Solomon Island to Piantatank River at Jackson Creek and on to Hampton, Va.

Sailed all day with strong NW winds to the Piantatank River. Since we arrived after sunset, we decided not to thread our way through the narrow dredged Jackson Creek entrance and instead anchored outside the entrance near near a duck blind shown on the chart. The duck blind turned out to be a quite substantial structure on pilings which was accessed by boat; a little clubhouse for hunters. We settled in for another stunning full moon at anchor.

Not sure why, but we have been waking up just before sunrise at 0600, so I don't know what it is that is making our departures mid morning, Oh well, we have no schedule to keep so no one on the sailing vessel Kuivato is keeping track of our departures or arrivals.

We had a rip-roaring N wind all day which whisked us south to Hampton, VA.  We arrived before sunset, what a novelty! We chose to stay in the creek in front of Hampton University where we enjoyed the hourly chimes of a clock tower. It reminded me of my childhood and the family grandfather clock, such fond memories.

Our good friends Janaki and Graham, sailing Leela from Portsmouth, N.H., arrived in Norfolk at 0100 after traveling overnight for 36 hours offshore from Sandy Hook, NJ. The next morning they joined us at the Hampton Yacht Club. Exhausted but basking in their accomplishment we spent a couple of lovely days in the warm sun with them completing some of the many chores on our respective boats.

Here Janaki and I are going off to do laundry and grocery shopping. What fun, lady's time! 

Tim at the masthead doing work.

On Kuivato, one of the many chores was to replace the ancient dim anchor light on the masthead with a nifty LED light that was both an all-around white light for when we anchor out, and a tri-color light for sailing at night. The new light would also draw about 1/5th of the power of the old light. After organizing himself with all the possible tools he could need, I winched Tim up the mast in the bosuns chair and he went to work. There was additional work needing to be checked along the way up, all of which took over an hour. At one point I noticed some urgency in Tim's voice when he said he needed to come down immediately. Slowly, I guided him down to the deck where he laid down as pale as a ghost. Between being restricted in the bosuns chair and wrapping his legs around the mast cutting off his circulation, along with being in the sun and the wind for over an hour, his body had had enough. He recovered quickly but unfortunately, the job was not completed and he had to go back up an hour later to finish everything. We now have a blazing bright LED mast light and have crossed off another task from the list. 

We went to the HYC homemade pizza night which was fabulous and provided days of leftovers. The club has a full bar and restaurant; quite different than our hometown Kittery Point YC.

The next day we moved Kuivato over from Hampton to Portsmouth, VA passing by the Portsmouth, Va. Naval Shipyard, BAE systems and NAASCO, the company that Jackson works with in San Diego.  What a crazy a busy working port. The first night we spent in Hospital Cove across from downtown Norfolk with a great view of the Norfolk skyline across the harbor.  

Coincidentally, Portsmouth, NH sailors Molly and Jeff Bolster arrived at the Tidewater Marina in Norfolk to meet up with their Valient 40 which had been sailed offshore to here a few weeks as the first leg of their trip south. We motored across to Norfolk and joined the Bolster's on their boat with Graham and Janaki for a wonderful potluck feast listening to Jeff share his fabulously entertaining and colorful stories. After being on the boat for 5 weeks we had our own laughable stories that rivaled them all!

The next night we moved to North Basin free dock in Portmouth near the passenger ferry to Norfolk and across the River from an aircraft carrier BAE Systems had in a dry dock, quite a sight! It was lovely being able to walk to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum half a block away and to tour a dry docked lightship museum which the the city renamed PORTSMOUTH since lightships take on the name do the location where they are stationed. This light ship was built in 1923 and had been both off of the Carolina coast and Nantucket in its heyday. The tour guide got a bit upset with me when I tried to climb the unique hollow tower which was apparently was off limits since it arrived here in the early 1980's. As you can see, I am still a rebel!

Janaki and I took the ferry which was across the basin from where we were docked and went into Norfolk shopping. She has about as much tolerance for shopping as me so we got out of their without too many hives! 

Lucky for us, the town of Norfolk was celebrating their annual Illumination night so we all went back over to enjoy the biggest parade I have ever seen including helium floats akin to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC. There was a heavy presence of  military, police and firemen participating in the event on their noisey motorcycles and trucks, so it was good that all of the towns people were also at the parade and not wreaking havock elsewhere requiring vital emergency services. As we were finishing up dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant, the city cleanup crew came along and scrubbed those streets immaculate, quite impressive.

For our last night in Portsmouth we moved to High Street Basin just a couple uh dared yards to the west where it was more sheltered and would provide a more quiet night of sleep. These short fall days getting dark so early have been challenging, but tonight at1800hrs we looked out of the cabin and saw that we were surrounded by these  fabulous lights! So much fun!!

We took this photo of Kuivato  from across the basin, our little home surrounded by the warm lights of Portsmouth. What a hoot, Portsmouth, NH to Portsmouth , Va! The next morning it was off to the Dismal Swamp which we have been told is  not that dismal at all.