Portsmouth, VA’s Olde Town Historic District has been our homeport for two weeks. Olde Town is a laid-back historical venue within an easy walk of the Tidewater Yacht Marina. Three hundred years of American history can be viewed within its single square mile of antique homes.
The Naval Shipyard Museum… the oldest in the country… and its lightship Portsmouth were well worth the visit.
Across the Elizabeth River is bustling Norfolk.
A short ferry ride ($1.00 each way for Seniors) delivered us to the Waterside Marina/ Dining Complex. One of the highlights of our first week was the Norfolk Naval Base Cruise. Along with about 100 other tourists of all ages, we listened and took note as the tour boat captain gave a well-delivered 2-hour talk along the Norfolk waterfront. We never knew there were so many military ships for so many different purposes!
We have been meeting friendly folks, both sailors and motor cruisers, making short stays at Tidewater Yacht Marina as they move north. The marina live-aboard community has been very friendly to us short-timers, also. A few cruising folks are spending longer periods of time in Portsmouth, working on boat jobs as they await non-boat trips away to spend time with family…especially grandchildren.
With
Summertime double-lined to the dock and neighbors Bob and Pat keeping an eye on her safety, Wally and I moved up the Delmarva (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) Peninsula by rental car. We stayed overnight in Easton, MD and explored Cambridge, Oxford and St. Micheals on the Choptank River and it’s estuaries.
We had missed seeing this area of the Eastern Shore of Maryland three years ago when we were on The Great Loop. We appreciated the loving care that each community continues to put into the restoration and upkeep of their historic landmarks. After reading James A. Michener’s
Chesapeake in preparation for this leg of the trip, it was important for us to walk where he walked while he wrote about the watermen of recent years and their forbearers’ times of so long ago.
We left the bucolic scenery of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, to find ourselves white-knuckled on the New Jersey Turnpike, the George Washington Bridge, and the expressway through Bronx and Yonkers. We never get used to New York City traffic… and we never want to! We caught our breath by staying overnight in the Meridan/ East Hampton, CT area. The next day we visited with long-time RVing friends Joanna and David and their two labs. The pizza and brownies that came fresh out of their oven was tantalizing; our conversation was delightfully reminiscent. Ahh!
Our road trip north was due to end in Longmeadow, MA where a surprise 100th Birthday party was in the works for Dad’s sister Venessa. We were about to join 60+ invitees to celebrate a century of a life well-lived. Friends from her church, the community Senior Center, Venessa’s alma mater Bay Path University and her neighbors… along with family from Myrtle Beach, SC and Springfield, ME and we rovers from the waterway would make up the gathering. Venessa was truly surprised and she loved being honored with a grand celebration.
The next day we traveled back to
Summertime in 11 hours. We had one more day with the rental car so we took advantage of our wheels and made a big provisioning run. We expected that it would be at least 6 days before we would be near a grocery store as we made the run up the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. We plan to make 60 miles a day as long as the weather allows… got to move when the winds are light and the seas are smooth. With 8 mph being our top speed, each day of travel will take about 8 hours.
Our red Mazda 5 Mini-Minivan is now making it’s way north. Fort Myers’ friends Barb and Dave found her to be the perfect transportation to get to their PDQ
Miss My Money stored for the winter in the Erie Canal town of Brewerton, NY. They are looking forward to being in Brunswick, GA for the International MTOA Rendezvous and then moving on to Norfolk, VA for the Annual Spring AGLCA Rendezvous a week later. We have noticed that we are rather alone out here on the waterway; many of the cruisers moving north have stopped to participate in these momentous gatherings. We look forward to being reunited with our sweet car in Upstate NY.
Thank-you Barb and Dave!
Dozier’s Regatta Point Marina in Deltaville, VA and Zahniser’s Yachting Center in Solomans, MD were our first two overnight stops. To accomplish this distance, we cruised past the mouths of many rivers… the James, York, Severn, Mobjack, Rappahannock, Potomac and Patuxent. Note: The Potomac River serves as the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. Twelve miles across at its mouth and 102 miles long, it invites a cruise from Chesapeake Bay to Washington, D.C.
On Day 3, with the wind shifting from SW to W to N, we followed a course closer to shore than we had originally planned. After three hours, the 2-foot waves of 7 am had simmered down to ripples… just the way we like it! Along the way we skirted several restricted security and safety zones, zig-zagged through strings of crab trap marker buoys, threaded our way around small fishing boats and stayed clear of a car-carrying ship. All in all, it was a relaxing day. Our intention was to steam past Annapolis, go under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and tuck into the crook of an arm of Gibson Island. By 4 pm we had worked our plan. Our anchor was set.
What’s that? The local weather service reports that severe thunderstorms are headed our way! The green, yellow and red depiction of the upcoming wind and rain moves us to “batten down the hatches”. Our sunny world suddenly becomes like twilight… dusky and still… the birds begin their night-time calls. Thunder-bumpers roll and flashes of lightning crease the sky. When the wind-driven rain reaches us,
Summertime is pushed and pulled against her anchor line, circling in our pond-like anchorage. Wally and I are in the pilothouse following the storm’s progress on the iPhone. We notice that there is a break in the red mass…the most violent part of the storm…. and that break seems to be working its way toward the blue dot that represents US. The rain is being driven in under the pilothouse doors, the wind is in access of 30 mph, but the worst is sliding by to our south and east. After 45 minutes, the rain ends, the sky clears and we take a deep breath of relief. We feel like we have been guided to this very spot for safe keeping. Thank-you Lord!
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