Reviews: Willoughby Bay

Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Alex Proulx, Friend Ship, on Oct 22, 2022
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 34'
Draft: 5.6'

Constant noise from the naval base, boaters from the boat ramp just don't care about the anchorage, tugboat traffic caused by construction nearby. Keep it as last choice!

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Heath Phillips, Philyria , on Nov 3, 2021
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 35'
Draft: 6.0'

Nice spot to wait for weather. No holding issues. Found decent space even with the crab pots.

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Jeff Osterberg, Top Shelf, on Aug 8, 2021
Vessel Type: Power
LOA: 41'
Draft: 4.0'

Great stop.

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Gibson MacElhannon on Jun 5, 2021
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 42'
Draft: 5.4'

Good spot to overnight for an early start out of the bay going north or to time the rush hour bridge closing in Norfolk headed south. Some charts show shoaling in parts of the channel coming in but we never saw less than 8' at mid tide. Bay is wide open. Yes there was a LOT of helicopter training going on but stopped promptly at 9:00 pm. Some charts show a lot of buoys around the end of the bay with no information about what they are. When we got in it was obvious that they marked off a restricted area on the north side where construction is going on.

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: John Morfit on Aug 22, 2020
LOA: 47'
Draft: 4.0'

8-12 feet of water throughout a very large area. I would avoid the navy facilities on the south and west sides, as helicopters are constantly taking off and landing there. In addition, they were doing search and rescue operation training, dropping swimmers into the water from a hover, and recovering them.

We have a Rocna 33 (73 lbs) and it drug through 150 feet of the black ooze on the bottom at 1/2 knot, never stopping. So we switched to a Fortress 23 and it held immediately.

T-Mobile cell service was good.

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Paul Smyers, SV Nova, on May 14, 2020
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 43'
Draft: 4.0'

We spent one night here. The holding was fine, but we did have to make three attempts. There is pretty constant noise from the road and Navy base. There were also quite a few crab pots in the north side. Cell service was all good, which is expected considering you're in the city next to a highway.

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Jason Erbecker, Liberty Risk, on May 6, 2020
Vessel Type: Power
LOA: 52'
Draft: 4.5'

Good holding in approx 12' of water. We go here often to have lunch and swim as the current is nearly non-existent. Occasional Navy helicopters doing exercises in the area and a very small amount of boat traffic. Great place if you are self-sustaining and don't need a grocery store...

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Shawn Fay, Wandering Star, on Aug 17, 2019
Vessel Type: Power
LOA: 40'
Draft: 4.0'

Holding was good in sandy mud 12' water with 7:1 scope (65' 3/8 chain plus 5/8" rode & a 35lb delta anchor). Navy copters were fun to watch & we didn't find the sound obtrusive from the copters or the nearby interstate 64 bridge. Open to the west but otherwise fairly protected. We would use this anchorage again

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Scott Vaden on Jun 27, 2018
Vessel Type: Sail
LOA: 34'
Draft: 3.0'

Great view of navy helicopters coming and going from the base. Not very crowded. We did not try to go ashore so no comment on that aspect of the anchorage.

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Review for Willoughby Bay

Reviewed by: Skipper Bob on Jun 1, 2016
Draft: 0.0'

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