorage just this side

The anchorage up by the road bridge was already occupied, maybe we could have squeezed in, maybe not, and the wind was due to swing round 180 degrees during the night.  A tight anchorage and a big windshift are never a good combination for a relaxed night’s sleep…..

Mill Creek

… So we left the Hampton River at good speed and retraced our wake to Mill Creek an area protected from the north by the bulk of the peninsula on which Hampton sits, from the east by Old Comfort Point, on which sits Fort Monroe, an 18^thcentury fort, and from the west (at least partially) by the bridge approach to the Hampton Roads Tunnel.  We had seen one other yacht turn off into this large anchorage and they were clearly well settled in when we arrived.

Deltaville clams for dinner

We anchored somewhat north of them and rapidly retired below to the warmth of the Eberspacher heater and a hearty dinner, including a first course of the excellent clams that we had bought in Deltaville.  So, sailing was over for a few days; Thursday 22 November 2018 (Thanksgiving Day) would see us start the Intracoastal Waterway at mile zero – Norfolk VA.

Hampton, Virginia, USA