October 11th - October 20th: Smith and Tangier Islands, and sailing to Norfolk, by Jack

Posted by Jack

On October 11th, we went to Smith Island.  Smith Island is slowly sinking into the Chesapeake.  When we were there, there was a foot and a half of water on the streets. There are three communities on Smith Island, all located on the highest parts of the island.  Most of what appears to be Smith Island is actually wetlands.  The people who live on the island are watermen; they catch a ton of crabs and oysters.

Tangier has the same problem as Smith - it is also sinking. Tangier is bigger and has one big town on it.  When we were staying at the dock at Tangier Island, a ton of large striped bass were swimming against the current and catching minnows in their mouths. We fished for them and I caught six (I don’t know how many Fox caught). I wish we could have caught them before dinner because we could have cooked them.

Yesterday, we sailed to Mobjack Bay from the Piankatank River. On the sail we saw dolphins on two occasions, the first group we saw from farther away, but the second group came closer. We couldn’t take pictures because we were rolling too much.


On October 19th, we were sailing past the York river when Annie spotted a black tower moving fast across the water.  It turned out it was a nuclear submarine! It came from Norfolk, which is a huge naval base. We heard the coast guard hailing the submarine on the VHF.

On October 20th, we saw another group of dolphins and one came less than a foot away from our boat!  The pictures aren’t too good, but it was awesome.


Sunset at Tangier Island

Town under water at Smith Island

Dolphin dorsal fin

Trying to get a picture of the dolphin swimming by our hull.  You can sort of make out the nose in front.
The submarine is in the distance - the black spot is the conning tower.

Small clubhouse for the marina on Smith Island, which is now operated by the restaurant.


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