Onancock, Va

Crab operation - Tangier Island

Tangier  Island

We had a near perfect sail across the Bay to Tangier Island on Tuesday.  There we docked at Parks Marina where we were joined by three boats of eagle scouts and their adult chaperones.  They had considerable trouble docking since the current through there during tide changes is 2-3 knots.  We were barely tied up ourselves when Milton Parks, the owner, whisked us away for an island tour on his golf cart.  He is quite the island historian.  Except for the biting black flies and the heat, it was a great tour.  The ice cream run later was delicious but the mosquitoes at dusk were threatening to carry us away, so we changed our mind about a stroll to the beach.

After washing down the boat the next morning and taking on some water, we left to move to Onancock on Virginia's eastern shore.  There was very little wind so we motored the 16 miles in relatively calm seas.  We anchored just inside the Onancock channel for a swim and walk on the beach where we found the shell of an humongous horseshoe crab and had a very refreshing swim.  There were thousands of small dragonflies, or maybe damselflies.  Not sure of the difference.

Onancock Creek

Anyway, we moved on down to the town which was about 4-5 miles further up the channel.  We were directed by the harbormaster to anchor in the cove however we couldn't get the anchor to set and the water was pretty shallow so we moved down river about 1/2 mile and tried again.  Apparently the Delta does not like whatever this bottom is because we couldn't get a solid set here either and we wound up putting on the "hurricane anchor".  Since there were severe thunderstorms predicted we wanted to be sure of the anchor.  We got it set finally about 4:00 and then chilled for a while trying to stay cool.  It was really hot and humid.

Around 7:30 pm some rain started and we saw a little lightening and thunder off to port.  Nothing more than a nice shower though on us and none of the gale force winds supposedly experienced further north.  The NOAA report sounded dreadful so we were really happy to avoid that storm line.  Still, during the night we got up a few times for anchor watch just to be sure.  Everything was fine and today (Thursday) is much cooler and crystal clear.  We've had a little trouble finding open wi-fi so have posted several entries today.  Everything is good and Tom is enjoying his retirement.