Getting a Taste of the Chesapeake!

As you approach Waterside Marina you see so many different types of boats. There are historic sailboats and all different sizes of naval vessels. 

Waterside Marina is a fantastic place to stay when in Norfolk. Everything is within walking distance because the marina is right downtown with a riverfront walk, shops, museums, and restaurants. Plus, as an added bonus, the ferry across the bay was super close so we could explore historic Portsmouth. There was so much to see here: the naval boats, the historic homes, the live music we could watch from our boat. We absolutely loved exploring this city.

They had a mermaid theme with lots of mermaid sculptures all over the city. Which I really enjoyed finding and taking pictures of because it reminded me of our Grizzly and Orca statues in Vancouver. 

Our friends from TURNERBOUT had a car and came and stayed with us for a couple of days. This was great because we had a vet appointment for Zorro so having a car was helpful. The vet appointment was to get a titer test to measure his rabies vaccine levels, which we will need to show to get into certain Caribbean countries. Yes we decided to head South to the Caribbean this year joining the Salty Dawgs and setting sail in November. More on this in future blogs. Back to Zorro. We had to see vets in Florida before we went to the Bahamas. During one of these visits the vet noticed a growth on Zorro’s lower lip. Kind of looked like a lipoma, it did not interfere with his eating or anything but he recommended getting removed and tested. So in Norfolk that is all we wanted, get the titer test and get this growth removed and tested. Nikki took Z with our friends to the vet and came back in tears. Instead of just doing as we wanted, the vet said we need to take an x-ray of Zorro’s chest to look for abnormalities, like cancer. After the x-ray the vet informed Nikki that the titer test would not be necessary as Zorro would not live until November. They literally made a death in a few months with a diagnosis of one x-ray. Nikki said, ah no, do the titer test please and we will get a second opinion on the whole him dying in a few months.

Right away we contacted our Vancouver vet and friend and sent her the x-ray and details. She was shocked that the Norfolk vet was so certain Zorro would not make it to November. With her help we researched vet specialists that could assist us, by we I mean Nikki worked days and made dozens of calls to various vets. The issue is that most specialists require a referral to see them but Nikki managed to find one in Annapolis that was sympathetic to our plight. Great, we have ten days to get North to Annapolis. 

We decided to head up the West side of the Bay and we would do the East side on our way back down. First stop on the way was Kiptopeke Beach in Virginia. This is a smaller anchorage that has a tricky entrance as on one side are old posts in the water and the other side has two breakwaters and a concrete pier that you need to avoid. Add to this the 20-25 knots of wind always make it hard to anchor. We managed to get in and get the anchor set. There was only one other boat in the anchorage, a Leopard 45 named EDEN. We went over and had a little chat with them. It is one of the things that is so nice about boat life you can just drop anchor and go meet your neighbors. So nice and civilized. The next morning we took Zorro to shore and did a nice walk around this beautiful national park in the rain! Felt like being back in Vancouver, and after our time in the city it was nice to be back in nature. Zorro was super happy. Unfortunately the anchorage was a rolly and a storm was coming so we needed to find somewhere more protected for a couple of days. 

The next day we picked up the anchor and headed up to Onancock. This is a very protected anchorage as we had to snake our way 5 nautical miles up Onancock Creek. With high winds in the forecast this was a great spot to drop the hook. It was a super cool little town and we walked around and had a bite at the Irish Bar. The town had a beautiful church and super nice historic homes plus a bakery, yummmm fresh bread. Two nights and the winds dropped down and it was time to move on. 

Sandy Point, Virginia was the next anchorage on our list. We also crossed over to the West side as it gave us more options to anchor if the winds picked up again. The nice thing about this trip was it was our first time using the Oxley Parasailor with an apparent wind speed of 9.2 kts we managed 5-6 kts speed over ground. Even though it was only just over an hour of sailing it was fantastic to get this sail out and to have that kind speed in light wind. 

After a successful sail the day before we were not so lucky on our way from Sandy Pt to Solomon Island. Another light wind day so we thought yes let's use the parasailor again. After getting it hoisted we noticed three pin holes in the sail. Somehow when we dropped it yesterday we managed to put a few holes in it. Not wanting to make it worse we dropped the sail and Nikki patched it while I kept us moving along. We did manage to get the sail up again for a couple of hours. Nikki did a great patch job. We arrived in Solomon Island at around 4:00pm so a quick drop of the anchor and getting Zorro to shore for a walk around this quaint town. The dingy dock is right across from a bar and restaurant so we decided to go out for a bite after a long day on the water. This is a very cool town and worth a stop over. We met OYAI, another Canadian vessel from Vancouver Island, who was also heading to Annapolis. There is a great sculpture garden and museum here and Ziggy Marley was playing a concert so we moved out boat close to the museum where he was playing and got to hang on the boat and hear the concert! After a couple of days we needed to move on to Annapolis as we had the vet appointment scheduled for Zorro. Solomon Island will be a definite do over. 

The trip to Annapolis was pretty much a motor sail all the way. We left Solomon Island at 8:00 am and arrived in Annapolis at 4:00 pm. We managed to get a great mooring ball right off the main City Dock in the heart of Annapolis. OYAI arrived the next day and we had drinks on our boat. 

All in all we had a great journey from Norfolk to Annapolis. Some really cool towns and places that we would love to see again. It was a mixed bag as far as sailing vs motoring but I think we got some good sail days in, including the use of our parasailor. Next we will fill you in on our vet appointments and how Zorro’s health is.