Mill Creek Hampton VA USA

After our morning spent shopping and visiting the glass blowing display, we finally left Greta And Garry’s dock at 1355hrs.  We knew that it would be a motor to Mill Creek that afternoon in very light winds or a motor into stronger winds in the morning so we went for the easy option of lighter winds and an overnight at anchor in Mill Creek.

US Navy dockyard – an impressive array of ironmongery!

Of course, the motor up Elizabeth River gave us another chance to ogle at the US Navy’s ships.

Views around Mill Creek

Mill Creek is positioned on the north side of the entrance to Elizabeth River, just south of Hampton and on the west side of Fort Monroe.  It was a bit odd having the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel on our western side but the anchorage is surprisingly sheltered and was a perfect place to get ready for our overnight passage to Beaufort NC.  It’s also right by the relatively narrow river entrance by Fort Monroe, so timing a departure in the morning so that we wouldn’t be battling against the tidal flow would be easy.

Over the summer some bugs had taken up residence on our Hydrovane

Mill Creek was a popular place
the evening we visited

We had checked and adjusted the rig tension whilst we were at Greta and Gary’s but we hadn’t marked up the backstay.  So we set that up with maximum tension, put a sticker on the backstay tensioner and then wound it back to its normal setting.  I then stripped down to swimming trunks and climbed down the transom ladder to fit the Hydrovane rudder.  We then uncovered it ready for the morning only to find that over the summer some bugs had decided to build a nest on it.  We chipped the mud tubes off and disposed of them overboard in case they contained nasty stinging things and then we looked at starting to recommission the watermaker.  Nicky suggested that it “would be a good idea to do a leak check” and how right she was.  We fired it up only to find that there was a small fountain coming from the high pressure pump connection; I hadn’t tightened that up properly when I refitted the pump earlier in the summer.  Tightening the connection solved that problem so we moved on to changing the filters.  The rest of the test we left for when we were in cleaner water out at sea.

Sunset over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel

We spent the rest of the afternoon cooking up a stew to make meal preparation easy on the overnight passage.  That brought us nicely to sundowners and whilst enjoying a glass of wine in the cockpit we were treated to a fantastic sunset with beautiful orange and red colours.  With BV all set, it was time for a quick dinner and an early night ready for a prompt start in the morning to catch the tide.

Mill Creek, Hampton, Virginia, USA