After waiting for the holiday weekend to end we woke up and set sail up the ICW towards Norfolk. Why Norfolk? Well, we used to work there so it would be kind of cool to see it. It’s also the only major place to dock a boat at a marina within a reasonable distance north of Beaufort. The weather was predicted to be super hot so we really needed a marina so we could plug into shore power and run our air conditioning! Norfolk was too far to sail in a day so we spent the night at anchor in a quiet little nook off of the main channel. I even got to do a little kayak exploring!

We stopped at Coinjock marina to get some fuel (and also raspberry jam and coffee at the little general store!) and continued on our way north!

It’s been a long time since we lived and worked in Norfolk and neither of us had ever seen it from the water so it was pretty cool going under the highway bridges that we used to drive over and seeing the shipyard from the water. We docked the boat at Waterside Marina in downtown Norfolk right around the corner from the USS Wisconsin battleship at the Nauticus museum. Somehow in the few years we lived here Jason and I really never explored downtown (probably due to traffic!) but on a boat you’re free to just wander as much as you please. We found a bunch of historical buildings, unique restaurants, hidden murals, and had a blast exploring!