As usual for a moving day, we set the alarm for 0700 and woke up to that and the Royal Canadian Air Force! You got it, a flock of Canadian geese were flying overhead, honking away. The anchorage otherwise had been quiet and calm.

We weighed anchor around 0800. We were barely out of the anchorage and we knew the weather was not as predicted. The winds were 17 knots gusting to 20 (not 5 to 10) and the waves were more like 3 feet (not 1 to 2). At least everything was on the nose, like a bucking bronco, much better than a rolling from side to side motion. Breakfast for me was a non-drowsy Gravol with ginger. I am happy to report my tummy was under control all day. Jorge had to fend for himself as I did not want to chance going below today too often. At one point we put the geneo up but the wind direction took us way off course so we furled it in. Oh well. We had doubts about continuing and thought of finding a spot to hide out in but decided to push on. The waves did settle down a bit but the wind remained strong. We had periods of rain off and on all day as well. As the wind, waves and current were against us, it was a slug fest between Mother Nature and ourselves but we endured. I won't say "conquered" because we were beat by the end of the day.

0830 - conditions stronger than what were predicted.

 

We got into the bay outside Norfolk around 1700 and had about another half hour or so to our destination. As the winds were supposed to increase to small craft advisory conditions tonight and we were tired, we opted to take a slip. As we were about to enter the waterway to the marina, a very large cargo ship passed by quite close. Picture below. About 1 or 2 minutes later his wake hit us. Jorge turned the boat into the waves to take them on the nose. Boy were they big! Unfortunately we had one of the windows open in the dodger and the waves came crashing over the bow and side of the boat right into the cockpit. Of course the companionway was open as well, so water even got into the boat. Between yesterday's waves and today's waves, well we were wet from bow to stern inside and out!

This is the guy whose wave soaked us!

Welcome to Norfolk - military battleship.

 

Tying up at the slip was not easy either. The fingers between the docks were only about 6 feet long, with large pilons at the end to tie up to. A fellow boater caught our bow line because there was no way I could have jumped off. We had a difficult time tying up to the stern pilons as well. Not an easy feat but we accomplished it. We opted for electricity tonight. Showers, laundry and a pub on site. The laundry facilities will be well used tomorrow as so much clothing is salt water soaked.