Sam and I had such a great stay in Norfolk.

It’s definitely a mermaid town.

These lovely statues are each unique and placed all over the city.

Norfolk is Mile Marker 0 of the Intracoastal Waterway.

That means we have come to the end of the line.

And we have to say goodbye to the Bob 423 route that Sam used all along the ICW.

If you do get a chance to go to Norfolk by boat, we highly recommend the Waterside Marina.

It is accessible to many restaurants, bars and museums.

I think you’ll really like it.

As we pulled away from the marina, we saw one of the ferries that go back and forth which is a great way to see more of the area.

Now, we are back in the ship channel.

There is so much to see.

Giant Navy ships.

Cruise ships.

Impressive architecture.

More Navy ships.

Pretty impressive, right?

Since the COVID-19 hit, we have seen so many cruise ships just waiting for everything to go back to normal.

Aren’t we all?

There was a lot of traffic out in the channel today as you could imagine.

We passed a few tows and barges.

And whatever this huge thing is.

A highlight was definitely seeing the Comfort ship.

This was the ship that was sent to New York to help relieve hospitals treating Coronavirus patients.

Sam spotted the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier there on the right.

How cool is that?

We finally get out of the channel and into the Chesapeake Bay.

And we saw this bad boy coming our way.

As this container ship was passing us, we braced for the wake.

And boy did we get one!

Sam lined us up to face it head on.

That’s when the clanking and crashing noises from below started.

I had secured everything down in anticipation for the Chesapeake before we left.

However, I opened the refrigerator earlier while we were underway and forgot to bungee it back.

Arg!

The crash I heard was a bottle of juice and a bottle of champagne.

Fortunately, neither of them broke so all is well.

That was certainly a way to remember arriving into the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay, we hear, can be as fierce and unforgiving as the ocean.

It’s such a large body of water that sometimes, you don’t see land where you think you should.

But it was a lovely day with calm waters and some, but not a lot of, traffic.

Then we spotted a red and white tower.

We knew we were getting closer to our destination in Yorktown, Virginia.

Right around the corner and through a very narrow channel was Wormley Creek Marina.

Many other loopers have stopped here and so we knew it was a good stop.

Also, we met Jeff and Ruth there, who just recently started living aboard their Carver.

They have planned a trip to the Keys and then to the Bahamas before starting their Great Loop journey.

Wormley Creek Marina is a very lovely place.

And look what we found on the property.

That red and white tower waiting for us.

They also have a pool and very nice showers.

This is a very big reason why they have a pool.

Yes, folks, that’s right.

Jellyfish.

Everywhere.

All different shapes and sizes.

A very good reason to stay out of the water.

Welcome to the Chesapeake!

Seeing Yorktown

Jeff and Ruth graciously drove us around Yorktown.

This is a very historic area and there are various tours you can go on if you are a history buff.

This area of Virginia is incredibly beautiful and we hear that it is just lovely in the fall.

I certainly would like to see that!

Jeff and Ruth took us to the Water Street Grille.

We masked up and went in.

I am so thankful that there was a restaurant open.

A really fantastic restaurant!

And a big thank you to Jeff and Ruth who picked up the check!

They made our stay in Yorktown very special.

We hear there are beautiful sunsets from the marina and even though it was a bit cloudy, I thought they were right.

We really enjoyed our first trip into the Chesapeake Bay.

The northside of the Chesapeake was where we began this journey.

So close yet so far!

Our Thoughts