This time we went to the Phoebus area of Hampton. This tiny section of town had a number of shops with interesting sounding names many of which included the word, panache. It seemed like an older part of town that was trying to be relevant but nothing was open on this Friday morning, October 22.
We were particularly curious about what this business was offering!
The skies were very overcast and threatening so we held off pulling up anchor until 11 a.m. As we left we passed these fishing boats that were docked nearby.
We only had an hour left of cruising time on the Chesapeake before we entered the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). The bay was a little choppy and it rained some but when we got to the ICW everything calmed down. We hadn’t cruised on the ICW for a few years because we had been leaving Zendo on the Chesapeake over the winter.
We passed through Norfolk (where the ICW starts at mile 0) and Portsmouth where we saw huge Navy vessels and other big ships on both sides of the Elizabeth River.
The ICW became quite beautiful as we left those two cities. We had forgotten that there was a lock to go through until shortly before we arrived at the lock at Great Bridge. We had to linger for about an hour before going through the bridge and lock there. Archie seemed to enjoy his first lock experience though he was tempted to jump off of the boat and onto the the lawn when we were level with it. Of course, as soon as we had to go through the lock, it started to rain more. Jonny, gentleman that he is, took the forward line on the bow and allowed me to take the line under the aft deck roof to stay dry.
Traveling on the ICW is slower than other routes we’ve been taking due to the bridges that we have to wait to open and of course, the lock. Traffic on the ICW is also an issue especially as the weekend approaches. This giant barge was a particularly unique example!
We were searching for a place to anchor with an area that we could take Archie to do his business. There were very few places and some had been silted in and really weren’t accessible anymore. As we approached another bridge we saw a fellow Heritage East owner who we knew who seemed to be stuck on the ICW. It turns out that while he was waiting for the bridge to open and a number of other boats were circling nearby, he ran aground on a log in those narrow confines. He had already been waiting a few hours for a tow. We were not in a position to help him so after chatting a bit we moved on.
It was difficult to hear each other because there were scores of jets flying overhead that drowned out overything. There must have been a military base nearby but we never found out what it was.
It’s getting dark earlier now and we were looking for a place to anchor. There aren’t a lot of places on the ICW but we finally found a good spot on Blackwater Creek which is in the town of Virginia Beach. It was actually an idyllic spot - a very secluded and sinuous creek surrounded by marsh grasses. No other boats were anchored there and all we saw were a couple of very small, quiet fishing boats. We happily settled into this lovely spot.
Jonny then whisked Archie away down to the end of the creek about a mile and a half away. There he took him for a walk by a little trading post that had a dock nearby. That evening we had the second to last portion of the famous ravioli for dinner and enjoyed a very quiet and restful evening in a blissfully calm anchorage.
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