Criss Cross the Bay trip

[Four Suns]

Here's another short trip I thought I would document for those of you stuck at home with nothing better to do and would rather read this poop than cut your grass. This is a weekend trip with just my oldest son John who will be heading back to boarding school on Thursday. Yep... that's right... all boys, shaved head, and military uniforms. Lucky man. He actually enjoys it there (ask him) and I think it’s his way of trying to bankrupt me because the place is so expensive.

This trip is actually a get together sponsored by one of the salesman from Browning's Marine in Virginia Beach. His name is Dick Adams but we all call him D.A. He has been doing this for about eight years now and we have attended for the last 5 of them. Sea Ray, as well as the dealer, kick in some goodies for prizes. I am the standing champion of the limerick contest so I had to come back this year and defend that title.

My day started with a sign that said something would go wrong. I went up to Supercuts this morning to get a haircut and walked in and the nice woman asked me for my name. There was no one in the place. I gave her my name and she yells “RON!†and then this kid all of about 18 years old comes out of the back room. He's got bright blue hair spiked up in the middle and the sides and front are down almost to his shoulders and over his eyes. He's got a nose ring, lip ring, lots of tattoos and his jeans are hanging halfway down his legs with a belt. I'm scared. He says to me "How would you like it cut?" I'm thinking this is going to be a bad day.

Anyway, I get my hair cut, put a few groceries on the boat and John and I get ready to leave. No dogs, no wife, and no kids fighting. Here's a shot of one of my younger boys this morning all happy he can't go:

And here's a shot of son thinking he is going to drive my wife's convertible to the boat.... NOT!

We get to the boat and take off. I swapped our Zodiac ProJet off the back with our WaveRunner since it is just going to be the two of us:

And a shot off the side as we left:

I haven't run the boat in about a week and the speedo seems to be gunked up. Something to fix this weekend. Look how warm the water is up here (and it is calibrated):

We passed Jamestown Island and the ferries along the way.

And

There is actually a marina back there where the theory of "go as fast as you can and stay on plane as you go over the sandbar so you won't hit bottom" is proven wrong every summer. I know someone that had twin I/Os and ripped one literally off the boat trying that theory.

The generator stopped running and gave me a no water flow warning on the code about a half an hour before we arrived. I just changed the oil and replaced the impeller yesterday so who knows what the deal is. Something to fix in the morning...

Our first night is at Smithfield Station which is in the town of Smithfield (duh). You can get info on that at http://www.smithfieldstation.com/ . Here's a shot as we pulled in:

That lighthouse (it's a replica of the famous Thomas Point drive through bakery lighthouses) is actually part of the hotel and you can rent rooms there... Probably better furnished than a real lighthouse.

People were already having a few drinks when we arrived about 5:00 pm:

We docked and lowered the WaveRunner off and John wanted to "cruise the marina"

The sales guy from Brownings actually brought a shiny new 36DB with diesels. Here's a shot of him coming in:

And

And note the stylish antenna placement:

Here's shot of the front... Now those of you that remember Star Wars, doesn't this thing look like the Emperor's space ship.. the thing that had the folding wings that landed on the Death Star. Or maybe in looks like that Walker that had 2 legs... I don't know... I think it was designed by George Lucas though...

We went to dinner and unfortunately, they thought that we would have six people and not two. They sat us at the table for six... and we were lonely... well... I was lonely...

This nice group of people felt sorry for us and invited us over:

Smithfield Station has great food and we had a wonderful dinner. I got the bacon wrapped scallops for an appetizer (it's Smithfield after all. Need the bacon) and the broiled seafood platter which had a crab cake, shrimp, and a fish fillet. It was very good.

Walked back to the boat and spotted this 450 Express Bridge that had obviously signed up to the Frank H. school of VHF antennas:

I wonder what his range is on that?

Here's a shot of the Four Suns:

They are showing a movie tomorrow night on the dock after we get to Cape Charles. The plan was to show Pirates of the Caribbean (yawn). I gave them a different movie I thought would be more appropriate for the area:

It's about a group of high school friends that go out in the ocean and jump off the boat to go swimming but they forgot to put the ladder down... hmmm...

Anyway... I'll write some more about this trip later.

 

[Shining]

Very entertaining. :thumbsup: Didn't seem to be bad day to me!
-Mike

 

[Dave S]

How come you didn't take the kid in the barber shop with the spiked hair and nose rings with you? :grin:

 

[Four Suns]

The "bad day" was the fact the generator pooped out on me...

BUT... Here's an update from this morning:

It's pretty hot out today. I think it's supposed to be in the upper 90's so running without the air on the bridge would require me to take off all the isenglass or it would not be livable. I am really not in the mood to pull off all the canvas.

I got down and worked on the generator in a very warm engine room and found the problem (only took 2 hours). It was a plugged hose between the thru-hull and the strainer. I guess not only does the food in Smithfield clog the arteries, the water clogs the hoses.

Here's a shot of the hose:

And this is what I blew out of it after taking the hose off from the thru hull and the strainer:

I need to go bleach my lips now.

Off to cross the bay and to Cape Charles!

 

[Nehalennia]

Great Stuff Gary, as always.
Have you seen those duck's eggs called Balut? It's a fertlized duck egg, anyway it looks like what you pulled out of your hose. Glad you found the culprit.

I was "google earthing" where you're going.
Where in Cape Charles do you stay?

Have a safe trip

 

[Four Suns]

This afternoon’s write up is called “Is dinghy-ing under the influence illegal?â€

After I put the generator’s cooling system back together, we packed up and left Smithfield. I was running low on fuel and had to stop somewhere along the way and fill up the tanks. I had only about 100 gallons between the two tanks which did not make me feel good. The plan was to cruise out of Smithfield and stop in Hampton and fill up and then cross the bay.

Along the way to Hampton, you have to cross the Newport News Shipbuilding complex. They have several subs and carriers there and are always doing something “big†for the government. Here’s a shot of a carrier being built:

And here’s a shot of the “Navy Escort†we received as we were leaving the area…. How sweeeeet.

We got to Hampton and pulled into the fuel dock and took on about 400 gallons of diesel. Leaving became an issue as there was some sort of dinghy poker run going on. Here’s a shot as we left the fuel dock (fuel dock is on the left in this picture).

These guys were definitely drinking. In fact, they were toasting me as I was leaving. A clear case of DUI (Dinghy-ing under the influence) in their rubber bumper boats. I just flashed them my new weapon for use with sail boaters:

My son is now my protector:

We got out on the bay and it was HOT and HAZY. Visibility was about 4 to 5 miles so it was one of those bay crossings up to Cape Charles that there was no land in sight for about 40 minutes:

And

And Mr. Autopilot drove while I kept lookout sitting in the front:

Even though it was hot, it was a perfect day on the bay. We were heading NE and the wind was out of the SW at about 5-10 knots so we had about a 1 foot following sea. Boat ran great and the generator kept the AC running. Doesn’t get better than this for August in Virginia.

We arrived in Cape Charles about 2 pm. We are staying at Bay Creek Resort ( http://www.baycreek.net ). Here’s a shot of the drinking dock hands… geez…

They had burgers and dogs on the dock for lunch… very good burgers also. John and I ran the WaveRunner around for awhile and then we went to dinner inside the resort. It was too hot to have dinner and movie on the dock. This is also a great place to have a cell amplifier on the boat. We can’t get a cell signal here unless we are in the boat under the influence of the amplifier and antenna I put on last spring.

I lost the limerick contest. Here’s a shot of our host that made me lose:

See if I buy another boat from him anytime soon.

And here’s the great sunset going down on the Bay:

Back to Williamsburg on Sunday. Have a cold front coming through so hopefully no lightning storms. I hate lighting.

 

[Dave S]

Looking forward to the next "installment". :thumbsup:

 

[Nehalennia]

Good stuff Gary,
Have a safe return trip. Hopefully the T-storms don't interfere or develop.

 

[Four Suns]

Today’s write-up is called “You know when the crowd has had too much to drink when…â€

After dinner last night, we all went out on the dock and sat around and had some drinks. My son was on his computer trying to transfer music from the computer to his phone. I think he was breaking into the marina network but whatever. Anyway, we were on the dock until about 1:00 discussing very important matters. This morning I woke up and realized I probably should have stopped at the 43’rd beer when I saw the pink flamingo mounted:

There was a great breakfast setup in the clubhouse area and we got up there are about 9:00. Here’s a nice shot of my son walking up:

The marina here and resort is very nice. Everything is top notch and they didn’t cut any corners in the construction of this place. Here’s a shot of the boardwalk down the middle of one of the docks:

They have a great marine store at the end of this boardwalk:

And some shops with clothes and art and such:

Here’s a shot of a houseboat I actually noticed last night. I think I met this guy up in St. Michaels in 2002 because I remember thinking what in the world is someone doing with a houseboat out here. The guy said “This thing can take any seas that Sea Ray can. I’ve had waves coming over the top beforeâ€â€¦ yeah… right. So I see this thing again here at this nice marina and apparently he hasn’t killed himself yet so maybe he is right.

I especially like the reverse fiberglass arch on the top. And the nice bar-b-q setup on the back… needs a little TLC and it’ll be just fine:

We all took our parting pictures about 10:00 am (it’s more efficient to take pictures of each other at the same time)

We then headed out the channel. I didn’t have my camera set correctly so this may be a little dark but look at the PVC fish stakes ahead:

They actually mark the channel in some spots by painting the top of these white stakes red and green…. Good gosh.

We spooled up the engines and got underway. It was great weather again to cross the bay. And I put the pink flamingo where it belonged: The FISH ROD HOLDER!

Here’s a big container ship probably coming into Portsmouth. Now look at the size of those dual swim platforms on the back:

We were coming up the James River and this picture here I’ll just call “Ironyâ€

Also had this guy buzzing around our head. I think I'll send him an email and tell him he can have a picture of him taking my picture in trade:

So that was our short little trip. It was fun with just the two “older guysâ€. We arrived at the dock about 1:00 and the storms started about 3:00 so we did well. I need to go put these pink flamingos in my yard now.

 

[Converse48]

well done as always Gary!

 

[Turtlesboat]

Heyyyy, boatpix.com took a pic of my today too.

 

[Asureyez]

Makes my skin crawl ...

A blow boater being towed ...
There must be extenuating curcumstances ...

• Being towed by Boat U.S. saves your own fuel?
  
  The wind looked slack and he was late for breakfast?
  
  He really doesn't have sailing skills but just like the salty look?

Why would a sail boat need a tow?

 

[Four Suns]

Re: Makes my skin crawl ...

Why would a sail boat need a tow?

I had all kinds of thoughts like "maybe he forgot to fill it up with fuel" or something. The boat was being towed upriver where I'm not aware of any haul out places (unless you get up to Hopewell about 50 miles) so I doubt it was a broken rudder or something like that. In the end, I assumed it may have been a repo.

I wonder if the captain on the sailboat was yelling at the towboat guy all the way upriver to "SLOW DOWN! LOOK AT YOUR WAKE".

 

[fwebster]

Looks like at least one full grown human on the boat + an outboard motor in the up position. My guess is a peudo-sailor with a dead outboard who didn't want to have to earn the name "sailor" in that wind.

 

[chuck1]

Gary,
Great story and pics. :thumbsup: Thanks for the post.

 

[standers]

Gary-

Can't believe I missed you! Donna and I spent Thursday thru Sunday at Bay Creek. We left around noon on Sunday.

To All - Ditto Gary's comments on Bay Creek Resort and add that the two golf courses were outstanding (even though i left a couple of pills on the Nicklaus course).

Stan

 

[Four Suns]

Were you parked along the A-dock just beyond the kayaks? I thought someone in our group had that boat. That's too bad as I would have come over and spilled some beer in your cockpit. Some of our group was down on the end of A-dock and the rest of us were on the middle dock. If you saw the 36DB across from you, I was parked next to it and had the pink flamingos on my boat. I can't believe you missed my snazzy electronics mast though.

Maybe next time.

 

[Four Suns]

I just went back and looked at my pictures and I don't have any of where I think you were... oh well.. The 36DB was tucked in next to me and you may not even have seen it unless you came down the boardwalk. That boat is as tall at mine but substantially shorter. This shot is of our two boats side by side at Baycreek.

 

[standers]

We were on 'C' dock - I did see the 36DB but didn't wander over.

Amusing story - After two evenings dining at Aqua, the on-site restaurant (very nice), we were supposed to catch a ride from one of the off-duty dockhands to Mariah's (a restaurant a little out of town and not reachable via one of the rented golf carts, "because you need to get on the highway") - she cancelled on us as she had to babysit. I thought I'd get a cab until I learned "Sir, there are no taxis on the eastern shore." So Donna and I whipped up some leftovers Saturday night and crashed early.

We'll be back at somepoint - It was a good 6 hour run for us (we split it up with stops in Solomons Island one way and Oxford on the return).

Take care.

Stan

 

[Bottom Line]

Gary...thanks for pics and more great stories.....BTW...does the Waverunner run on diesel??? :smt043 :smt043 :smt043