Chisman Creek/York River to Hampton, VA

We slept in since we were facing a short run of only 25 nm to Hampton.  Dolphins surfaced near the boat when Carla started the engine.  We watched them until they swam out of the creek toward the Bay.  

We weighed anchor at 10.  The winds were blowing in the low 20s and waves got up to 4 feet high.  Of course, the wind was always against us which made for a rocky ride but the boat handled it all well.  Top speed was 6.2 knots.  We were down to 3.3 knots as we came into the James River bucking the wind, waves and tide.  Three other sailboats were also coming into port and one of them was really taking a pounding and getting sprayed.  We felt sorry for the poor guy until we realized we might have looked the same to him as he did to us.  In the end, we got into harbor without mishap. 

Carla did another great job of getting the boat onto the fuel dock in heavy winds.  Dwayne took over to dock the boat in our slip as it required us to go in stern first on a portside finger pier in strong winds which were perpendicular to the slip.  We got into the slip but the heavy winds pinned the boat against the finger pier and pilings because there were no pilings to windward to which we could tie off.  Poor marina design.  We finally trued up the boat in the slip once the wind died down around 9pm.

There was a lot of military activity today.  We saw jets flying out of Langley Air Force Base.  The Navy had ships coming in and out of Norfolk and the Coast Guard was having a live fire exercise off shore a bit south of us.  On entering the James River, we passed Fort Monroe which used to be the headquarters for the Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).  The fort which is the largest stone fort built in America was deactivated by order of President Obama in 2011.  Fort Monroe has an interesting history.  President Jefferson Davis was held prisoner there.  The conspirators who plotted to kill President Abraham Lincoln were hung there.  Read more at the following link. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monroe