Great Bridge

     We are at a free dock in Great Bridge, VA, part of Chesapeake, VA. Now that's not Chesapeake City which is in MD. I don't know why it's Chesapeake since we are no longer on Chesapeake Bay, we are in the ICW.

     Great Bridge is a nice little spot. Walking distance to groceries and library and it's FREE to tie up here. Room for 6-7 boats. It's between Great Bridge Lock and Great Bridge bridge. Confused? You can look it up. Significant Revolutionary War battle fought here.

     Last Saturday we left Annapolis intending to get to Solomons, MD. A couple of hours bashing into major wind and waves made us change our destination to the Rhodes River. A real pretty and protected spot that local cruisers have their raft-ups at.

     When we left the next day it was still a little breezy but nowhere near as bad and we made good time to Solomans Island. Motoring some because of the wind direction but we also had some nice sailing time. Happy. We anchored in a spot we used in the springtime where there is room for 2 or 3 boats. Within a few hours we were surrounded by 9 or 10 boats. Way too many. Way too close. We even asked one for their insurance information because of where they anchored and the weather forecast. For some reason they moved off to a mooring. Might have been something I said. Besides us there was one US registered boat (that stayed), one Australian and the rest were Canadians. I might have posted something unflattering about Canadians on Facebook being a little frustrated with their anchoring choices. I know Canadians. Canadians are nice. I'm sure they contribute to our economy travelling to the US. But.... do they have to anchor SO DAMN CLOSE???

     Whoops. There I go again. Sorry. BTW: the boat I shamed into moving was from Massachusetts. Definitely not Canadians.

     We had a very nice sail to Deltaville, VA and anchored next to Canadians. We made sure not to be too close and that made them (and us) friendly.

     From Deltaville we planned to go to Hampton, VA but we've had the current with us for several morning departure passages and made good time to Hampton Roads where we decided to brave the Norfolk traffic and military restrictions to head into the ICW. Just barely made some last of the day bridge openings which caused some tension but... here we are! In the long ditch. Heading to Coinjock next to do laundry and then across Albermarle Sound in NC. We're actually waiting an extra day here (where it's free) to time crossing Albermarle Sound in safer conditions. Coinjock docking is definitely not free.

     Did I mention we like free? We spent multiple thousands of dollars in maintenance and repairs in the last few weeks. Some planned. Some not. Ahhh, cruising.