So glad we skedaddled over here on Thursday before Tropical Storm Ophelia unleashed her wrath on the east coast. By late afternoon yesterday is was wild and windy in this part of Virginia. We felt super safe here at Atlantic Yacht Basin as the facility is on the Albermarle and Chesapeake Canal and behind the Great Bridge Lock. Escapade was storm tied on the fixed docks and we had no issues during the height of the storm.

I took the screen shot below on one of our weather apps last night. This was during the peak of the storm here. The green dot is where we are at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake. The white dot is where we were at Bluewater Yachting Center. The chart shows the sustained winds but not the gusts which were around 30 mph here… can’t imagine what they were over in Hampton where we are having all the work done on the boat. The blue dot is where I hope no one was last night!!!

It’s actually the A & C Canal, silly me!

Friday morning before the storm hit, we took an Uber back over to Hampton to get Ernie and have brunch with our friends Stacy and Eric at Mango Mangeaux in Phoebus. The restaurant is adorable inside and the food is excellent. Wally and both had the Chesapeake Benedict.

Two Poached Eggs, Two Fried Green Tomatoes, Lump Crab, and a Cajun hollandaise sauce. Topped on a buttery biscuit and served with a side of fruit and ‘Mango Mango’ fruit dip. The City of Hampton is known for its crab and Mango Mangeaux’s is well known for their Chesapeake Benedict! Some how we were also influenced to have a flight of Mimosas, go figure!

The upside of being in the Norfolk/Hampton area for almost 3 months is that we made some new wonderful friends, both human and canine. Stacey and Eric have the most adorable dogs and we have really been getting sweet doggie fixes from them. We are looking forward to seeing them all when we are back in May.

Phoebus is a cute area on the edge of Hampton, It has been revitalized over the years and has some great shops and restaurants now. After brunch we checked out a few shops in Phoebus. Thanks Stacy for introducing us to the “Way We Were Book Store”. Thousands and thousands of books, stacked 6-7 feet high and apparently 7 more offsite storage units full of more books. Let’s just say it was an experience!!!

It’s still gusty and rainy here in Chesapeake today so it’s a good day to hunker down inside. We have started packing and getting organized to leave on Friday.

Escapade is set up with everything we need in the way of kitchen supplies, linens, towels, bedding, etc so mostly what we are packing up is anything food related and some of our clothes. Oh, and the liquor cabinet and wine stash of course!

I don’t like to leave any food items on the boat when we leave for the winter. Since we will be gone for 6 months, I am emptying, cleaning and turning off the refrigerators/ freezers too. After six years post retirement of doing the annual switch between the boat and the RV, we kinda have this down to a science.

Geez, there is only about a couple of inches left in each of those big bottles… Hmm, there are 6 cocktail night opportunities before we leave. Can we do it???

The Amarula is Wallys coffee creamer of choice so of course that has to go with us!