Sailboat life meets city life in the beautiful city of Norfolk, VA and the quaint town of Portsmouth. Normally, we associate sailboat life with oceans, islands, bay sailing, and tropical locations – but we discovered that living next to bustling cities can be a pleasant change of cadence!
Hospital Point, A Great Place to Anchor
A little about where we set the hook – it’s called Hospital Point due to it’s proximity to the Navy Hospital. It’s nearest to Portsmouth, VA with shore access at the marina, Tidewater Marina.
Oh, and Tidewater has a pretty good restaurant too!
The anchorage had a few crab traps, a handful of mooring balls, and plenty of room for 2 dozen sailboats or trawlers.
We found the holding to be excellent in about 10-15 feet of water. We did put two anchors out (5:1 scope each) for the 25+ knots of wind that hit us for a few days. Never dragged an inch.
Oh, and here’s a tip. You can access water at the T-head dock or pay for a day pass at Tidewater marina and get full access to shore, laundry, ect.
Things to See When Anchored in Hospital Point
Norfolk and Portsmouth both offer too many things to see when going ashore (at least too many to list here). Here were a few of our favorites:
- Catch a movie in Norfolk or at the historic theater in Portsmouth
- Eat at Chili’s in the Norfolk (it’s good quality like Chilis was in the 1990s)
- Walk the Japanese garden near the Norfolk Dinghy access
- Walk through historic Portsmouth
- Visit the coffee shop (The Coffee Shoppe) in Portsmouth
- Eat at Guad’s Mexican in Portsmouth
- Dinghy down to the downtown Portsmouth ferry landing – it’s a free dock with excellent access
- Visit the taprooms or Irish pubs in Norfolk (we didn’t get to do this!)
This visit to Norfolk and Portsmouth wraps us out stay in time cruising in Chesapeake Bay. We loved every minute and found some treasured locations for sailors: anchoring in Deltaville and anchoring in Annapolis.
We hope you enjoyed following along our Chesapeake travels, we’ll leave you with 3 minutes of sailing, will you leave us a comment down below?
Cheers.
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