Oct. 26, 2026 Finishing up with the Chesapeake Bay

Monday, Oct. 26, 2026  Jackson Creek Anchorage to Top Rack Marina  64 miles and 7.5 hours

Decided to make an early departure from Jackson Creek.  Great anchorage. Good scenery.  No wind. No waves. No worries. Slept like a baby!  But up with the sun to get the anchor raised by 7:30 and get on our way.   Unexpected greeting by a dolphin in the anchorage as we were raising the anchor.  We'll mark this up as a good anchorage for future use.  Easy in and out from the bay and rare all-around wind protection. 

The full moon finally setting as a new day begins

A little fog on the land but thankfully none out on the water

Dolphin surfaced a few times by us as we were raising the anchor.

Picture perfect Chesapeake waterfront 

Exiting the anchorage.  Couple of houses catching the morning sunrise.

Working our way out to open water with the sun straight in our eyes

We'll be fighting an incoming tide and lose roughly 1 mph for the entire trip down the bay to Norfolk.   Nice sunny day.  Light NW breeze and short waves on our stern. Made the trip riding from the flybridge enjoyable.  Pretty straight shot down the lower bay.  Just a bit of wallowing as we worked our way past Mobjack Bay where the extra fetch generated slightly bigger waves.   Minimal sights to see other than other boaters.   Crossed paths with New Journey.  You may recall that was the 100' Nordhavn yacht that protected us from the nor'easter back in Portland ME.  They did an overnight offshore passage and were coming across the lower bay to Yorktown just as we were headed down. Always find it interesting the way you cross paths with boats you know. 

 Giving way to this tug crossing our path at 15mph and crashing through some waves

New Journey headed towards Yorktown. Pretty sure those 4-5' offshore seas
 were barely noticed by this beast constructed for around-the-world cruising.

Made it into Norfolk.  All the usual sights.  Lots of military craft of all sorts being worked on. Cargo ships being unloaded.  Downtown marinas and buildings.  Overall, traffic didn't seem too bad today.  Couple of tows.  Some tugs helping push a military ship out the river.   Mostly just pleasure boats heading south.   Got lucky with the three railroad bridges.  All of them in the raised position which hasn't happened in our last several transits.  We always seem to get held up by at least one of them. Makes it nice and easy to keep on schedule. 

Giving the ship Pautucket a wide berth as the tugs push her out the river

Couple of aircraft carriers were being upgraded at Newport News shipyard

Pretty good variety of military vessels in port

Waterside marina in downtown Norfolk

General Dynamics shipyard working on this one in drydock. 
Seems like it's a good candidate for toppling over.

Black Hawk headed for Coinjock.   He'll be running several hours in the dark.

Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge waiting for us in the raised position

Made it to Top Rack Marina a little after 3pm.   We were hoping to get through the Great Bridge Lock and Bridge today, but no room for us at Atlantic Yacht Basin.   We've stayed here before and it gives us a good starting place to catch an early morning transit. 

Top Rack Marina faces right onto the ICW. We can expect wake
 from occasional passing tows throughout the night

Journey for Oct. 26, 2026