July 20 to July 31 2026 Havre De Grace to Kilmarnock, VA

Monday July 20th

Laz realized there would not be enough room in the car for Boji and our stuff for a trip so we brought Boji down, pumped her up, and put her up on the dinghy rack.

When we got to the boat, the power was somehow unplugged and our batteries read 10% Nate says it will be fine. Obviously we plugged back in. Other chores included: sealing the fridge gasket, putting an eye hook to secure eprop battery, bringing Boji’s engine aboard, stowing guitars on board, filling the aft water tank and updating the Navionics. The subscription is still not valid despite Laz doing that online. Annoying.

I think both of us were still tired from playing the 2 Non Bob-a-que on Saturday afternoon then a full 4 hour (4p-8p) gig yesterday at Station 142. After we got back to the house we watched the rest of the World Cup Final that I was too tired to watch yesterday after the gig.

Wednesday July 22nd

There were thunderstorms yesterday Tuesday so we went grocery shopping and started packing.

Packed the rest and left for HdG at 1300. Looped back to start the dishwasher. Dropped off a library book then picked up a turkey sub at Sam's. Loaded provisions and gear and off the dock by 1600. Fueled up, got 0.57 gallons per hour, pretty good.

We were able to sail out the channel. There was crazy wind 6-15 kts with 20kt gusts from the W. The photo was in a rare calm spot. There was a strong gust coming off Swan Creek like last time out, which was hard to handle, but with proper sail management (letting out the main) I was able to let her round up then get her back on course. Always fun to do in the narrow part of the channel.

We were able to sail all the way to Still Pond on one tack. We kept pace with Ivory Coast, who was towing a cement transporter. Laz hailed them to let them know we were turning into Still Pond and would go behind them. We sailed there in just over 2 hours, which is amazing. The wind was a steady 8-9kts from W-WNW once we passed Spetsutie and turned towards Worton Point.

Beautiful view from our anchorage spot on the North side of Still Pond.

Split a steak and gruyere pot pie for dinner and enjoyed some of Stacie’s excellent peach and raspberry pie for dessert! A lovely first day for this voyage. It was warmer than forecast, up to 89°, but is cooling down as the sun goes down and there is a really nice breeze. I suppose we should figure out where we are going tomorrow.

Thursday July 23rd

Up by 0800 to a beautiful morning in Still Pond. It cooled down ovenight to a pleasant 72° and there is a lovely breeze.

Breakfast of apple cinnamon donuts, delicious when dunked in coffee. Fresh, local (to Pocopson) cantaloupe ,and my usual yogurt with blueberries, chia seeds and granola. Anchor up around 1010. Nice wind, 8-10 kts from the N to ENE, so sails up. Initially used the jib but then took out the code-0.

Passed this interesting critter, the HR Spies , which was listed as a port tender. Catamaran bottom. As we got closer, Army Core of Engineers was in the hull. Still not sure what it does.

Laz - learned that this ship measures the contours of the bottom to determine where dredging might be required.

Some excitement as we passed several dolphins! The first set seemed to be at least 1/2 dozen and the second set a little farther downtown the Bay off of Rock Hall had at least that many! Water temp of 79°. There was a lot of splashing and jumping around. The wind had softened and I am not ready for an overnight run, so we decided to pop into the Magothy and Eagle Cove. We had turned the engine on when the wind was less than 4kts. Going downwind we were hard pressed to do 3 kts. As we turned to the Magothy, our AWA was now more like 8kts and we zipped along. Anchored at 1738, a bit farther in than a couple of weeks ago.

I made a sheet pan dinner of lemon chicken, zucchini and added a cheddar baguette from Talula's. Some of the horses were out grazing at the farm. They are so beautiful to watch.

Another gorgeous sunset, this time featuring Boji in the foreground. Tomorrow we do the overnight run to Little Creek,VA approximately 130 miles away.

Friday July 24th

Up at 0800 but did not want to leave too early for the long run.

A beautiful morning. We had waffles with fresh pineapple. I had Greek yogurt on mine as well. All the boats that were anchored were still there, and Song had pulled in after we tucked in for the night. Song is the sailboat with the dog that I photographed in the dinghy at sunset with his owner. We said hello as we motored into the channel. Up anchor at around 1000. Anchor swivel got caught/stuck and Laz had to futz with it to get it to line up and work properly. We put the main up in the Magothy but motored through the narrow channel and under the Annapolis Bay Bridge before pulling out the jib to sail. We saw a couple of cow nose rays while heading to the Bay Bridge.

The Sandy Point Shoal light is looking good, as are other boats out sailing , including ours.

There were plenty of large ships parked outside Annapolis. One was actually named Golden Fridge. You can see from the bottom two photos she is good sized.

We were amazed to see pelicans in Maryland. Usually we have to hit the Virginia border before we see them. The wind was mostly from the E, with the usual 30° oscillation. Initially 5-8kts so we had the code-0 out. It picked up to 10-15kts so we furled the code-0 and brought out the jib. We were to the mouth of the Patuxent (the Solomons) by 1800 which is amazing.

Some cool clouds that I saw through the opening of the bimini and some neat sunset colors.

You can see how fast we are going in the videos. Whee!

Sunset selfie! With the sun going down it was cooler, so we grabbed a other layer or two.

The rising moon had colors reflected from the sunset. When night fell, the reflection of the moon in the water was breathtaking. We continued to make good speed under sail, although we noticed that the running lights lit up the jib, not great for our night vision. We made a note to lower them before the next overnight. Turning the Happy Lights on in red mode and low lighting was helpful to see the cockpit without ruining our night vision. The wind did not die down, staying 13+ kts with occasional gust to 17 or 18, so we furled the jib. We still had good boat speed (5-6kts) on just the reefed main. Prediction was for the rain to starts around midnight. Since we didn't know if there would be more wind with that system, we decided to drop the main. We out the dodger up when it was raining and kept going. Our quick dry pants got soaked so we took turns going below to change into our foulies. In retrospect, I should have put another layer on, the pants aren't that warm all by themselves.

Saturday July 23rd

Arrived in Little Creek, Norfolk VA Morningstar Marina at 0910. 23 hour run. With the winds and weather we really didn't get much sleep. We checked in at the office then went for breakfast at Sandfiddler Cafe. I had a delicious grilled tomato and spinach Bennie and Laz had a breakfast burrito. We split a fruit bowl and I had a side of bacon, but was too full to finish, so took it home for a sandwich down the road. I was too tired to take food pictures. Headed back to the marina for nap time!

Walked up to have dinner at Stony’s. Laz had bang bang shrimp tacos and I had blackened flounder tacos. Dessert was key lime pie for Laz and carrot cake for me.

Walked the docks after dinner and saw a boat just like Louise and Bert’s, down to the name, Adagio. You can always tell baji-naji because of Boji's bright orange. We had a nice chat with a guy named Brian on Soggy Taco, a power fishing boat. He had a long tale of woe regarding repairs done on his boat from someone at the marina’s shop. Apparently that guy, Sid, has been blacklisted from all Morningstar sites.

Went back to baji-naji and relaxed in the cockpit reading, and watched a beautiful sunset over the marina. When it got dark, we went below and watched today's Sail GP races. We are staying here tomorrow to recover from the 23 hour run.

Sunday July 24th

Headed to brunch at Stony’s, but realized they did not open til 10am for brunch. We decided to walk to Food Lion for some things I forgot, plus a mop handle. We saw a Thai restaurant along the way that had great reviews. A good thought for dinner.

Delish brunch at Stony’s. Laz had French toast and I had the avocado toast. Their coffee is excellent. Headed back to baji-naji to do boat chores. Sandy from Nomad 1, a Nordhavn51 came by to say hello. They live in Texas but keep boat here or in Palm Beach FL and are new to cruising. I gave her a boat card and hope she will keep in touch.

Laz broke the coping saw trying to saw off the metal to fit. He asked around to see if anyone had one, but ultimately went to the marina work shop and they finished cutting it off. Laz used it to prop up the Starlink so we can use it inside. Starlink works best outside but this is decent if there is weather or we want it inside. I refilled forward tank and topped off aft tank. We washed baji-naji down with boat soap to get salt and rest of dead mayflies off. Don't need to use the cleaner that renews the non stick just yet. It was time to spray the UV protection on the new eisenglass, after washing the dodger. Laz placed 3 seizing wires on both reef blocks and the tack on the jib. The head of the jib wasn't done, but we are not taking her down to do that. Hopefully that will be OK. Checked oil (good), and all the sea strainers. The engine sea strainer had mussels!!! The rest were fairly full of sea grass.

Got Boji together and went on a ride to find other Morningstar marina (turns out it was the former Little Creek Marina) with the pool (did not use) and better (and free) laundry. It was an adventure! None of them are marked on waterside as to which is which. Called the office and they helped out and Jeremy came to the dock from the marina to find us. We sat in Adirondack chairs in the shade while doing the laundry. There were two washers and two dryers, both fairly new, so we could do a light and dark load.

Off to dinner at Amaz Thai. The nice man from Enchantress was going there to pick up take out and offered us a ride. He had a nice Tesla and his little dog, Skipper, came with us. We had pad thai with beef, chicken satay, fried tofu triangles with chili sauce and peanuts and a delicious eggplant stir fry with basil. Brought home the mango sticky rice which was also excellent. Will definitely go back to Amaz Thai! After dinner we walked over to Enchantress to thank him for the ride and ended up having a lovely long chat with Jiho (the nice man with the dog) and Joan, his wife. Enchantress is a beautiful 50’ Jeanneau. Watched today's Sail GP races when we got back to baji-naji. Off to bed. Heading to Cape Charles tomorrow.

Monday July 27

Off the dock at 0920 headed for Cape Charles. The wind was good to start, so we put up the mainsail, then crossed the channel from Hampton Roads to the Atlantic which is used by all the big cargo ships. Several Osprey (man made) flew over us. After crossing the channel we brought out the jib, but the wind softened to less than 2 kts so we only had a short sail before we furled the jib and motored. There were some small puffs of wind, not more than 3 or 4 kts, so we left the main up.

There were many pelicans and sea gulls in the ‘parking lot’ where many of the cargo ships are anchored. Laz thought that a fishing boat had just dropped some catch there. We saw several of the bright blue menhaden fishing boats. We fished a red mylar balloon out of the water. With the dolphins and pelicans and sea life, we didn't want to leave it in the water. The wind picked up just outside Cape Charles; we pulled out the jib and sailed towards the parking lot. Building storm clouds over Cape Charles encouraged us to drop the sails and head in.

As Laz was putting away the main sail I saw a leaping dolphin come right across our bow. Several leaps and splashes! It was joining a pod to our starboard side. I slowed baji-naji to take a look. Wow! It was truly amazing to watch.

We pulled into our dock, D-13, at Cape Charles Town Dock at 1400. Paula, the harbormaster, was there to help with lines as the other dockhands were busy. Everyone looked up at the sky and decided to come in at the same time. I made lunch with the last of the lettuce that was any good. The rest was just sad and mushy. After lunch, we headed into town for ice cream at Cowlicks. Not many flavor choices but the chocolate was good. The lemon Chesapeake could have been good but I'm not sure about Old Bay in lemon ice cream with lemon crunch bits. We walked the shops and picked up some crab salsa which could be excellent, or not. I got some cheese as well (smoked gouda and Wisconsin cheddar with cherries, surprisingly good) from Wilson's Market. We popped in to Cravings, but they were closed on Mondays. There are no grocery stores, or at least no place to get lettuce. We had asked Paula and she did not know of a local store with lettuce. Headed back to baji-naji to read and relax.

We decided to go to E&O (Elephant & Octopus) for dinner. It’s set in an old bank (we ate in the vault) from 1906. We had some delicious deviled eggs to start. I had a wonderful shepard’s pie, made with ground lamb, and Laz had bangers and mash, a bratwurst over mashed potatoes. Both were excellent. I got the house made coconut cake as a take out for later; it was tasty!

The moon is almost full, with a beautiful moonrise visible as we walked back to baji-naji. Our slip is next to I Dream of Jeannie, a pontoon boat with the logo from the old show. Chesapeake Queen, a double decker paddle wheel boat that was formerly the Elizabeth River ferry, lives on the T dock just past our slip.

Lay day tomorrow in Cape Charles as severe thunderstorms expected.

Tuesday July 28th

Since it was a lay day we slept in til 0930. Paula brought us a head of romaine and two Eastern Shore tomatoes this morning which is so nice of her. We walked up to Mason St Bakery for breakfast and got a Chessie, a baguette with butter, country ham and scrambled egg as it was the only choice for breakfast with protein. I also stocked up on pastries for breakfasts and sourdough for lunch sandwiches. We walked across the street to Almeta for OJ for Laz, they have fresh OJ. They are open 7-2 every day but Monday, and the menu and the food people were eating looked excellent.. I will definitely go there, maybe in the am for coffee. We went next door to Cravings and got some chicken salad in a container for lunches and a Honey Harbor sammie (honey turkey with cheddar and chipotle aoli on a croissant).

I walked to the harbormaster office to thank Paula again and passed a really cool piece of driftwood by the boat ramp. It looked like antlers from one angle. In the office I bought some lovely Town of Cape Charles merch, including another tin of the delectable salt and pepper Virginia peanuts that we were gifted when we docked. I picked up another 4 pack of boat TP on GP. I got a lovely coral long sleeve quick dry and a charcoal grey quick dry polo for Laz. After returning to baji-naji I talked to my folks; Mom has had severe foot pain and went to urgent care on Friday but it woke her up the last two nights with severe pain. I encouraged her have their companion drive her to the ER for another evaluation.

I packed up our sandwich, some drinks, our Kindles and headed to the beach with Laz. I brought the LI Sound quick dry as our beach towel. I went for a swim; you have to walk a long way out as it was quite low tide and only one or two feed deep with sand bars. Once in, the water was divine. I love the cool buoyancy of salt water. We sat and enjoyed the Honey Harbor sammie and after lunch Laz went for a swim. I elected to read my Kindle and check in with my folks. Mom is 93 and Dad almost 95. They are doing well for their age, and have a companion to help out.

Rinsed off in the shower at the beach and again in the heads at the marina and relaxed on deck. The ER doctor was nice enough to call after seeing my Mom and we had a plan that will hopefully help.

Dinner at Deadrise was amazing! Polpette (meatballs) in a perfect marinara sauce for apps, tomato, arugula and burrata salad with toasted Italian bread for me, veal Parm for Laz. All excellent. Take out dessert as the thunderstorm was rapidly approaching : Zeppoli with fresh strawberry ricotta dipping sauce.

Got back aboard baji-naji just as the first drops of rain fell. Lightning quite close by, based on the almost immediate thunder. Heck of a storm.

Tomorrow we will check the weather again, and if good will head to Mobjack Bay.

Wednesday July 29

Up by 0800, I ran to Almeta to get a fancy coffee (the campfire latte), fresh squeezed OJ for Laz and a bacon egg and cheese biscuit for us to split. The woman running Almeta had no kitchen staff so I could not get a fancy breakfast to go, but no worries as the BEC on a biscuit was just fine. Laz refilled the aft water tank while I was getting breakfast

Our across the dock boat neighbors on Josie, a pretty double ender, had offered to bring us tomatoes. He came over with two large tomatoes and a quart basket of cherry tomatoes, all from their garden. We ate several of the cherry tomatoes before we left the dock, they were so sweet and delicious. He thanked us for taking them off his hands, otherwise they would rot since they can't eat them all. We were off the dock at 1015, with our neighbor giving us a hand with lines, as the wind was brisk from N NW. I headed out of the dock area slowly, so Laz could put Boji back behind us on her bridle. We were able to put up the main sail in the channel and bring out the jib. We sailed out of the channel, with a brisk wind, 10+ kts. Laz hailed the tug coming, Bill Hall, to let the captain know that we would stay out of the channel and to the west. The captain was appreciative. Coming across the Bay, on the eastern side of the ‘parking lot’ we there was a large sea turtle to starboard. It looked at us for quite some time before diving. On the western side of the parking lot, we hailed Chesapeake Coast to clarify that we would go behind the tug and barge.

Neoliner Origin is a weird looking cargo ship. Continuing across the Bay towards Mobjack Bay we saw the Mary Sunshine, a catamaran under motor. She looked to be ahead of us, but then came to a dead halt. I hailed to thank them for slowing but gently let them know they were ahead and we would have gone behind them. The VHF is getting a lot of use today.

Coming into Mobjack Bay, New Comfort Point Lighthouse was to our starboard. The wind held 10-15 kts and we tacked up Mobjack Bay to the East River. We furled the jib and dropped the main before going too far into the river as it narrows. There was a sailboat in the first cove that looked good to anchor in. There was enough room for two of us, but we decided to proceed a bit further and anchored just north of green 11, across from the rowing club. Our anchorage spot is quite pretty. We took a Boji ride to Zimmerman's Marina, where we visited Cate and Dave as they had Noeta up on the hard there. It's one of the few marinas with a rail lift that could handle the 50’ cat. We then headed to the first cove after entering the East River, where the sailboat we were following was anchored. We both had done a fair number of tacks to get in, since the wind was doing the usual 30°+ shift from NW to N. I was re-learning how to drive our dinghy. Turns out the boat, Temptation, out of Yorktown, is a 31’ Tartan. We sat and talked with Jerry for a while. He was solo sailing her and he knows many of the great anchorage spots in this end of the Bay. While talking to him, we had a small sea turtle come right up to the dinghy and look at us for a short bit before diving. A two turtle day!

Beautiful sunset. Had to do a sunset selfie with Jerry and then Bojied back to baji-naji where I got a couple more beautiful sunset photos.

We had leftover Thai food for dinner. It’s still yummy!

The full moon was an orange one, and quite stunning to see. Tomorrow we will go up the Ware River.

Thursday July 30th

Slept in til 0930 again, as we did not have far to go. We enjoyed a leisurely morning.

Leftovers from Sandfiddler cafe for breakfast, my grilled tomato and spinach Benny with extra tomato and Laz had the rest of his breakfast burrito. I added the last of our cantaloupe from Baily’s farm market to the plate. And coffee of course. We pulled up the anchor around 1120 and put up our sails. With the wind direction, we knew we could sail out of the East River on one tack. Once out into Mobjack Bay, we had to do a fair bit of tacking to get to the Ware. The wind was 8-10kts with gusts to 15 kts and coming from the W, WNW and NW. The usual 30-60 shifts.

We saw Temptation sailing the Mobjack as well. I’m pretty sure it was Jerry; there were no other boats out here. We had to do a few tacks in the Ware, as there is a pretty narrow channel before it opens up again. We found a lovely spot on the northern shore. The wind was still blowing quite nicely, but is supposed to die down overnight. We anchored at 1420.

I made a sandwich with the yummy chicken salad (fresh dill and sour cream!) from Cravings, lettuce and tomato on the lovely sourdough bread from Mason St. Bakery. Yum. The breeze was delightful in the cockpit so we sat up and read. I finished Dungeon Crawler Carl’s This Inevitable Ruin and boy was it something else. So much action and emotional for me as I am quite attached to the main characters. It’s Book 7 in the DCC universe. I will take a break before reading book 8. I took a short nap before coming below to work on this log. I tried to work in the cockpit, but the light was too bright to really see the laptop screen. We had a lovely chat with Paxy to hear about her new job. So happy things are going well for her.

I popped up to the cockpit to see the beautiful scenery with the sun setting while making dinner. We had pan seared filet mignon with garlic and oven roasted asparagus and cherry tomatoes with salt, pepper, olive oil and fresh lemon, as well as a sourdough roll. Another wonderful day on the water. Tomorrow we are heading to the Piankatank River. We may try to get into Jackson Creek if it’s not too crowded on a Friday.

Friday July 31st

Wanted to get going but the anchor windlass would not start. Futzed with battery, turned the switch on and off then finally turned everything off, including the circuit breaker to reset it all. Put it all on again and it worked. No idea what happened. Pulled up the anchor no problem, headed out 0950. Motored out as the wind was less than 5kts.

We saw the menhaden fleet out fishing. This one is Fleeton, which sounds like a Transformer name for a fishing boat .

We past New Point Comfort light, making sure to stay wide of the shoal.

Once we were out of Mobjack Bay, we were able to put the sails out. Tried the code-0 briefly but the wind was staying to the E, and we couldn't trim lower than 60° so we furled it and brought out the jib. The wind shifted from E to N and stayed mostly 4-6 kts so we were able to sail all the way to the Piankatank and into Godfrey Bay. I got a nap in the afternoon. Anchored at 1714 and relaxed and read our books. It was a gorgeous day with a pleasant breeze. Hot but not too humid.