The winds finally shifted to the north and we decided to continue pushing south.  With a brisk wind and some lumpy seas, we put a reef in the main and headed off to Mobjack Bay.  Trip particularly likes these days and stayed at the helm most of the time, but I’d take my turn if he needed to plot position or use the head.  The very first time I got on the helm, I was there for no more than 2 minutes when a huge wave came up from behind and swamped (pooped) both me and the deck.  I was drenched from the knees down, but the cockpit emptied fast and we kept moving right along.  Check another thing off the bucket list that I had never added in the first place!

 

Mobjack Bay sunset

While Trip was at the helm I really had a fun time doing some bird watching – particularly terns and pelicans as they fish – what a wild difference!  Terns are so tiny and graceful, you watch them skim the water, locate their prey, then tuck and dive beautifully to make their catch.  Pelicans, on the other hand are about as graceless as it gets.  Though they soar along the water beautifully also looking for prey, they’re a tumbled mess of feathers (most likely due to their size) when they try to tuck and dive.  The splash they create when they hit the water’s surface is hilarious.  More often than not they come up unsuccessful, so we get to watch multiple dives/crashes/water landings.

 

We knew we were getting close to Norfolk based on the radio traffic.  I was rather jealous to hear that a submarine was heading out to sea as multiple warnings were issued to maintain the proper distance (500 yards) as it left the Naval base.  It would have been fun to see.

 

As we were rounding the bend to head up into the bay, I spotted a couple of dolphins.  Next thing we knew they were swimming directly along side of us, jumping out of the water and enjoying the fact that they were winning the race in speed.  I so desperately wanted to take pictures or videos since they were so close, but we both had our hands full with minding the sails since things were still a bit lumpy.

 

We dropped anchor up the East River.  We were a little bit dubious because many of the Active Captain reviews were several years old, but the area was lovely and quiet.  We still had north and northwesterly winds blowing through so the land just off the river provided the perfect protection.  We thought about staying only one night and getting to Norfolk a day early and taking a slip to get organized, but realized we could do alot of the same organizing there in the creek, so sat tight and enjoyed it all for two nights.