Thurs night arrived after dark at Cape Charles, almost the Southern tip of eastern shore after a day sailing with light wind. Previous night in Onancock.
Tom at the helm, Dorothy up on the bow with a spotlight, Steve navigating (?).
Well, after passing several red marks, always to starboard, right? WRONG.
Coming up on the last red buoy, Dorothy was the first to spot the flaw in the red right return motto. About 30 feet past the last red buoy was a rock rip rap seawall. Of course Dorothy calmly pointed out that her Liberty Belle was about to be crushed on the rocks. Literally STOP, STOP the boat... Hard to understand why anyone would want to stop the boat but, upon verifying that there was in fact an unmovable stone jetty about two boat lengths in front of us, Tom slammed the engine in revers revving the engine hard and we backed off. We thus made it in safely but learned several lessons. Night time arrivals in a strange port are hazardous; you cannot trust the coast guard to have proper aids to navigation (there is a coast guard station at Cape Charles...), keep all hands focused on the approach and wary--ready for anything.
More later on dumping dinner into the Bay, the neat town of Cape Charles --by daylight, etc.
We would have posted more but found few wifi spots so far.
It has been a marvelous trip. Stay tuned for details.
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