Portsmouth, VA to Colonial Beach, VA

On Friday 5/11 we traveled just a few miles into Portsmouth Va., where we stayed at Ocean Marine.  We were docked across from Sonata who had just finished their second loop.  Unfortunately they were not at the boat this week.  We first met them on day three of our Loop.  This town is on the western shore of the Elizabeth River with Norfolk on the other side.  Directly across from our marina are several very large war ships being built or worked on.  We had decided to rent a car and do some errands that needed to be done and that pretty much took up most of the day.

This is the bridge that changed our travel plans, would you believe it
was closed when we got there and we had to wait 20 minutes for it to open.

More cranes for the boys.

Catholic church in Portsmouth

For when we get tired of boating.

Saturday we continued looking for a few things we needed for the boat and ended up in the Norfolk area at a West Marine.  We then toured the Nauticus Museum that included a tour of the battleship Wisconsin.  This was the last battleship built for the US Navy and used in World War 2, the Korean Conflict and the 1st. Gulf War. 

Not to often you see a battleship between buildings.

This was to show the weight of one shell shot from the 16" guns.

This was a piece of steel used to test armor piercing shells.

After the museum we enjoyed cocktails on Brown Eyed Girl’s boat along with fellow Loopers  from Harem, Mary Frances, and Sea Biscuit who were all staying on the Norfolk side.  We then enjoyed every ones company at dinner.  John and Mary offered to help us in dropping off our rental car after dinner so that we could get an earlier start on Sunday.  We greatly appreciated that.  The weather was not going to be so great on Tuesday and Wednesday so we thought it best to get going up the Chesapeake and then on to the Potomac River.  We don’t want to miss any time with Jack, Will and Kate.

Sunday we left at 6 am and decided that we would make it all the way into the Potomac River. 

Sea turtle that did not dive when we turned around to get a shot.

 We ended up traveling over 100 miles in about 11 hours.  The waves weren’t  too bad and we stayed at a small, very quiet marina by the name of White Point on the Yeocomico River.  The wash rooms in this marina were the very cleanest we have seen in the past 5,000 + miles.  We used the courtesy car to go for Mother’s Day hamburger and watched one of  the West Wing CD’s that we had brought along.  This seemed apropiate seeing we were on the Potomac River heading to DC.

It was also nice to have a Mother’s Day chat with both Christy and Kelly.  After dinner I had a lovely message from one of my dear patients wishing me a greeting for Mother’s Day.  She is 90 plus years old and always thinking of others.

Monday was a lazy morning we didn’t leave until 9am, Kerm would not be happy.  We took it slow to the next stop only running about 7 knots.  It was a cloudy day with rain predicated for where we were going so there was no big hurry.  John was very excited to do the math once we arrived and found out we got 8.25 mpg.  Kerm would be so proud. 

Tonight we are in Colonial Beach, VA and our marina for tonight has nice floating docks and nothing more.  Bad washrooms, no CATV or WIFI and poor electric service.  We will probably leave early. 

It was so dark when we arrived we decided to work on boat projects rather than a wet bike ride to town.  Of course it never did rain, and by the time the projects were done we thought whatever shops there were would be closed, plus it was still very gray.  So it will be dinner aboard and another West Wing.

Tomorrow we will travel to Alexandria and plan on staying there for two days, so there will be time enough to shop.  Also we will celebrate our 41st. wedding anniversary there tomorrow. 

Hope all is well with friends and family.

Love to all,

Mary and John