Carters Creek | Island Office

Carters Creek Anchorage – near Irvington, VA – Tuesday, 5/18

Before heading out of Urbanna, Denise went for a run through town, trying to capture some sights that we missed yesterday. Unfortunately, during the run she tripped on the very rough sidewalk and took a slight spill, scraping a knee, elbow and hand. These old town sidewalks are uneven and very unforgiving, but fortunately nothing was broken. She shook it off and continued exploring the Waterman’s Park and the neighborhood around the town.

Recognizing her hand and elbow were bleeding, and running out of places to run in town, she headed back to the boat. Once bandaged up, she got some coffee and breakfast and all was ok with the world.

We were not in a hurry to leave today as we were only going 7 miles across the Rapp to the area by the Tides Resort, near Irvington, VA. We would love to stay here, but once investigating the cost of it all ($200/night dockage + $15 electric, + resort fee) it just wasn’t worth it to us. Our plan instead was to just go over to the area and locate a place to anchor out. So with good internet and cell service at the marina, we did some work, answered emails, and worked on the blog before leaving.

Finally, we decided we should head out of the marina, so just before lunch we left Urbanna. On our way out of the marina, Mark noticed a “buy boat” in front of the condominiums on the harbor. Some of you may know that we are fans of two types of classic boats, the Chesapeake Buy Boat and Trumpy Yachts. This was a cool find for us.

After all the dock lines and fenders were stowed, we headed out of the harbor and onto the Rapp. It was another spectacular day and there was not even a ripple on the water. We pray we will have 2 days like this in 2 weeks when we need to go down the Delaware River, and up the New Jersey coast.

In no time at all we had made our way across the Rapp and entered the waterway towards the Tides. Here there are several finger creeks and coves that all branch off the entrance, each one providing some kind of protection from weather (depending on wind direction) and each one lined with amazing homes. Some old, some new, some small, but most are a good size. Here is a sample of some of them:

We slowly made our way past the Tides resort and further into the creek north of it. We were monitoring our cell phones to see where we could find the strongest signal, and the further up the creek away from the resort, the weaker it got. So we turned around and for the next 30 minutes we cruised through the creeks and area southeast of the resort. Here up the eastern branch of Carter’s Creek near Jack Cove we found our strongest signal, and an area with plenty of protection and space to anchor. It was spectacularly beautiful with lots of osprey, herons and other birds flying about. Our only danger was the crab pots, but they were spread out enough that we could anchor successfully without encountering any of them.

After settling the boat we ate a late lunch and then did a little bit of work. We talked about taking the dinghy out and go exploring, but Denise wanted to get the last blog published, and Mark wanted to take a nap. So we agreed to do these things and then later we would go out on the dinghy.

One of the things we were not sure about was where we could land the dinghy in this area as it was mostly residential. However, Mark contacted Custom Yacht Services (CYS) – a small boat yard near the anchorage to see if they would allow us to tie to their docks. We wanted to check out the small town of Irvington, which is right up the road from them anyway. Another place that we considered exploring was the Dog and Oyster Vineyard; a local winery that also has an inn and was just shy of a mile away. It took a few back & forth calls and voicemails with CYS before we got confirmation that they would allow us to tie to their docks, and actually use their internet connection if needed. However, by this time we had learned that the winery only has tastings on Thursday through Sunday, and Irvington was so small it was hardly worth the effort. Meanwhile we were enjoying the relaxation and the views so we decided not to launch the dinghy after all.

Throughout the afternoon and early evening a handful of boats cruised by, either on their way to/from somewhere (dinner?) or just out enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. One local stopped by and talked to Denise about the boat. He has been trying to find a Back Cove 34’ to purchase, but there are just not any on the market right now, like with the 37s. He currently has a trawler, but wants a different boat (e.g. go faster) and loves the Back Cove, as we do. They talked a little while longer and she watched him motor off in his skiff to one of the houses up the cove but out of sight from us.

The evening brought out a few other boaters and we watched the local residents retire to their decks or lawn chairs to enjoy the warm and beautiful evening. Mark cooked cheeseburgers on the grill and truly we felt like we were in paradise. This was reinforced when we were treated to a spectacular sunset over the pristine cove that we had all to ourselves.