Crew Log for October 30th – October 31st, 2022
Trip Summary:
Reedville, Virginia – Jackson Creek, Deltaville, Virginia
Trip Distance of 24 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 1,510.2 NM
Departed at 10h00 hours and arrived at 15h30 hours
(Side bar: In case you missed it, we have rolled over 1,500 nautical miles since leaving Barrachois)
It was sunny and mild and the winds were light. There were a lot of boats on the move like us, trying to get south. Our options were to try and do 60 nautical miles to Hampton, outside of Norfolk, or a shorter trip to Deltaville. We had made some pretty good progress over the last couple of days, so decided to relax this morning, leave a little later, and do the shorter hop to Deltaville. Besides, today was an exciting day!
Partway into today's trip, we bobbed along and had a video chat with our newest crew member, our granddaughter Raelyn and her big sister, Sloan. It was also nice to talk to their Mom and Dad too! You often hear that the most difficult part of travelling is being away from family and friends. We would certainly agree with that.
Text messages, Snapchats and video chats are no substitute, although admittedly they do take the edge off of feeling disconnected. I couldn’t help but think however, how lucky we were to be floating on a boat down the Chesapeake and video chatting with family 3 time zones away in British Columbia. It was a pretty special moment and definitely one of the highlights of our experience so far.
Deltaville is a touristy area, located in the eastern part of Virginia. It is bordered by the Rappahannock River to the north, the Piankatank River to the south and the Chesapeake Bay to the east. Given that it is essentially surrounded by water, and has numerous creeks and inlets, it’s no surprise that Deltaville is a popular vacation spot for boaters and other water lovers. In fact, the local town officials passed a resolution in 2012 declaring “Deltaville, The Boating Capital of the Chesapeake”. I’m not sure what other municipalities would think of that, especially Annapolis, but regardless, there are lots of boats in Deltaville.
The entrance into Jackson Creek was THE most intimidating navigation we have ever done. First, the channel entrance is narrow, so narrow in fact, I waited for an exiting boat since I didn’t think there was enough room for us to pass one another in the channel. Secondly, the route takes you straight into the shore before making a 90 degree turn into the creek. It felt like our bow touched the trees on shore before we made the turn. However, once in there, we had lots of room and depth to anchor across from the marina and it was very well protected.
Despite it’s claim of being the boating capital, there were not a lot of services for boaters. In fairness, there are good full service marinas, with skilled professionals. But sadly, banks, marine chandleries and most importantly for us, grocery stores were miles away. We did however receive a tip from a Facebook Friend from Arichat who is traveling ahead of us, that there was a diver who would come out and clean the bottom and check that everything was OK. It was far cheaper than getting hauled out and pressure washed, and we’d have a clean bottom before we got into the ICW. He didn’t do grocery deliveries however.
Appropriately, on Halloween morning, Jackson Creek was very still, foggy, with a hint of wood smoke in the air. Judy rowed around the anchorage in the dinghy doing her usual wildlife census taking. She noted 2 Canada Geese on the front lawn of one of the properties that bordered Jackson Creek. Judy is undeniably the VP of Wildlife on Elizabeth M since, I’d look at the “birds” and say, “Oh look, there are 2 Canada Geese”. Admittedly, they are one of the few species of birds I am confident that I can identify. Judy on the other hand thought, (a) it’s “odd” that there are only 2 Canada Geese, and (b) why are they still hanging around Jackson Creek.
On closer inspection she noted one of them had what appeared be a broken wing. She explained to me that Canada Geese mate for life and speculated that one "couldn’t" leave and, his or her partner "wouldn’t" leave. How romantic! And very appropriate given we were anchorage right next to Lovers’ Lane.
Our diver showed up later that morning. Judy thought he should have come dressed as a cormorant since it was Halloween. I thought he did look a little bit like a cormorant in his black wet suit, but well, I was less confident in my cormorant ID'ing abilities. We were pleased to hear that everything looked good and that we now had a clean bottom. We also enjoyed his story telling and hearing about his daughter and son, who he was obviously very proud of. He had been a diver with the fire department for 35 year and did odd jobs, mostly for pleasure boaters on the side in retirement.
One of his biggest “money makers” is retrieving lost cell phones. I told him about my experience back in Vinalhaven, Maine. He said he had a pretty good success rate, but there was one time he just couldn’t find a phone due to poor visibility. He and his wife had a dinner engagement that they were close to being late for, but he wasn’t giving up. Finally his wife said to one of the family members, "call the number for the lost phone". Sure enough, Paul spotted the phone blinking on the bottom and dove to retrieve it. They made it to dinner on time.
Then there was the other story about a teenager who dropped their new phone in the water after repeated warnings not to use it on the boat. Her Dad refused to call the diver to find it to “teach her a lesson”, until, a short while later, he dropped is own phone in the water. They were both within a few feet of each other on the bottom.
We were running very low on just about everything to eat, so despite being an hour and half walk out of town, Judy and I, well mostly Judy, decided we would walk to the grocery store. In addition to being a very long walk, it was down a very busy road that had sporadic evidence of something resembling a sidewalk. Partway there Judy did ask me if I was “certain” we could get an Uber or taxi for the trip back. I assured her it was "not a problem".
You can see where this is going can’t you?
We loaded up on groceries. Likely our biggest single order to-date, including beer and wine. We wheeled the overflowing cart out into the parking lot, just as I realized, there would be no Uber and at the exact moment a lady drove up to say there were no taxis either.
Let me set the scene for you.
She was driving a small, late model hatchback car, about the size of our Subaru Crosstrex. She and her sister were in the front. In the backseat, there was a large babyseat and her 92 year old mother and 92 year old father squeezed in beside the babyseat. She and her sister were convinced they could take us back to the marina. Her sister immediately jumps out, pops the hatchback and crawls into the back. “See, I’ll sit back here, you two sit in front on the passenger seat and you can pile the groceries around me”. “I am NOT doing that!!” I said. From their parents’ reaction, this type of thing must happen often because they sat there as if this was normal.
While all this was going on, “Joan” came up and passed one of the sisters a card for “Southern Belle’s Transportation”, someone she knew that operated a shuttle and taxi service. The sisters’ explained that they didn’t need a taxi and that they were going to take us back to the marina. One of the sisters was still sitting in the back of the hatchback and mom and dad smiled politely from the backseat every time I checked to see if they were OK. Unfortunately for us, you had to book the Southern Belle in advance and so we could be waiting awhile.
It turns out, Joan was on her way back from her sisters house where she was picking up her Halloween decorations. They love Halloween down here. The back of her mid sized SUV was full of boxes. After thanking the two sisters and their mom and dad for the kind offer, we hopped in with Joan who had offered to take us back to the marina.
Joan was a retired social worker and volunteered part time at the school. Her husband was a retired linguist with the US navy. She was originally from “up north” in New Jersey and now called Deltaville home. She might have been the lucky winner in that night’s lottery had Judy not, in Joan’s words, “messed with her karma”.
When we tried to pay her for driving her back, she emphatically refused. That’s when she explained that she had just purchased a lottery ticket for her husband and didn’t want to do anything to, mess with her karma. Sadly for Joan, Judy stuffed the money in her center console when she wasn’t looking, which likely meant, Joan’s husband didn’t win. We can never go back to Deltaville.
You would think after trekking to the grocery store for provisions and ruining Joan’s chances of winning the lottery, we’d eat some of that food. However, the marina had a Tap and Raw Bar that seemed to be pretty popular with the local crowd. We dropped in for a craft beer and cider and, after reading the Surgeon General’s warning about raw seafood, a sampler of deep fried local finger food.
We were exhausted and so we called it a night. We were leaving for Hampton, just north of Norfolk in the morning to get ready for our trip down the ICW. We won’t be leaving until first night tho, since I still had nightmares over the entrance into Jackson Creek.
But more about that, next time.
Additional Photos:
As always, a delight to get caught up with you. Are you at the halfway point in the voyage - time-wise?