Labor Day Monday (9/2) was a beautiful overcast and cool morning in Manteo, NC as we pulled away from the dock around 7:00. We knew we were in for a long day, but it couldn’t have been a better travel day. Along with overcast skies we had calm seas, light winds and temperatures of 75-80 degrees.    

We said good-bye to North Carolina and said hello to Virginia around 1:00 pm. As we cruised up Haynes Creek, we encounter lots of families taking advantage of the water on this beautiful holiday. Scout slowed down as we passed by the swimmers, skiers, kayakers, jet skiers, fishermen, etc.

Arriving at Atlantic Yacht Basin Marina about nine hours later, we refueled (200 gallons) and pumped out our other stuff. Dinner was on board and we called it an early night.

Up before 6:00, we were ready to head out this morning (Tuesday, 9/3) about 7:00 am but instead had to wait for the Great Bridge to open and allow boating traffic through at 9:00 along with the Great Lock for an uneventful one- foot drop. We also had to pass under four railroad bridges which were normally supposed to be open, but we had to wait at two for trains to pass, so we spent about three hours getting from Atlantic Yacht Basin through the Norfolk channel into the Chesapeake Bay. It was an easy but very slow process with lots of idling in place and waiting. The waters of Norfolk were interesting and busy with lots of barge traffic and Navy ships docked for maintenance.

Then things changed. As we entered the open bay, much later than anticipated, we were taking waves on the nose, splashing over the top of the boat which would bring us crashing down. It was quite uncomfortable. We had three more hours to go to get to our destination, so we made a decision to make a left turn and head up the York river to find an anchorage. Things got way calmer. On the way, we called a couple of marinas and found they didn’t have any space thanks to Dorian, but were lucky enough to find Wormley Creek Marina, which we had not considered before, and they had one spot available.  Arriving about 3:30, we found a lovely family owned marina in a quiet, protected location. We will decide what to do tomorrow. Still trying to stay out of Dorian’s path. Will keep you posted.