Portsmouth, Virginia

Olde Town, Portsmouth - beautifully kept homes

Friday November, 5, 2021

Cold but sunny at Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth VA.

Cummings sent over a new service technician for attempt #2 to fix our generator. We were a bit concerned when John came on board as he was a very large man to fit into the very small generator compartment. We overheard his call to his office expressing his own concern too!

Shortly after Roger helped him with accessing the generator and removing the access panels we heard a cry of both alarm and disappointment. Fortunately it was not John that was stuck, but he did drop his cell phone and it slid well under the generator, in the very tight compartment below deck. After some struggle and plenty of contortions, Rog was able to get the phone out.

John then went down with vice grips to remove the plastic strainer cover. Rog let him know that he could do it without the vice grips, adding “do not break my strainer cover John!” Then there was a distinct ‘snap!’ followed by a “that’s not good’ from John. Later that day, John returned with a new strainer and installed a new flow sensor in the generator. So now, is our generator fixed? Time will tell. If nothing else, John entertained us well with his tour guide recommendations and stories of snakes dropping into his canoe from low trees above.

Roger repaired the head mirror cabinet. However it will require a more gentle touch and care when opening. So annoying! says Kim.

Roger started looking into some options to get a bunch of our punch list work done on the boat. We want to have our full enclosure for the cockpit done before we head back North next spring, but ideally, we get it as soon as possible. So far, it's looking like there is hope for a place in St. Augustine - they think they may be able to get it done in January/February.

Near the entrance from the street to the Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth, VA.

Saturday, Nov 6 - Monday, Nov 8, 2021

Relentless high winds and sporadic rain kept us, along with many other boaters, stuck at the marina over the weekend. It was cold, windy, and rough with very high tides. We did a few walks down through the "Olde Town" residential district and High Street in downtown Portsmouth. We also brought Levi on the ferry to Norfolk to explore a bit - he did not appreciate the ferry horn each time we backed out.

We tried food and beverages at Legends Brewery by the north ferry landing in Portsmouth and visited the Bier Garden a couple times, only once for a meal. The beer was great but the German food (i.e., schnitzel) did not do either of us any favors.

We had some trepidation about starting out on the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) the following week. Doing research and talking to folks had given us many ideas of what to look out for. The main concerns were height of fixed bridges, timing of bridge openings, depth of the water, and staying on track for days on end in narrow, dredged passageways along with the other traffic. Roger spent a lot of time route planning.

One big question right up front was where we would stay the first night on the ICW. We made a tentative reservation for Wednesday at Coinjock Marina - about forty miles away. In Maine, that distance would usually be achievable, but we did not know on the ICW. Although Tuesday was going to be a decent day to travel and a railroad bridge that was closed down for maintenance was open for business again that day, we decided to wait out the anticipated rush of folks who were going to head out Tuesday morning. There were quite a few crews all waiting in the area for the bridge to reopen.

Also of interest is that many boat insurance policies have a clause that keeps boaters from going south of Georgia during hurricane season, and early November is when most can start further south. Therefore, many boats that were going to do overnight runs outside or that had more powerful motors than ours were chomping at the bit in Norfolk/Portsmouth to get going as soon as the weather cleared and that bridge opened. So, we decided to go after all that busy-ness.

On the Elizabeth River Ferry

On the Norfolk side, the ferry drops you in front of this market, which was was a collection of eateries and pubs. If you go to the left of it, you are heading towards a nice waterfront park and the Nauticus Maritime Discovery Center. Going through it leads you to downtown Norfolk.

At the end of the waterfront park, there was this display of brass letters that were scattered and made to look like they had been blown in by the wind. They were copies of letters that had been written home by soldiers who had died in the world wars and other wars in the 20th century. Only one of us could go in because dogs weren't allowed, so Roger grabbed a couple snaps of them for Kim to read later. Both of them were heart wrenching.

On the way back to the ferry, we stopped inside the Waterside Market and had a couple beers. We had no idea if dogs were allowed, but we had walked through with Levi earlier, so we just got him to sit at the bottom of our chairs and no one was the wiser. What a good boy! He was well entertained people watching.

On the way back to Portsmouth on the ferry - Levi is thinking "Please don't blow that scary horn again!"

Being on the ferry reminded Kim of traveling between Dartmouth and Halifax every morning and evening to work each day back in Nova Scotia.

A view of the Portsmouth waterfront.

An oft struck pose - morning coffee time

The water level was so high that when it was high tide, the dock ramp was lifted right up. Once you stepped on it, your weight made it flat again, and long legs are definitely an advantage here. Kim had to crawl up and Levi had to be lifted.

Plotting and planning at the Captain's table

An schnitzel adventure in indigestion

They had a great draught list though

Looking out over the waterfront park in Portsmouth

Feeling relaxed and enjoying a sip of champagne compliments of our wonderful neighbors, Paul and Cathy Freeman! Thanks guys!!!

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Finally, the sun made an appearance, but it was still quite windy.

A guy by the name of Charlie came over to look at the freezer. He determined it likely was a slow leak of refrigerant through a small crack in the seal of the freezer which is more likely to occur when the freezer has been off. He recharged it and it started working. He told us that it shouldn't leak if the freezer is kept on, but to get a freezer thermometer and if the temperature gets up to 15-18 degrees F to recharge it again. One more problem fixed!...we hoped.

We had another person come by to check about repairing the forward head. Don had been doing this type of work for many years and was quite confident that changing the pump would solve the problem. The question was if he could find that pump for us and have it available soon enough. We were hoping he could come through for Thursday or Friday, which means we will not be heading out on the ICW just yet.

We went over to Norfolk for dinner at Luce’s Italian restaurant. Very yum, Kim is looking forward to going back already. We ate at the bar and a navy pilot the same age as our kids was sitting next to us. He was quite polite and keeping to himself but as soon as Kim spoke to him, we were all off and running in lots of chat and laughs. We actually bumped into him again later that night at the Grain rooftop bar while having after-dinner drinks.

The U.S.S. Wisconsin. We wanted to visit it if we could get a chance.

View from the Grain rooftop bar at the Hilton in Norfolk

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Levi had a rough, rough night last night. He was awake at 2:15 a.m. or so just sitting there looking miserable. We weren’t sure if he was nauseous or having trouble breathing or both. Rog took him out for a bit just in case around 2:30. He walked so slowly and had his tail tucked right up between his legs. Afterwards, he settled down a bit and finally laid down around 3:30 but kept sitting back up. Obviously he was in quite a bit of discomfort. In the morning, he ate his breakfast and did his duties but was still out of it and may have just been exhausted at that point.

It was a beautiful sunny day in the low 70’s by afternoon. We decided to let Levi sleep, so we took the ferry over to Norfolk for lunch and then went to the Nauticus Marine Discovery Center and a tour of the USS Wisconsin. Amazing ship! It was in service for WWII, Korean War and then brought back in for Desert Storm. When we got back, Levi was much better and ready for action once again.

Kim was tickled with the juxtaposition of the fall leaves and the Christmas decorations, along with Roger's short sleeves.

The view of the Elizabeth River and Portsmouth from the USS Wisconsin

An impressive ship. We were told there were 23 different levels.

Computer systems current as of the Gulf War.

Close quarters and very little space. It appears they also had a locker.

Someone thinks they missed their calling!

Inside one of the three gun turrets.

It's hard to see in the daylight, but there are Christmas lights everywhere. We planned to make a bigger point of seeing it at night.

There is something uncomfortable about Xmas wrapped killing tools.

It was not easy to pick up those balls. Rog had to get Kim moving along so the other kids there could get a crack at it.

Only a few aquariums for us to enjoy.

Thursday, November 11

We had a cool start in the morning, mid 50’s but nice and sunny. It is Veteran's Day here but we did not see much fanfare; we were wondering if we would because of it being a big military area. We rented a car to do some errands, like going to West Marine, filling the propane tank at AB Propane, getting groceries, and getting our seasonal flu shots at Walgreens. We saved a lot of time and money over using Uber. We had also found out that there was a bit of shortage of Uber drivers in the Portsmouth and Norfolk area. It's been interesting meeting Uber drivers and hearing their stories.

Levi in the rental car. Do you know that little stink learned that if he steps on the button on the door, the window will open? We sometimes have to put the baby lock on.

The city marina

Friday, November 12

In the morning Don came and fixed our forward head by replacing the pump. He also found out why the aft head toilet was flushing weirdly - there was a strip of cloth caught and wound around the macerator. Both toilets are up and running now, yeah!!

We walked around the historic residential areas of Portsmouth and spent some time in the park by the Naval Hospital. We had Levi’s long leash and tried to play ball a bit with him with limited success because he's not used to the long leash, but he was happy to be in the grass and to people watch too. A musician came out to walk around and practice trombone, Levi wasn’t sure if should bark at that or not. It was a beautiful sunny day and as Jeff Tweedy put it, "The sun beating down like a big trombone!"

We enjoyed our stay in Portsmouth with visits to Norfolk but we think we will try the Waterside Marina in Norfolk on way back so that we can take more advantage of the things to do over there - especially the big waterfront park. We are looking forward to continuing our trip and trepidation is the feeling for sure as we begin at mile zero of the ICW.

A very excited man was in the pet section at Walmart talking about his new puppy. Back at the marina, we bumped into each other again, and here is that sweet little puppy all tuckered out on the counter at the marina office. Stinkin' cute.

Kim used her Picture This app to identify this tree that produces little black acorns (see the pic below). It's a Live Oak - we had never known about them before and this is where we started seeing them. Apparently they're called Live Oak because it never loses all of its leaves, and we have to say they don't look like oak leaves at all!