To hoist or not to hoist the GOLD burgee! 37◦01'.728 N 076◦20'.240 W

Well today marks a day of celebration, kind of. Jim and I have had a brief discussion on whether or not to hoist our gold burgee, signifying that we have crossed our wake.  You see, to do the Great Loop means to travel in a circle from one point, back to that point while traveling through the great lakes, the river systems and up the East coast. It does not matter where you start on the loop, just that you cross the line again.  When we bought this boat we drove it down to Norfolk Virginia, then back up the East coast to home, 2-1/2 years later, we went through the great lakes, river systems and back up the coast, so as of 11 am, we crossed the spot in Norfolk where we started back up the coast. So officially, we have crossed our wake and are now GOLD loopers. We have also crossed the 5000 mile mark since leaving last August,  just over 6,200 miles since leaving Norfolk Virginia 2-1/2 years ago. We crossed the 1000 hrs mark on our engines and we logged our 110^th day of cruising since leaving in August. Lots of milestones for one day! 

It was a dark and miserable morning. We left the Chesapeake Yacht docks at 9 am with rain and 46◦F temperatures. We were cold, wet and miserable and certainly not in the mood for a celebration.  We did have an eagle come bid us good bye as we left though, and by the time we reached Hampton Roads we had beautiful sunshine and it had warmed up a bit.

 Being in Norfolk, there is no doubt we would see a war ship or two. When we passed this one, we got a message on the radio. "Pleasure Crafts please be aware, you must be at least 500 yards from the war ship." We did not get shot at though, so that's always good news! 

Our cruising today, took us through some very industrial areas with massive ships 

and some ...well not so massive.

We anchored in a small bay just between two bridges and went to pick up Chic and Barb for a walk into town. After our walk we returned to "Sundancer" and had some cocktails with them. Back to our boat for dinner and to continue our discussion on the gold flag

When all was said and done, we decided NOT to hoist our Gold flag. We opted instead to call our first pass through the East Coast from Norfolk, our shakedown cruise. I mean really what fun is it to hoist a Gold flag, if you are not with friends and family when you do it.  I  know, I know...any excuse for a party! ! !

So tomorrow we take off for Deltaville Virginia, our next step in this trip. Last time we were there, our boat was on the hard for a week, getting a bunch of blisters repaired on the hull. This time we just get to visit! Whew! So off to bed we go, we have an early start tomorrow.

Good night all

PS. 17 more sleeps