The Chesapeake at Last!

We've now clocked over 1000 nautical miles during our journey from Florida to the Chesapeake, for a total of 3340 NM since we set sail from Grenada last November.

We arrived into Yorktown on the afternoon on August 13th and were greeted by a flawless day and magnificent weather.  For the first time since June we had high temperatures in the low 80's and lows in the upper 60's!  (This, of course, meant that I needed a jacket since I've completely acclimated to life without air conditioning!)

Yorktown is an absolutely gorgeous location, with a thriving historic downtown, beautiful Riverwalk, an American Revolution Museum, and small beach with tons of families enjoying the last bit of summer.  

The Riverwalk on Saturday morning is an active place. There's a market with arts and crafts and other vendors, live music, walkers, beach-goers, and my favorite - a fife and drum corps!

Saturday morning parade:  Fife and Drum Corps of Yorktown

We spent the first day walking along the historic main street, where most of the structures were built in the early 1700's.

Cole Digges House (circa 1730), home of 
MobjackBay Coffee Roasters and Petite Cafe

  The Old Custom House (circa 1720) 

Graves of George & Elizabeth Read, 
laid to rest 1675 and 1695

 

Modern day Veteran's Cemetery at Grace Episcopal Church

 

The Riverwalk at Yorktown

Yorktown was an important location in American history. George Washington and the French Navy laid siege against British General Cornwallis, who eventually surrendered on October 19, 1781. Although the war continued for another year, the surrender of Yorktown is considered the effective end of the American Revolution and is commemorated by The Victory Monument and Yorktown Battlefield site. There is also a very nice American Revolution Museum in Yorktown where we spent several hours exploring the exhibits and the grounds which included several buildings from that era and a reconstructed farm and army encampment.

Victory Monument

The Schooner "Alliance invites
guests for a hands-on short cruise or for charter

The military presence is still very much a part of the Yorktown scene.  There is a Naval Weapons Station at Yorktown, where explosives are stored, and logistics and maintenance activities and warfighter training are carried out. 

Naval Destroyer passing through
the Coleman Swing Bridge

Navy Vessels at Yorktown's 
Riverwalk Landing

After staying on a dock at the Yorktown Riverwalk Landing for a couple of nights, we moved to an anchorage at Sarah Creek on the other side of the York River.  Here at Gloucester Point, the feel was quite different than at Yorktown. It was very quiet here and we had the opportunity to see some of the local watermen at work checking their crabpots, and then enjoying the fruits of their labor!!

REAL Chesapeake Crab Balls

By the way, I don't know why I ever bother to try a crab cake anywhere besides the Chesapeake. I'm always on a quest for great crab cakes and I'm always disappointed unless I'm here. I apologize for the less than perfect photo of the food presentation. My blog photo was clearly less important than trying the crab balls 😋

We also had an opportunity to socialize a bit in the Yorktown area. While we were on the dock at Yorktown, we met a group from the Mobjack Yacht Club who had come for the weekend. In addition to trying to recruit us to join their club, they provided some useful information about the Chesapeake and were quite entertaining!

We also had drinks one evening with a couple from Cincinatti who were anchored in Sarah Creek. Their story was quite similar to ours and we're hoping to catch up with them in the Bahamas this winter.

Our next few journeys will be shorter hops through the Chesapeake.  Next stop: Deltaville, VA.