Hampton to Davis Creek

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's) 

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 40 - May 10, 2017

We got up early, had our coffee and toast, and turned in our restroom keys and said our goodbyes to Dockmaster John at the Downtown Hampton Public Piers. We like this place a lot and highly recommend to anybody visiting Hampton!  We were underway at 8:00 a.m., which is early for us.

We had identified two potential anchorages about 40 miles away, and had an uneventful cruise out of Hampton to the Chesapeake, except we followed the recommended course lines, which took us way out of our way, when we could have saved a couple of hours by going the direct route from Hampton Roads to the Chesapeake. We figure this cost us a fair number of unnecessary miles and a couple of hours at our cruising speed. Live and learn.

New Comfort Point Lighthouse

We first checked out an anchorage shown on Active Captain called New Comfort Point Bight.  Its strong point was that it had a beautiful white sandy beach. Its two weak points were that it was totally exposed and got very shallow about half a mile from the beach.  Probably the reviewers who liked it had motorized dinghies, but it would have been much too far to paddle in our Sea Eagle kayak! On the way in, we passed a lighthouse, which according to the chart notation was abandoned, put it still made a great picture!

Only two more miles on is the Davis Creek anchorage, which turned out to be perfect in every way. The reviews give it five stars for everything except shopping, but many pointed out the shoaling in the channel approaching the anchorage, and it did get down to two and a half feet at low tide - a deeper draft boat would have to time arrival based on the tide. Once inside, we found ourselves in a completely protected little pond out in front of the Davis Creek Marina boat ramp, and I took Baxter in. Since it was after 5 p.m., there was nobody there on our evening visit. This anchorage has great holding, great wind protection, no current to speak of, no wakes and is very picturesque! We had a great night's sleep on the hook!

In the morning,  I took Baxter back in for morning duty, and Craig, the owner of the marina, was there to greet us. He thought he had read about us on the internet, and perhaps it was us or perhaps not, but he was very interested in our Loop in a 25 foot C-Dory, There were a number of boats in wet slips, a fuel dock and a boat ramp. While we were there, I don't think he had any transient boaters there.  It is probably four or five miles off the Chesapeake, and with the shoaling of the channel, a lot of boaters might simply pass on this great spot.  

Chesapeake workboats

In addition to the marina, a couple of Chesapeake workboats are based there, with crab pots all piled up on the shore a little bit past the marina, and one of them had gone out earlier in the morning.  We always love seeing the Chesapeake workboats, and remember our friend Tom McHugh's song from his album Chesapeake Scenes where he sings "Working on the water trying to make it pay, trying to make about a dollar a day"!