On Wednesday we moved from the face dock in Hampton, went out to Sunset Yachting to get diesel, and moved into a slip with floating piers so we didn’t have to worry about the tide. Tides are a new thing for us, as are strange noises in the bottom of the boat at night. It…

Well, it is my birthday and we’re living our dream. What better present could I have than that? This morning we pulled up the anchor and headed up the Elizabeth River. We were not alone as all manner of commercial ships were around. Tugs, barges, container ships and Pilot boats were a few. Then we…

Today we explored the opposite shore and found the Portsmouth Shipyard Museum and Portsmouth lightship. This side is more conducive to visiting boaters as it has free docks to tie up at during the day. Norfolk charged $3.25 to land your dinghy. They have a nice children’s museum with an extensive toy train collection along…

The Deep Creek Bridge opened up at 8:30. There was no hurry to get from there to the lock, as the lock keeper does both jobs. This lock, the last of two on the Dismal Swamp canal was a real treat. As we descended eight feet to the level of the Elizabeth River, the lockmaster,…

After a relaxing lay day exploring Elizabeth City’s restored old homes, visiting the library and splicing some lines we departed at 0630. The engine wasn’t happy about starting and there was a terrible whine from the engine compartment. Looks like the fan that vents hot air from the engine wasn’t quite round anymore, so we…

Today’s passage was only four hours, so we decided to enjoy the cool of the morning at anchor. The picture is of last night’s sunset. We had a little difficulty raising the anchor as the chain caught the fluke of the spare anchor on the way up. It didn’t take long to straighten out and…