We usually plan a trip over the Labor Day weekend to close out the summer and serve as a bookend to our early summer cruise up the bay. For the last few years, that trip has been to Chippokes State park on the James River. Last year we had to cancel due to Hurricane Earl moving up the East coast over Labor Day weekend, but we had much better luck with the weather this year.
Chippokes is a working plantation on the banks of the James River that dates back to colonial times. The property was gifted to the State of Virginia for the purpose of being turned into a state park. The old mansion is still there and open for tours along with the detached kitchen, stables, barn, and a working sawmill. The park service has added nice campgrounds, an office with attached store, a fantastic swimming pool, and serviceable bathrooms and bath houses. Best of all for boaters, there is no charge to anchor in Cobham Bay on the James and dinghy in to the beach.
The bay is fairly shallow with a hard sand bottom that provides great holding. Cobham bay is protected from the E, W, and S but pretty exposed to a North wind. During the day there tends to be large gatherings of power boats and associated partying, but by late afternoon most people pull anchor and head home. We shared the large bay with two trawlers and our neighbor's cigarette boat (more on that in a minute).
It takes us 5 or 6 hours to get to the park from our dock on the Eastern branch of the Elizabeth river. The first part of the trip, down the Eastern branch, through downtown Norfolk and the main body of the Elizabeth out past Craney Island is pretty familiar stuff for us. We left Saturday morning against a rising tide.
Beautiful blue skies over a typical industrial scene on the Eastern branch
One of the Staten Island ferries down for an overhaul on our little river
In fact, that stuff is so familiar, that we barely took any pictures at all. Shame on us. We need to get better at this blogger stuff. Once we turned up the James though, the going was a little less familiar and we took a few more pictures.
Newport News Shipbuilding - where our nation's aircraft carriers are built
James River Bridge - 60 ft of vertical clearance for our 55 ft mast
Mothballed ships of the James River Ghost Fleet
Closer view of part of the Ghost Fleet
Every time we make this trip, I'm amazed at how big the James River is. Chippokes is just about opposite Jamestown Island, which was the location of the first permanent English settlement in North America back in 1607. It takes us several hours to get this far up river, with the benefit of Yanmar diesels and a modern sail plan. I can't imagine what it was like for the early colonists and traders making this trip by sail alone. Of course, that was part of the attraction for them. They wanted to be far enough up river that their presence was concealed from Dutch marauders from the North, and Spanish raiders coming up from St. Augustine in the South. I have much respect for the old time sailor men.
Four and a half hours into our trip, our neighbors came alongside in their 36 ft cigarette boat. They had left home just 45 minutes prior, and were well on their way to beating us to the anchorage. Unable to taunt us over the roar of his gigantic Chevrolet engines, he came alongside and shut down the beasts for a neighborly chat. Everything was great until he tried to start them up again and got no joy.
Good looking boat with a good looking crew
He rafted up alongside us, and we ran battery cables from his boat to ours. Several failed attempts at starting later, we decided to proceed onward with them in tow. Now, instead of making 6 knots against the outgoing tide and current, we were making 2.5. It took us another 3 hours to cover the final distance to the anchorage. I'm not complaining though. Any time we've had a tree down from a storm or anything, Richard is always the first one over with his chainsaw to help us clean up. He also took on my oldest son as an apprentice in his carburetor repair shop. We owe him big time, so it was nice to be able to help when he needed it. I don't think that made him any happier to be towed into the anchorage by a sailboat though.
Oh the shame of it!
The late arrival put a crimp in plans to meet up with Karen's parents who were staying at the campground in their new to them motor coach. Instead, we stayed rafted together with our neighbors and everybody took a swim to cool off while Karen made an excellent dinner of pasta and sauteed squash and zucchini.
My two oldest boys enjoying a swim with our neighbor and his daughter
The kids enjoying the Relaxation Station - an end of season bargain from Costco
At this point, you might expect some photos of the beach from the boat, or maybe pictures from our wanderings on shore around the campground or the pool, or possibly a shot of the boat anchored out in the bay. Those would be reasonable expectations, however, we suck at blogging, so no pictures were taken. I can tell you that the campground was very nice. The pool is fantastic. It is built in an L shape, with the long leg of the L being nearly Olympic sized, but only 5 feet deep for its entire length. The short leg of the L has two spring board diving boards and a max depth of 11 feet. There is a charge to use the pool. $3 for adults, $2 for kids during weekdays, and $4 for adults, $3 for kids on weekends and holidays. There is a nice little attached store that sells park souvenirs, sodas, and ice cream. Labor Day weekend is the last weekend for the pool and the store, so we took advantage of closeout prices and bought $3 T-shirts.
Looking back towards the Surry Nuclear plant hidden behind the trees
The lone shot of the beach as my neighbor and I take his dog to shore for a potty break
We spent the night rafted together in the mill pond like bay. It was a fairly overcast night, but we did get a brief break in the clouds that allowed us to see a couple shooting stars and a glimpse of the full moon. In the morning, we headed up to visit with Karen's parents at the campground and let the kids swim in the pool. By the time we got back to the boat our neighbors were gone. We learned later that he had tried the engines again out of curiosity and they had fired right up. Not wanting to risk shutting them down and restarting later they decided to leave right then. We were sorry their trip got cut short, but also glad not to make the trip all the way home at 2.5 knots.
All week long, the weather forecast had called for a chance of T-storms both Sunday and Monday. By Saturday evening, the forecast for Monday was looking pretty bad. By noon on Sunday, big thunderclouds were springing up all around the horizon. We decided it would be best to cut the trip short and head back early. We said our goodbyes to Karen's parents, deflated the Relaxation Station, stowed the dinghy, pulled the anchor, and headed for home.
Passing the Surry Nuclear plant on our way out.
Ghost Fleet going the other way
Chaos in the cabin after a fun weekend
Storm clouds behind us
Storm clouds ahead of us
We must have built up some good karma towing our neighbors or something, because we really got lucky with the storms. A big system brewing behind us ended passing us to the North and really whacking Williamsburg, Newport News, and Hampton. To our front we watched as another big system formed and moved over Norfolk. Karen took an awesome photo of the storm dumping on downtown Norfolk as we approached the Middle Ground Light and Craney Island.
Downtown Norfolk getting hammered
By the time we rounded Craney Island and headed down the Norfolk Harbor Reach, the storm had moved off to the West and was dumping on Portsmouth and Suffolk. There was quite a bit of lightning around us, but we hadn't been touched by a single rain drop yet. Our luck continued as we passed through downtown Norfolk and the bridge tender at the Berkley Bridge opened right up for us. There was a brief delay as we waited for Norfolk Southern Bridge #5 to open for us, so Karen took the opportunity to snap a few pictures.
Downtown Norfolk from the Eastern Branch as the storm moves off to the West
Tides fans watching a game at Harbor Park - hope they brought umbrellas
Looking back at the Berkley Bridge
We were nearly home now, and it seemed incredible that we had been able to thread our way through all of those storms. There was one last hurdle though, our old nemesis, the Eastern Branch Bridge.
Sure enough, the bridge was closed. I called the operator and he told me they were expecting a train and we would have to wait. As we idled at the foot of the bridge, the sky grew darker and the lightning more intense. Just as the first rain drops of the day started to hit the bimini, the bridge began to open. No train had passed, but apparently the bridge tender had taken pity on us. As soon as we were clear I called him to let him know we were through and thank him for the courtesy. He wished us a good night and closed the bridge again right behind us. It is not very often that you run into a bridge tender with mercy in his heart. I sometimes think surliness is a hiring requirement for the job. We really had luck on our side that entire day. Anyway, it let us end the trip on a positive note.
We made it back to the dock and tied up in a light drizzle. Everybody got into the house just before the real downpour started. Leaving Sunday was the right call. Monday saw rain and thunderstorms all day long. Another trip is in the books. We had so much fun we might make another trip up there this Fall when things start to cool off. We'll take more pictures on that trip.
