Making The Turn For Home

Hampton to Deltaville |  6 Hours  |  40.5 Miles  

By reaching Hampton yesterday, we were able to sleep in an hour later this morning. At 7:30 I brought the anchor up for the final time. I could have multitasked and provided the morning traffic report at the same time. Directly in front of us was a perfect view of both directions of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT). All lanes were moving delay-free. Construction is progressing on the $4 billion expansion project. but still has a long way to go before its November 2025 contracted completion date. By the time I had the bow washed off and the bridle stowed, we had exited Mill Creek and were making our way around Fort Monroe toward the Chesapeake Bay. The early morning sun shone favorably on Old Point Comfort Lighthouse. This has always been one of my favorite lighthouses, but it looked like the old girl could use a fresh coat of paint. It is the second oldest light in all of the Chesapeake, and the oldest light still in use.  

We enjoyed another great travel day. The waves and wind were both low and the sun provided some nice warmth. We set a waypoint and relaxed, able to see most of the Bay's characteristic elements on our trip north. Crab pots were plentiful, but well outside the channels. The New Point Comfort Lighthouse, the third oldest in the Bay and the 10th oldest in the United States, could be seen in the distance atop its rocky island, surrounded by water. The flies noticed our return and came as expected. We each grabbed a swatter to protect our ankles. Barry went out to watch a few dolphin that came to ride in our bow wave. Passing Wolf Trap Lighthouse we knew we were half way to our turn into the Rappahannock River.

We rounded Stingray Point into the Rappahannock and saw the Norris Bridge in the haze ahead of us. Not needing to travel the six miles upriver to the bridge, we hung a left into Broad Creek. An osprey greeted us as we passed the first channel marker into our creek. Another left turn took us into our marina. A wayward glove seemingly waved "hello" as we passed by. As custom dictates, we stopped at the pumpout dock to take care of business. 

Heading to our slip, we passed the picturesque Stingray Point Lighthouse replica that serves as our marina's office. We eased into our spot and reconnected all of our docklines. We were home. Our next checklist item was to go get my car out of storage. We walked the docks to see who and what had changed since our departure. The sight of Laughing Place, formerly our 41-foot sailboat, always makes us smile. More reasons to smile followed as my car started right up and then we received a surprise welcome home visit from Glenda, Greg, Jaxon, and Cooper. We enjoyed a quiet dinner onboard (we still have enough food stowed to last us another month) and relaxed for the remainder of the evening. Tomorrow morning we'll load up my car with a ton of dirty laundry and head back to the house. Over the next few weeks I'll get Crossroads' exterior washed and waxed and the interior dusted and cleaned. We have a list of repairs and improvements to be done over the summer. The countdown has been started: 237 days until we do this again.

I'll close with a few final notes on our 2023 winter cruise that covered 2,887 miles over 128 days (and 125 posts). This year's voyage had many highlights and only a few low points (that were all overcome without too much inconvenience). We were able to explore several new places and revisit many of our long-time favorite spots. We especially appreciate all the folks who took time to visit with us along the way. Most importantly, thank you for reading these posts. This blog began as a way for me to organize my photos with captions so that one day in the (hopefully distant) future, I can look back and relive this time when Barry and I were fortunate enough to travel. I'm glad that you have also enjoyed following along. Drop either of us an email, text, or comment below if you don't mind. I can see the number of page views a day, but I never know who is reading. 

Thanks again and goodnight.