After 4 nights at York Yacht Haven, we headed out early in hope of avoiding the hottest part of the day. We have certainly hit the extremes of weather traveling the Loop. Last winter it was record cold in the south and now we are hitting record heat.
A waterman at sunrise.
Early in the day the water was very calm and we could see huge balls of small fish in the water. They were thick at the surface and some of the balls were as big as maybe 150' across. Most were maybe 30 to 50’ across. We found out later that they are Menhaden. Those are the oily fish that are so helpful in filtering the water. Virginia is the only state on the East Coast that still allows the industrial harvesting of menhaden, conducted by a fleet of boats and airplanes that help spot great schools of the fish in coastal waters. It’s a very lucrative business so strong lobbying against controls. The fish is too oily to eat so it’s made in to pet food and Omega-3 vitamins. It’s definitely a hot debate out here.
Passed close to this lighthouse. It’s the Wolf Trap York Spit Lighthouse. Must be a good fishing spot from the looks of the nearby boats. Sad to see its broken out windows and boarded up windows and doors.
The first lighthouse was built here in 1870, but in 1893 it was carried away by ice and found floating about a mile away. The light keeper escaped just before the ice tore the lighthouse away. He made his way across the ice to a nearby tugboat locked in the frozen bay.
The lighthouse was replaced and this one was sold in 2005 for $75,000. The guy had plans to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Didn’t happen and has been sold twice since. Looks pretty tough.
The breeze picked up but it felt like a furnace blast.
We spent the night at the Tides Inn at Irvington, Virginia. The water in their pool was actually cool, so that’s were we spent the remainder of the day. It’s been hot for so may days in a row, that most pools feel like bathwater.
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