Rolling, rolling, rolling ............we have spinnaker weather!!

The winds finally abated and turned to more our liking so north we went again.  This whole trip north is a nice change and in a continuation of that theme we decided to use the Virginia Cut route to make it up to Norfolk.  This cut is the second (the Dismal Swamp was the first) and is deeper, bigger and can expose one to more open water.  However, the weather is good for us and up we go.

First stop is Manteo,  NC which is on Roanoke Island.  It's right across the water from Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Duck.  They are all on the outer banks and we are inside them.  To try it out we elected to dock at the Manteo Waterfront Marina.  It is fine but we were a little disappointed in the town since it has mostly lost it's quaint "village" motif and moved on to the "tourist destination" label.  By that we mean a 1,000 little "gift/junk" shops, over priced restaurants and arts & craft stuff for sale.  Not even a real pub on the water!  Oh well, they do have an Ace hardware store and a Pizza Hut for all it's worth.  We elected not to pay the $10 each to visit the "Lost Colony of Sir Walter Raleigh" since it really didn't offer much more that a working black smith and a chance to get on the replica of his sailing vessel.  We figured we had a good view from Nati.

Flags of the weather tower

The Manteo weather tower

The new dock where once the sewer plant was located!

The local museum was nice.  They do make some really nice local wooden boats and note the jig for the Optimist sailing dinghy.

The museum

An Optimist jig

Nice prices.....those are not now!

Martin Skiff

A "real" workshop

A shad fishing boat of yesteryear 

s/v "Elizabeth II" replica built on Roanoke Island

After two nights at Manteo we once again headed north into the Albermarle Sound and had an OK sail into Virginia Cut.  We decided to stop at Coinjock Marina to check that out and it is right down our alley.  Fuel, water and pump out at every slip (it is a long wall dock.....very long) and a good restaurant right on site.  We got a chance to watch some hockey playoffs!  We would go back to Coinjock!

Coinjock Marina

Check out the boat that went by while we were at the dock.  Her name is "Freedom" and she is 100% beautiful.  I can't imagine how much work is involved to keep her is Bristol condition.

m/v Freedom

From Coinjock it was another rather long day to get up to Norfolk.  We were able to time the bridges and lock in good fashion and by 4:30pm were were anchored at mile marker 0, Hospital Point.  Since we had good winds we then ran with the wind for the next two days and flew our spinnaker all day long.  We stopped in Deltaville, VA, saw Kismet & Wind in the Willows (Mike is a singlehander and 90 years old!!)  and then in the morning crossed the Potomac River and arrived in Solomons Island, MD by 5pm.

Wind in the Willows

Look!  A new Gilmerton Bridge with a nice bridge tender to boot!

 Time for a day or so off...........