We left Norfolk on Saturday, June 27 under an overcast sky
with a bit of wind but nothing we couldn’t handle and nothing that made us
uncomfortable. To make sure we had good water we left about 7am.
We saw the usual assortment of huge naval military vessels
in dock at Norfolk.
We heard a lot of chatter on the radio about keeping away
from military ships at the mouth of the Atlantic and the Bay, near Virginia
Beach. As we moved through Norfolk to the channel between Newport News and
Norfolk, we understood why.
A ship was returning to port after being away for some time. The crew was standing on the deck and the flags were flying!! Isn’t that nice? |
| The tunnel entrance from Norfolk to Hampton |
You can tell from these photos that the water is pretty nice. The water ranges from flat or one foot waves from the south south west, perfect weather, despite the cloudy skies. The actual conditions compare favorably to the dire warnings we get from locals about how awful the weather is. Although it is windy and really hot, the water is nice for running the boat, at least to these Lake Erie boaters. This water is great!! |
| York River, you can see the bridge in the distance |
Once we see the York River Bridge, turn right to the York River Yacht Haven.
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| York River Yacht Haven |
More osprey along the way. We love these birds. I think we have at least 100 photos of osprey. This time we saw babies very clearly poking their heads out of the nests! Just about every marker has an osprey nest on it.
The entrance into YRYH is kind of tricky. The channel winds around like a z. At one point, right here in fact, we couldn't figure out which side of the green marker we should be on. There were sticks in the water on one side of the marker so we were confused. We slowed to a crawl and proceeded until the fisherman in the little boat started waving. Evidently we were on the wrong side of the marker!! We backed up and went the other way. No harm no foul.
Jim and Joy met us!! It was great to see them again!!
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| BEST Oysters of all time according to Jim and Joy - we are going back this Saturday for more |
After we got tied up, Joy and I sat down and made a list of meals we wanted to prepare and a shopping list. Off we went to the Yorktown Farmers Market. This place is small but really high quality food available. We bought corn that was so yummy and the best oysters and crab we have ever had!!
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| Yorktown Farmers Market |
We went back this Saturday and got another jar of those local oysters to eat with a steak cookout we plan on Sunday night.
The Chesapeake Bay used to be filled with oysters but no more. This is a quote from Oyster Restoration:
Although the native oyster is an extremely resilient species, able to tolerate wide variations in salinity and temperature, it has not been immune to the pressures of disease, over harvesting, and pollution. As a result, native oyster populations in Chesapeake Bay are at less than 1% of historic levels. This tremendous decline in the oyster population has dramatically changed the ecology of the Bay as well as the oyster fishery and the cultural tradition of watermen who harvest seafood from the Bay for a living. One of the responses to this decline has been attempts to restore oyster populations. NOAA and its partners bring expertise and knowledge of the science and techniques behind oyster restoration to projects around the Bay.
York River Yacht Haven participates in oyster restoration with its own oyster far on the docks! It is very cool. When we first arrived we saw these odd hatches in the deck. Usually these kinds of hatches are in place to access electrical or water connections that run under docks. But there are hatches everywhere. So we investigated.
It turns out that the owner (or former owner - we heard he just sold the marina to someone else) has been running an oyster farm in the marina for years. I did a Google search and found articles about it going back to 2006, including some articles citing neighborhood protests.
According to this article in the local paper, the Daily Press, Mr. Bacot owns the York River Yacht Haven and Sarah's Creek Shellfish. The article says, "Bacot's Sarah's Creek Shellfish is a three-part business. Baby oysters are grown in a nursery on the site before being transferred to submerged compartments spread below his marina's piers. Maturing oysters are raised in river cages where they are kept -- protected from predators -- until harvest.
It is a very cool operation. There is a hatchery sitting in one of the docks that has buckets filled with baby oysters. I am sure they have a name but let's just call them baby oysters.
Once a week the oyster farmers (I didn't catch their names - they were very busy - we will call them Pete and Sue) come to the dock to clean the hatchery. This is their job. They raise oysters. You can't see it in the picture but Pete has a HUGE chew of tobacco in his mouth. I couldn't understand a word he said but he seemed happy and very knowledgeable about oyster farming.
There are two big boxes with a complex system of pipes pulling water out of the marina and running it through the pipes and out the other side.
Pete and Sue pull a set of three buckets hanging on one pipe out to clean. They carefully set them on the deck leaning them so they can access the bottom of the buckets.
The buckets have a mesh bottom so the little buggers can't fall out but the water can run through them.
Pete and Sue take hoses and first hose all the crud off the bottom of the buckets. It is very disgusting. Evidently this is oyster poop.
As Maeo says, this takes some time.
Then they push water through the top of the bucket to clean the oyster babies from the top. I guess the little guys don't mind fresh water now and then. After all this is brackish water.
Then they put the clean buckets at the end of the deck and go get another set to pull out and clean.
Stage 2: When the baby oysters are toddlers, they are moved into larger buckets or cages that are stored under the boardwalk. Almost every dock in the marina has these hatches under the decking. We haven't seen the hatches open in the week we've been here.
We met some really nice people here. When we landed Joy and I were walking Rusty up by the marina store and office, just standing in the shade looking around and a fellow came around the corner. He stopped and he said, "Hey, that must be Rusty!!" Turns out he has been following our blog!! His name is Jim. He has a slip in this marina. He knew we were coming this way and was looking out for us. We had a great conversation that day and again a few days later. What a nice guy!! He made some good recommendations about things to do so we are taking him up on it.
We also met a nice couple for Houston on a sailboat. They move the sailboat and stay in one place for months, almost a year, then move the boat again. They stay a week and fly home for three weeks. He is an attorney who can work one the boat.
We also met this other couple on a 30 foot sailboat planning to take the loop. They joined us on Jim's Joy for fireworks and took tours of both our boats. We toured their boat too. Nice!! Although they don't have air conditioning. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because the boat has really good ventilation.
In other news about York River Yacht Haven, they have a great pool, club house, and restaurant with music a few days a week. It is so hot we did not let the cloudy nature of the pool water stop us. On a few afternoons we sat by the pool, dipped occasionally, drank a beer or two and a ton of water, and just chilled.
We ate at the restaurant twice. We probably won't stop again despite the really nice staff because it takes forever to get served. We can eat better and faster at the boats.
It is unbelievably hot here. We are so grateful for the rain. It made touring enjoyable. We both are having trouble with the heat. Rusty is VERY uncomfortable. We only take him out early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and once at dusk. He just can't take the heat. His poor back legs are having trouble.
Rusty ran out of his prescription for Rimadal, a medication for arthritis so we had to find a vet to get a refile. We used our usual technique. We met a nice man with a very old dog and asked him the name of his vet. So off Rusty and I went to Yorktown to just about the nicest vet we have been to yet. Here is a shout out to Yorktown Animal Hospital, tucked conveniently in a shady cove behind the Bojangles. These folks are really nice, although you can't tell with the bear hug the vet tech has around Rusty in this photo.
Rusty put on a few pounds with the heat and lack of exercise. He is now 89 pounds. We have to work really hard to get him down to 80 pounds but the lack of exercise does not help. He can't walk any slower in this heat, poor guy.
Next up: We tour the historic triangle in the rain - Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, and the Shirley Plantation
It turns out that the owner (or former owner - we heard he just sold the marina to someone else) has been running an oyster farm in the marina for years. I did a Google search and found articles about it going back to 2006, including some articles citing neighborhood protests.
According to this article in the local paper, the Daily Press, Mr. Bacot owns the York River Yacht Haven and Sarah's Creek Shellfish. The article says, "Bacot's Sarah's Creek Shellfish is a three-part business. Baby oysters are grown in a nursery on the site before being transferred to submerged compartments spread below his marina's piers. Maturing oysters are raised in river cages where they are kept -- protected from predators -- until harvest.
Oyster farming has provided Bacot a way to maximize marina profits while employing about a dozen watermen. Bacot said the operation allows him to aid the ailing Chesapeake Bay watershed."
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| This float sits next to the main dock. Good Karma is on the other side of the dock, down a bit |
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| A bucket of baby oysters |
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| Baby oysters are the size of my thumb nail - pretty narrow, like a bit of crud sitting on a shell |
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| Rusty and Kermit are walking next to the oyster hatchery |
Once a week the oyster farmers (I didn't catch their names - they were very busy - we will call them Pete and Sue) come to the dock to clean the hatchery. This is their job. They raise oysters. You can't see it in the picture but Pete has a HUGE chew of tobacco in his mouth. I couldn't understand a word he said but he seemed happy and very knowledgeable about oyster farming.There are two big boxes with a complex system of pipes pulling water out of the marina and running it through the pipes and out the other side.
Pete and Sue pull a set of three buckets hanging on one pipe out to clean. They carefully set them on the deck leaning them so they can access the bottom of the buckets.
The buckets have a mesh bottom so the little buggers can't fall out but the water can run through them.
Pete and Sue take hoses and first hose all the crud off the bottom of the buckets. It is very disgusting. Evidently this is oyster poop. As Maeo says, this takes some time.
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| The oyster hatchery from the other side of the dock |
Then they put the clean buckets at the end of the deck and go get another set to pull out and clean.
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| The buckets are completely under running water at all times. There is a cover over these pipes when Pete and Sue aren't here. |
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| Hatches in the decking |
Stage 3: Almost full grown or perhaps more accurately, teenage oysters are put in cages in the rivers and bays around the marina. I guess this is the controversial part because dock owners in the properties on Sarah's Creek (where we are) don't want the oyster cages blocking their waterways. But heck, we all travel with crab pots and fishnets. What's a few oyster cages to a boater?
As an added advantage, the oysters are really cleaning the Chesapeake Bay. Sort of like zebra mussels to Lake Erie only a native species. It is nice to see the native species come back. Plus the oysters are delicious. Jim, Joy, and Kermit said these were the best oysters they ever had, better than the oysters in Apalachicola, the self-proclaimed oyster capital.
We met some really nice people here. When we landed Joy and I were walking Rusty up by the marina store and office, just standing in the shade looking around and a fellow came around the corner. He stopped and he said, "Hey, that must be Rusty!!" Turns out he has been following our blog!! His name is Jim. He has a slip in this marina. He knew we were coming this way and was looking out for us. We had a great conversation that day and again a few days later. What a nice guy!! He made some good recommendations about things to do so we are taking him up on it.
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| Kermit at the pool - notice how you can't see his feet? |
We also met a nice couple for Houston on a sailboat. They move the sailboat and stay in one place for months, almost a year, then move the boat again. They stay a week and fly home for three weeks. He is an attorney who can work one the boat.
We also met this other couple on a 30 foot sailboat planning to take the loop. They joined us on Jim's Joy for fireworks and took tours of both our boats. We toured their boat too. Nice!! Although they don't have air conditioning. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because the boat has really good ventilation.
In other news about York River Yacht Haven, they have a great pool, club house, and restaurant with music a few days a week. It is so hot we did not let the cloudy nature of the pool water stop us. On a few afternoons we sat by the pool, dipped occasionally, drank a beer or two and a ton of water, and just chilled.
We ate at the restaurant twice. We probably won't stop again despite the really nice staff because it takes forever to get served. We can eat better and faster at the boats.
It is unbelievably hot here. We are so grateful for the rain. It made touring enjoyable. We both are having trouble with the heat. Rusty is VERY uncomfortable. We only take him out early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and once at dusk. He just can't take the heat. His poor back legs are having trouble.
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| If Rusty could talk I would have to cover my ears |
Rusty put on a few pounds with the heat and lack of exercise. He is now 89 pounds. We have to work really hard to get him down to 80 pounds but the lack of exercise does not help. He can't walk any slower in this heat, poor guy.
Next up: We tour the historic triangle in the rain - Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, and the Shirley Plantation
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