Photo26: NC to Solomons

Welcome to The Second Sojourn Sail Trip Photo Gallery 26: June 2003: Belhaven, North Carolina to the Chesapeake Bay, Oxford, Maryland

Dowry Creek Marina, before the wind began to blow 35 knots on the beam. We met more wonderful people there while we waited out the front.

The wonderful facilities of Dowry Creek Marina. Alex went swimming immediately!

A lovely place to just hang out

Dowry Creek, one of the many creeks on the Intracoastal Waterway

The cypress trees give off tannic acid, which makes the water brown, and leaves a mustache on the bows of ICW boats

Michelle takes a break from school

Boats anchored at the south lock of the Dismal Swamp, waiting for the next opening

Once everyone is into the lock and tied up, the lock doors close.

Second Sojourn and Sweet Sensations wait as the water rises

Mike, the boat cat, has taken to hopping onto other boats when we're tied up! He's gotten very brave!

The Dismal Swamp Canal

Marie and Joe on Odyssey (ahead left), Frank and Lisa on Sweet Sensations and Dale and Jo-Anne on Sea-Duction, head out of the north lock of the Dismal Swamp and north to Norfolk

Sweet Sensations starts the run under the lift bridges and through the Naval Shipyards. Norfolk is on the right, and Portsmouth, on the left

The shipyards were busy with many different types of vessels

Cranes were moving gear on and off air craft carriers

A military catamaran

Past downtown Norfolk on the right

Enormous container vessels from all over the world lined docks to load and unload cargo

It is always important to remember to look behind you!

The boat traffic in Norfolk and Hampton Roads was incredible. Here, a tug pushes a huge barge.

Although we saw a lot of different military vessels in Norfolk, we saw a lot fewer than when we were here in October, probably due to the war with Iraq.

An air craft carrier with a military guard. We were asked to put the camera equipment away by military personnel carrying automatic weapons.

These choppers flew in circles for an hour. We figured they were on maneuvers.

The calm of the harbor of Hampton, Virginia. It reminded us of Memorial Drive and Harvard. We got exactly here and threw out the anchor for the night. It was a welcome change from the gray of Norfolk.

The Cousteau Museum was opening that afternoon, but they let us check it out while we were ashore in Hampton

The Court House, Hampton, Virginia

Virginia Air and Space Museum is shaped like a bird in flight.

We anchored with Joe and Marie on Odyssey in Jackson Creek, in Deltaville, Virginia to wait out a blow.

If you look closely, you can see the Osprey chicks this mother is feeding. All the nests we saw today have newly hatched birds.

Reedville, Virginia. In actuality, the soft shells haven't started to breed yet because there has been so much rain that the water in the Bay is fresh from river runoff. Soft shells crabs need brackish or salt water to breed.

Reedville, Virginia

A home on the main street of Reedville, Virginia

A typical view of a Virginia creek, just like the one we were anchored in

The watermen use longer boats for crabbing and oystering than the Maine fishermen do for lobsters.

Lace cap hydrangeas

Reedville, Virginia

Folks in the south have the nicest porches!

Fish traps are found in the shallower waters of the Chesapeake Bay, and are NOT always marked on the charts! The fish swim from the deeper water to the shallower water and into the traps, where they are netted until the watermen return to release or keep them.