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Day 20 – Monday, June 22nd, 2026 – In: Belhaven, NC
We stayed in Belhaven today so that we could go to the Spoon River restaurant. It turned out to be a good choice for the weather as well. The winds came up, and the one boater who braved the sound and came in reported 3-4-foot waves. I spent most of the morning finishing my article for Lakeland Boating magazine. I write a once-a-month column about the Great Loop called Platinum Pointers. Brenda worked on her diamond art kit.
Throughout the day, the wind was blowing over 30 mph out in the harbor. Even in our protected corner of the marina, we were getting rocked, and our weather station was reporting gusts over 22 mph. In the afternoon, I sent my article out and went for a walk around the marina. A boat in front of us, Get Busy Livin, a 39-foot Mainship, was farther out on the dock and getting really beaten up by the waves. When they came in on Sunday, there was a boat between them and us, so I suggested that we walk the boat back in front of us to get them out of the waves. We all got together and pulled them back. It was still a bit rocky for them, but better than it was.
At 5:30, we walked up the street to the Spoon River restaurant. They are a farm-to-table restaurant with the majority of their ingredients sourced from their own farm, other local farms, and fishermen here in North Carolina. Brenda had the grilled salmon, and I had the tuna steak. Both were very good, not as good as some of the meals we’ve had there, but still tasty. Because we only come about once a year or so, our memory and expectations are quite high, so if the meal isn’t amazing, we are slightly disappointed. They did, however, make up for any disappointment with their fresh-picked berry bread pudding and homemade ice cream dessert! THAT was AMAZING!
The winds are predicted to be calmer tomorrow morning and early afternoon, so when we got back from dinner, we called it an evening to get an early start. The winds for tomorrow night show gusts over 60 mph, and we want to be across Albemarle Sound and securely tied up at Coinjock Marina, which is very protected to ride those out!
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Day 21 – Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026 – To: Coinjock, NC
Coinjock Marina
- From: Belhaven, NC
- To: Coinjock, NC – Coinjock Marina
- Start Time: 7:45 am
- Dock Time: 1:00 pm
- Time Underway: 5h 13m
- Miles Traveled: 77.3 NM (89 statute miles)
- Average Speed: 14.8 knots (17.0 mph)
- Draw Bridges Opened: 1 Locks: 0
- Weather: 81°-89° – Partly Cloudy
- Winds: 5-25 mph – Waves: 2-4 ft
The weather on Tuesday was much calmer in the morning than yesterday. When we woke up, there were 10 to 15 mph winds blowing from the South. The prediction was that they would calm down in the early afternoon. Then, around 3:00, we had a line of severe thunderstorms moving through, with warnings of winds over 50 mph, heavy rain, and frequent lightning.
Our route today involved crossing the Albemarle Sound. The sound is large, shallow, and is almost always windy. Because it’s shallow, the waves build even with a moderate breeze. In the six times we’ve crossed it, I can only remember one smooth day!
We decided to GO and left the dock just before 8:00. The first stretch on the Pungo River was good, about 10 miles. We had 7-12 mph winds from the right side of the boat, but the waves were less than 1 foot. We ran fast (18 mph) in the open water to the Alligator River Canal. The Canal is 21 miles long and is well protected by trees on either side. We ran slower, around 10 mph, on the first section with houses and docks, then when we got into the deserted section, we went back to 18 mph. We slowed to pass two boats: first, a large cruiser that picked up speed to follow us, then, just before the end of the canal, to pass the “Hampton Queen,” a large tour boat. When we stayed in Hampton for a month last year while the boat was being fixed, we took a ride on the Queen. It docks right in the marina complex.
Once we got into the Alligator River, the wind and waves picked up a bit, but were still only around 1 foot. We ran the 22 miles to the Alligator River Swing Bridge at 18 mph. Once through the bridge and the construction zone for the new bridge, we entered Albemarle Sound. Here, the winds shifted to the West but were still only 7 to 10 mph. However, the waves on the sound lived up to their reputation, and we were seeing 2- to 3-foot waves, very close together, with the occasional 4-footer thrown in just to make it more uncomfortable.
Once clear of the bridge construction, we went back up to 18 mph. The boat handled the waves pretty well as they were coming from our rear quarter. It was a bit rocky, but tolerable. About 10 minutes into the 25-mile run across the sound to the North River, we heard a BANG!, then what sounded like grinding gears. We’d hit something! I quickly pulled back the throttles, and we looked out the back of the boat. We saw the remains of a crab pot buoy pop up in our wake. The grinding noise was our new shark tooth line cutters sawing through the rope. We turned around to make sure that’s what we hit. Yup, we found both halves of the buoy cut cleanly in two. I revved the engines up in reverse to make sure any remaining rope was clear of the prop, then carefully increased speed to make sure we hadn’t damaged anything. All was good!
Later in the evening, we looked back at the video from the mast, and you couldn’t see the buoy before we hit it. First, even though the foam was bright orange inside, it was painted black, so it matched the water color very well; secondly, we think that it was just below the surface, not floating on top. We were right in the middle of the channel at the time. Why these crabbers put traps in the middle of navigation channels with 100s of miles of open water on either side, I’ll never understand.
For the rest of the crossing, we kept our eyes peeled for buoys. There were several lines of them crossing the channel. We made it to the North River without any other incidents. It’s narrower in the river, so the waves don’t have time to build. During our last 15 miles, the wind picked up to around 25 mph. We were glad to be off the sound! We reached Coinjock Restaurant & Marina just at 1:00. Coinjock is a long face dock, and it was almost empty, making docking easy. We tied up and decided to top off our fuel again, as they have a good price on diesel; we’d burned 134 gallons on our fast run across the sound! As we were fueling, we heard thunder in the distance, and the sky darkened as the storm approached. We went to the office to check in, then to the restaurant for a snack and docking beer.
At 3:30, the storm hit. We had torrential rain, high winds that rocked the boat, and several lightning strikes VERY nearby. We lost power for a few minutes, but it came right back on. It lasted about an hour, and in that time we got 1.5″ of rain. We had our Condo Association meeting at 5:00, which we joined by Zoom, and at 6:00, we went back to the restaurant for dinner.
It rained off and on until about midnight, but no more heavy winds or rain. Just before the storm hit, it was 91° when we woke up on Wednesday morning, and it was 64°!
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Day 22 – Wednesday, June 24h, 2026 – To: Hampton, VA
The Docks at Downtown Hampton
- From: Coinjock, NC
- To: Hampton, VA – The Docks at Downtown
- Start Time: 7:25 am
- Dock Time: 1:45 pm
- Time Underway: 5 h 47 m
- Miles Traveled: 54.7 NM (63 statute miles)
- Average Speed: 9.5 knots (10.9 mph)
- Draw Bridges Opened: 3 Locks: 1
- Weather: 65°-76° – Sunny
- Winds: 4-7 mph – Waves: <1 ft
We had planned to leave Coinjock at 8:00. We had heard reports that the Great Bridge only allowed northbound traffic to pass on even hours, so we wanted to get there for the 12:00 opening. We got ready, and just before 7:30, we were ready to go, so we cast off early. It was a lucky thing! As we pulled away from the dock, we saw a large tow and barge just coming under the bridge downstream from the marina. The channel is somewhat narrow, so passing would be a challenge. When we checked on our AIS vessel tracker, there was another just behind it!
Because we had extra time, we took it slow to save some fuel. Our first drawbridge was 28 miles away. Brenda was checking the schedule when she noticed that, effective yesterday, the bridge was having motor issues and would only open at 10:00 am and 7:00 pm! At our current speed, we would get there at 10:30. We wondered why there was no discussion about it at the marina, and why the Hampton Queen cruise ship was also moving behind us. There was also a Coast Guard broadcast that said the Great Bridge Lock was closed “due to severe weather”. This really concerned us, as there is no other route right now aside from backtracking and going out into the ocean. We tried to call the lock, but there was no answer. The message kept repeating every 15 minutes.
The Coast Guard broadcasts notices and alerts periodically. They record the first one, then it automatically repeats periodically, depending on the type of notice. Important messages, like a boat in distress, are about every 5 minutes. Notices about shoaling, closures, or non-critical hazards are given about every 15 minutes. We assumed the message was from last night’s severe thunderstorm and that someone at the Coast Guard just forgot to turn it off. We would see when we reached the lock!
We made good time, and at 9:30, we were sure that we would make the 10:00 opening. We saw a sailboat pass through the bridge at 9:30 (Usually the bridge opens on the hour and half-hour), so we were confused at how they got through if it didn’t open until 10. A few minutes later, we heard a barge captain start complaining to the bridge tender that he was closing the span without letting him through. The bridge tender told him that they only open ONE of the two spans on the hour and half-hour. They open the full bridge for commercial barge traffic at 10:00 am and 7:00 pm. So we rushed for nothing, but at least we would get through. When we reached the bridge, we had to wait a few minutes for it to open and for the barge to pass before we could continue on.
The next bridge was only 5 miles farther on, and we just idled up to it and made the 10:30 opening. The Great Bridge Lock, two miles ahead, was next. We heard a boat on the radio entering the lock from the north for the 10:30 locking. Excellent! It was open, and they were passing traffic every half-hour. We called the Bridge, which is just before the lock and operates in conjunction with it, and asked for the 11:00 passage. The bridge tender said to pull up close to the bridge, and he would let us through. At 11:00 on the nose, the spans went up, and we went through and into the lock. The lock only lowers you about 18 inches, and we were through in about 15 minutes.
All that worrying for nothing! We were feeling very lucky and hoped that our luck would hold for the three railroad bridges into Norfolk. The first bridge we come to is called Norfolk Southern Railroad Bridge #7. On six passages through Norfolk, we’ve only gotten through without waiting two times. Our longest wait was several hours!
As we rounded the bend, we saw that the bridge was UP! Woo Hoo! Our luck was holding! The next two railroad bridges are usually up, but we’ve had to wait for both of them at least once. What were the chances that we’d make it all the way to Norfolk without having to stop? Well, it turns out it WAS our lucky day! I guess doing a proper christening of the boat made Poseidon smile upon us, because both bridges were raised and we sailed right through.
Our final destination for the day was Hampton, VA. We’ve stayed here a number of times, and it’s where we got stuck last spring while our rudder post was repaired. Right at the Downtown Docks marina, there is a brewery, Bull Island Brewing Company, that we like. The staff is very friendly, and we really got to know them during our month here! We cruised past the amazing ships in the Norfolk Navy Yard and cargo port. They are loading windmills for offshore installation, and the specialized ship is huge! So many interesting ships to see, aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, landing craft, high-speed catamarans, container ships, super yachts, cruise ships, and more. We had to change course a couple of times to get out of the way of barges and tug boats moving around the harbor.
Just before 2:00, we backed into our slip in Hampton. We hurried through our regular shutdown and went up to the Brewery for our celebratory docking beer! We ended up sitting next to a couple on a sailboat, Blue Sky Messenger, with a 106-foot-tall curved carbon mast! It’s an amazing boat! They are here waiting for new sails and hope to get them tomorrow. The mast was hit by lightning last year in Solomons Island, and it’s been almost a year of repairs. It will be fun to watch them go up! We talked with them until about 5:00 and then stayed at Bull Island for dinner.
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Day 23 – Thursday, June 25th, 2026 – In: Hampton, VA
Thursday morning, Brenda did a couple of loads of laundry, while I did travel planning.
I’ve mentioned the “wiggle” in our port propeller shaft. There is a propeller shop in Deale, MD, that has all of the equipment to analyze the props and shafts and take care of them. They are located at Herrington Harbor North, which has a travel lift that can haul out the new Frog. Unfortunately, Herrington Harbor won’t give you a haulout date or time. They give you a haulout week. You get a couple of hours’ notice, so if you are scheduled the week of the 29th, it could be any day, Monday-Friday, and you just have to sit around waiting. Also, with the week after being the week of the 4th of July, the launch date becomes even more uncertain. which makes it really hard to schedule. When the boat is out of the water, we can’t stay on it, so we need to arrange a hotel and a rental car.
I chatted with Peake Mobile Marine, who will do the prop work, and they gave me a couple of suggestions for boat yards that might be able to give us a firm date. We found Anchor Marine in Edgewater, only a short drive from Deale, who could haul us out on Tuesday morning, and would put us back in as soon as the work is done. Hopefully, it will only be a few days out of the water. So, I arranged for us to bring the boat there, and we got a hotel in Annapolis, MD, which is right next door to Edgewater.
In the afternoon, I did some boat maintenance, updated the electronics software, and chatted with MasterVolt, which makes our electrical management system, about an alarm we have been getting from time to time. At 2:00, we went up to Bull Island to watch the sails being installed on the large sailboat. The first part of the install went well, but around 4:00, the wind picked up, making it difficult to handle the sail. A gust knocked one of the stay covers into the water, and it sank before they could get it. We watched as one of the installers was pulled across the boom by a gust of wind. By 5:00, they had only raised about 30 of the 106 feet of sail and called it quits. They rolled the sail back into the boom. They will come back next week, when the replacement cover arrives, to finish the job.
All afternoon, a group from “Save The Bay,” an environmental group, was bringing in oysters that were grown by local dock owners in baskets hanging from their docks. Apparently, they collect them, gather information on size and any contamination, soak them in a solution that inoculates them against disease, then seed them into protected oyster beds all around Hampton and Norfolk to repopulate existing beds and create new ones.
They were having an event at the pavilion in front of the marina office, and we watched them carrying baskets of oysters back and forth all afternoon.
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Day 24 – Friday, June 26th, 2026 – To: Solomons Island, MD
Solomons Island Yacht Club
- From: Hampton, VA
- To: Solomons Island, MD – Solomons Island Yacht Club
- Start Time: 8:15 am
- Dock Time: 2:10 pm
- Time Underway: 5 h 55 m
- Miles Traveled: 89.3 NM (102.8 statute miles)
- Average Speed: 15.1 knots (17.4 mph)
- Draw Bridges Opened: 0 Locks: 0
- Weather: 76°-88° – Clouds
- Winds: 3-17 mph – Waves: 1-3 ft
We had a long run, 103 miles, but it is all open water in the Chesapeake Bay, so we ran up on plane at 17 mph for pretty much the entire trip. Once you are in the Bay, it’s make a slight turn, run for an hour, make another slight turn, run for another hour. Even though it’s open water, there is lots to see with all the big ships coming down from Baltimore Harbor, Warships coming in from sea, and lots of other boaters zipping about. The weather was pretty good. At the beginning of the day, we had 2-3 foot waves at about a 3-second interval. The boat handled pretty well, a bit rocky, but tolerable. About an hour in, we turned so that the wind and waves were on our stern, which smoothed the ride out. As the day progressed, the winds dropped to 5-6 mph, and the waves were just a light chop under a foot.
We went by several lighthouses that, if you’ve read our other blogs from the Chesapeake, you’ve seen before. Wolf Trap, Smith’s Point, and Point No Point lighthouses. We pulled into Solomon’s Island, Maryland, one of the most popular stops in the Chesapeake, with 4 large and many smaller marinas. In the past, we’ve stayed at one of the larger marinas, but on our trip south last fall, we were invited to stay at the Solomon’s Island Yacht Club. The Harbor Host has been after us to visit for a couple of trips, and we finally took him up on it. Our stay was wonderful, and the facilities are excellent. They made us feel right at home in the club. So, we came back this trip!
Every day at 4:30, the Yacht Club opens up to members, with a bar and snacks. A few times a week, they have a special dinner. Nothing fancy, but always delicious! As guests on their dock, we are invited to join them for their club nights. It’s very exclusive! If I remember correctly, they only allow 150 members, and the waiting list is years long!
After dinner at the Yacht Club, we walked next door to an Ice Cream store for dessert!
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Day 25 – Saturday, June 27th, 2026 – In: Solomon’s Island, MD
Saturday morning, we took a walk through Solomons Island. The Island is basically just one main street with a few shops and lots of restaurants along it. It’s really not a tourist or vacation destination unless you have a boat, as there are 15 marinas and a lot of private and commercial docks here, so lots of boaters! Also, just across the bay, easily accessible by a large bridge in Patuxent Naval Air Station, and a lot of the people from there come to Solomons Island for the restaurants.
We walked about a mile to the Calvert Museum. We’ve visited it twice, so we didn’t tour the exhibits, but they have a nice gift shop with lots of local crafts that Brenda likes to stop at. Then we walked to West Marine, just a block farther on, and browsed around. As you may have heard, West Marine is closing 59 stores as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, including our local Palm Coast store at home, and both stores in Myrtle Beach. Fortunately, Solomon’s is not on the closing list. Still, as I’ve mentioned in past visits to West Marine, the shelves are very empty. We didn’t find anything that we needed at West Marine.
The sky was overcast, but it was still warm and humid, 82°, and about 80% humidity! So we turned around there and walked back toward the boat. On the way back, we walked along the boardwalk. There was a light breeze coming off the water, which made it a bit cooler. We stopped at a couple of gift shops on our way up that were closed, then went back to the boat to cool down.
Brenda worked on her diamond art, and I compiled a bunch of data for a support request regarding our ZipWake system. The system is supposed to dampen the boat’s pitch and roll, making it less bouncy and rolly underway. The Pitch function works well. The roll dampening tends to amplify the roll rather than dampen it. The system is controlled by a gyro with lots of parameter settings. The company that builds it is based in Sweden, so support is by email, and it takes a while to compile all of the photos and settings they request.
After a couple of hours of writing emails and working on the blog, we walked down the street to the infamous Solomons Island Tiki Bar for a snack. The Yacht Club was having a BBQ exchange lunch with another yacht club from the area. While we were invited, we didn’t feel comfortable crashing their party, so we walked next door to the Lighthouse Restaurant for dinner. Brenda had stuffed haddock, and I had bruschetta chicken. Both were very good.
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Day 26 – Sunday, June 28th, 2026 – In: Solomons Island, MD
Sunday was a dull day with rain showers in the area. It was much cooler, with temps in the mid-70s. The wind had shifted to the North and increased to around 8-10 mph so it felt even cooler. I did a couple of boat maintenance projects in the morning. I adjusted our rear hatch latches, reorganized my tool boxes, got rid of some junk, and finished installing the Golden Rod humidity control rods in the engine room. We’ve been living on the boat full-time for about 3 months, so I thought it was time to change the water filter in the freshwater tanks. I pulled off the filter housing and found that the factory never installed a water filter. There was one in the box-o-bits that they sent, but I thought it was a spare.
We then walked down the street to a cooking school hosting a craft fair in its parking lot. It was interesting, but nothing amazing. We don’t need any polished stones, healing crystals, coffee cups, candles, or artwork. There’s just no room on the boat!
When we got back, Brenda did a bit of cleaning, and I worked on the blog. Friends of ours, Leo and Marion, whom we met in Fort Lauderdale, are here in Solomons Island. We were introduced to them by Andrew, who designed our boat. Leo drove us to the ship to pick up the boat, and he and Marion came and spent time with us at the Palm Beach Boat Show. They summer here on their boat, and Andrew reconnected us.
They arrived at the boat at 4:30, and we had a nice chat and got to know each other better. Then we went to La Vela, the restaurant at the marina where they live on their boat in the summer. We had a great Italian dinner, then toured their boat. They dropped us off back at the marina, and we took a selfie to send to Andrew.
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Weekly Recap
This week, we passed through 3 states: North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. Aside from Monday, when we were in port anyway, we had decent weather while cruising. We passed through Norfolk and made it to Hampton without anything going wrong with the boat, unlike last time! We’ve entered the Chesapeake and did a one-day cruise about halfway up to Solomons Island, where we caught up with more friends.
Monday, we go just up the bay to Edgewater on the outskirts of Annopolis, and the boat comes out of the water on Tuesday for the first time since we had the wrap installed in Fort Lauderdale. Hopefully, the vibration issue is just an imbalance in one of the propellers, and we will be back in the water for the 4th of July! Fingers crossed!
Thanks For Visiting! – Tom & Brenda
