Even though it was further away, we opted for Wormley Creek Marina instead of the Riverwalk docks. Riverwalk was exposed to wind and current and we knew a big blow was coming, great decision. This family run marina reminds us both of summer camp and we can watch the Coast Guard do their practice maneuvers as the Training Center is right next door.
Another This house with a dock just makes us wonder, Maybe Virginia is a good place for us?
Every boatyard has a “Yorktown”, the lady who owns it said her and her husband used it to deliver supplies to anchored merchant vessels for many years. It’s been on the hard for 6 months and it is most likely going to to be cut up, “ we are older now and its just too much work”.
Instead of Ubering to Yorktown we took the dinghy past the USCG Training Center to the Riverwalk dock, very convenient. It’s cooler today probably due to the promised storm. I love the homes with hillside trolley’s to haul their gear from house to boat and back again.
We tied up at the dock and went straight to the Waterman’s Museum. A treat filled with interesting artifacts and history, but the real treat was in the back. As we have seen in other towns, there is a strong interest in offering programs for kids to give them a sense of the areas nautical history and skills. This week is boat building in the afternoon (we saw boat building at the Monitor museum also and a sailing camp at Fairfield Harbour). The morning pirate camp was fantastic. Young kids found branches and crafted hammers and used home made pitch from a local pine tree to glue the hammers. The building had stalls / workshops with a different skill from the 1700s. The waterman’s museum is a special place.
We hopped on the air conditioned trolley to the American Revolution Museum. Another incredible museum. We saw the rest of Yorktown from the trolley ride. We headed to the Pub for lunch then back to the boat.
But the story of the day has to be the bikes. If you’ve been following closely (looking at you Ann) you remember we realized in Tarpon Springs that we underestimated the benefits of folding bikes. Those bikes expanded our world (literally) but were very heavy. We were thrilled when Brian received a lightweight Dahon bike back at Hilton Head from a Looper. We paid it forward by giving our first bike to another cruiser at our marina in New Bern. Flash Forward to last week.
In the heat, it was too hard lifting the heavy bike down from the fly bridge, especially onto fixed docks. I didn’t know but Brian started searching Craigslist. We answered an add for a lightweight bike and not only were they Platinum Loopers, but we met them before, back at the Decatur free wall last October. Amazing. They drove 22 miles to the boat with the bike, in the storm, and shared anchoring spots for the Chesapeake, we talked for two hours in the boat as it poured. We enjoyed spending time with the crew of JADIP. Timing again was perfect as shortly after they left the rain really started coming down. As everybody says it’s the people you meet that makes this trip so special.
Here’s a little video I took while almost soaking my phone holding it out under the canvas.
Movie of the storm FullSizeRender