Solomons to Hampton, Gesa writes....

We've travelled a lot in the last few days and are now resting in Hampton, getting some jobs done and hiding out from some more wet and windy weather.

Gesa describes the travelling days nicely in her recent email to friends, so I share it with everyone else here.
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I have 'escaped' and find myself sitting in a warm, cozy cafe called the Coffee Connection on the Hampton (Virginia) waterfront, where we are now anchored. It has been a long three days since Solomons Island. Solomons was the break we needed after a few days hard, cold, and windy sailing from Baltimore. The wind died down, we found a great town, the sun came out (and wow did the temperature go up too!), and we had the most amazing Halloween. Just what the doctor ordered.

It was windy Sunday; in fact, as we were putting up the mainsail, Nick said one reef, but as we got out there and I took the wheel, I yelled "two" (meaning less sail). Nick of course looked at me with a frown, but has learned to trust my instinct, and obliged. As the winds gusted 25-30 knots he agreed it had been a good move. As we rounded the shoal areas and turned away from the wind we were able to let out more sail and have a fast and comfortable reach to Mill Creek (Reedville) in the new (to us!) state of Virginia. We wound our way up a narrow entrance to Mill Creek and found a lovely quiet spot to hang out for the afternoon, working on 'Sea Breeze' and fishing. OK things were grey, but they were dry and not terribly cold. It is all relative.

As usual an early night for two reasons. Sailing makes one tired, even if you are not doing much; and secondly we have a failed alternator so we have limited power and need to be more conservative with power. So, careful use of lights, computer etc. Easier just to go to bed!

Monday and another long day sail ahead of us. Still grey, but not raining. Wind is still there, but not strong enough to have a steady sail the whole way, so on and off motor sailing. Shame none of it was actually charging the batteries! The sound and vibration of the engine really drain you. So. it really is a fine line between nice sailing (ideal 15 knots of wind) and edging on uncomfortable sailing (20-25 knots)...for me at least. 10 and under often means motoring. We make it to Deltaville and what a treat to find such a huge, deep anchorage. A couple of boats are already there, as we have arrived mid afternoon, but by sunset, five more boats have joined us. A popular spot on the way south.

With time on our hands, I take advantage and have individual school lessons with the kids, while Nick either works on Sea Breeze or the alternator. It is also still light, so I grab Nick for a quick haircut. His is easy, and I am now used to doing this for years. My hair on the other hand, has been manageable up till recently, but has gone funny as of late and needs a trim of sorts. Unfortunately, never trust an untrained man with scissors. For all the other haircuts, I did my own front and let Nick finish the back. But I was tired, figured Nick by now knew what was required and I left it to him. I was alerted to some problem mid way through when he went "oops...ah just kidding". But as he came to the end, Issie said "Mummy you look funny". I then panicked, looked in the mirror, laughed in shock then broke out in tears. I have enjoyed the compliments all these years of how nice I look with short hair, and I agree. However, I feel like Samson when Delilah cut off his hair. My powers are gone!!! Too short is too short, I might as well be bald!! In true childlike fashion, I curled up in a ball in our bed, hugged my bear and cried. The kids tried everything to cheer me up. Max added a few stuffed animals, and Issie made me a wonderful card. Yes, it will grow back, but I have taken to wearing a scarf on my head. And what makes it worse, now that we are in Hampton, we are right next to a hair dresser. If I had only waited!!! Sigh, all in hindsight.

That night, with an early nightfall, we set the kids in motion for bed, and find both are in bed by 630pm!!! I was all set to go to bed too, but really did find it unreasonable to go to bed quite that early. So potter for another hour before I finally call it a night! The clocks have changed so it is suddenly so dark so early.

Tuesday, day three aboard without shore leave and another 40 mile-day (that is about 8 hours sailing). This time however, we wake up to rain, ug!! The forecast is not getting better, and despite the rain, it is the best time to go. And with no wifi access and the elections that night, we wanted to be somewhere with results.

Despite the grey day, we have wind and another quick sail. Sometimes uncomfortable and rocky, which wears me out more than anything, as I have to deal with nausea as well as the inability to do little else (I hate not being able to do anything). 2/3rd the way to Norfolk we catch a radio conversation with Hands Across the Sea and manage to intercept them. We met Harriet and TJ in Dominica, again in St Martin and then finally again in Annapolis. Until then, we really had no idea what they really did. Visit their website for more (basically they are a charity under sail!) http://www.handsacrossthesea.net/ Turns out, they are in Hampton, a few miles north of Norfolk, with the Caribbean 1500 rally, waiting to set off to the Virgin Islands. Some bad weather off shore has delayed their trip until Friday. So, we cut our trip an hour short, no one complains, and wind our way up the creek to what turns out to be a tight anchorage.

The marinas are full with all the Caribbean 1500 boats, and of course Hampton and Norfolk is the launch place for any boat going south, so things are busy. We squeeze in, and are firmly set, but I wake this morning to watch the motor boat in front slowly move, until it finally seems to come to a halt by the pillars. I keep asking Nick if they are dragging, but he seems unconcerned, looks to see their dinghy is on board, and anyway, as I also agree, the catamaran is closer and can alert them. It seems like they have now tied their line to the pillar. It is windy, so perhaps that is the best thing, but it is at times like these I am glad we have a good anchor. Once set, it is set!

Tuesday late afternoon, Max and Nick go for an explore ashore and quickly find Coffee Connection. They come back to get Issie and I , and we are set for the next hour and a half with free wifi, coffees and election coverage. The kids are literally bouncing off the couch, the chocolate chip cookies probably didn't help! But we get kicked out at 6pm when they close, feed kids and put them to bed.

Nick is on line keeping track of the election, while I try and stay up, but find my eyes closing by 730pm. Nick stays up till 1030pm when McCain concedes. I awake at 530am (there can be times when you sleep too much) and ask him who won. Apparently Hampton (Virginia is normally a Republican state) whooped and hollered when Obama won. I was asleep so didn't hear a thing. Well, America wakes up to a new president, and a piece of history. It has been fun and interesting being amidst it all. Obama has a big job ahead of him, I do not envy his position, but am glad of what can be.

So here we are Wednesday, windy, stormy, rainy, as is Max's mood. So after a rather turbulent morning, I have escaped back to the cafe, where I have spent the afternoon, finally catching up on email and other computer stuff. It has been nice, I dread going back out in the weather, but at least we are not sailing in it! Unfortunately, my peace has been shattered by the return of my family. Ah, it is nice to see them again, but they are hyper, a typical end of the day thing I do not like, just when we are trying to wind down.