We really enjoyed our stay at Tidewater, very nice marina. And we had a lot of fun exploring Portsmouth and Norfolk. But we are homeward bound and it was time to continue on. There is a weather window opening up to go outside to New York, and we decide to move over to Mill Creek just outside of Hampton to anchor as a slightly closer jumping off spot.

The weather forecast was kind of all over the place for the day, but it ended up being pretty nice overall. We left the marina and were able to immediately put up sail and had a nice slow sail down through the channel to Mill Creek. Minus all the traffic is was a terrific place to sail and float along while watching all the goings on. Big coal ports, container ports, and the long string of US naval vessels are pretty amazing to see. Although the little gun boats they have patrolling the area are slightly intimidating, but it does keep you alert and focused on staying in the channel.

We also floated past a 900+ foot LNG tanker named Grace Emilia from the Bahamas which was neat. The scale of these things is hard to even notice as they kind of look like any other bin container ship on the water, and it's not until you really focus on the details or get up close that you notice the actual size of the thing.

We got in to anchor up, and were invited to come ashore with some friends, which ended up in a fun time strolling around the area and taking a walk around Fort Monroe. After we got back we were invited over for pizza which was also another nice treat to round off a busy day.

When we got back to the boat we did a final check of the weather and decided to take the weather window the next morning to head from Norfolk to Cape May and then to New York. Our friends are heading up the Chesapeake and we are a little torn on the decision, as it would be nice to go the Chesapeake route as well, but it does add several more days, and we do like to go when the weather looks good for sailing.

And so, it'll be an early start tomorrow heading back out to the ocean.