June 27 - 29 2014 Hospital Point anchorage, Norfolk

June 27, 2014

At Top Rack

I wrote a quick review for Active Captain about Top Rack Marina.  All positive.  I thinks it’s a great place!  We took the dinghy down and secured it to the port side after I got the towing strap hooked up.  The plan was to back out of the slip with the dinghy on the side and then release the stern line holding the dinghy.  It would then just swing back behind us on the towing strap.  And it did just fine.

Yup, thats an aircraft carrier in dry dock

Busy harbor

The journey to Hospital Point anchorage which fronts the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth,  is about 7 miles. And its through a busy harbor which, for me, is fascinating!  Many naval ships in for repairs and a few large commercial ships as well.  It was hard to take it all in.




We arrived at the anchorage and plunked the hook in the middle of two sail boats with Field Trip a few hundred yards away.  The intense sun was obscured by clouds so while the boat tends to stay cooler that way, the solar panels don’t generate as much electrical power.  It’s a catch 22.  Stay cool in the shade and have less power or  melt in the sun and have oodles of power.  

Many interesting sights

Anchored.  Field Trip in distance.

We dinged over to field trip and picked them up and went to the north free dock area where I let them off.  No real place to tie the dinghy because the pilings, at low tide now, were encrusted and would surely slice a  hole in the pontoons.  A nice couple on an old Hatteras offered to let us tie up to their boat but I politely declined thinking I could find a spot in the other free dock about ¼ mile up river.  So I went there and same story with the encrusted pilings.  But I talked to some people on a sailboat there who also offered to let me tie up the dinghy to their boat which I did.  And of course I cant remember their names.

Old towne street

I ran back to fetch Mary, Bob and Martha from where I left them off.  Before we all started to stroll the historic district of Portsmouth, I stopped to talk with boat who originally offered to keep our dinghy tied to their swim platform.  Turns out they are doing much the same thing we are with living on a boat and plying the east coast.   I suspect we’ll be seeing them up on the Potomac.  Nice folks on an older Hatteras, LRC.

High Street, the main Portsmouth drag

The historic district of Portsmouth has some interesting old homes.  We were even invited to take a tour of an older home for sale.  4,200 square feet of a home built in the late 1800' with these 12 foot ceilings.  A distinctive place we all though would be priced I the millions.  Nope.  Less than half a million. 

One of the bathrooms in the place sported an interesting urinal.  And they did have free beer, soda fruit cheese wine of which on in our party partook.  So even though we didn't buy the home we were fed.  Nice folks!

At Stills

We ended up going for a drink at Stills, a Tapas restaurant  in a basement of an old home.  Very cool place.

We sat in comfy over-stuffed chairs and had a drink before walking to the Bier Garden for dinner and a beer. 

Earlier Martha and I had walked ahead to a little kitchen store Kitchen Koop.  It was located on a corner very near the end of the Portsmouth refurbished  downtown.  I bought a bottle of wine for our dinghy hosting friends.  After we left the beer garden we arrived back to our dinghy hosts boat and presented the wine but they declined, not being drinkers.

We had a nice chat with them.  Turns out they had just purchased the boat, a rather large sailboat, a few weeks ago!

We headed back to the anchorage and dropped off Bob and Martha before heading to our boat and bed.

June 28 2014

Revving up for a fast run up the channel

Some of the poker run boats ... and our dinghy

We puttered around the boat in the morning.  I fixed a few cabinet doors whose hinges were loose and tinkered with the router awhile before we hopped in the dinghy and went over to Waterside Marina.  Earlier that morning we were greeted with about 40 go-fast boats all idling in the river waiting, I think, for all their group to arrive.  After a few minutes they started down the river with a roar, maneuvering around 2 big barges.  I found out it was an annual Poker Run.  Waterside is the marina where we’ll be staying over the fourth and we wanted to find out if we’d be sharing the place with poker runners who, bless their young hearts, party hearty.  But we wont since they are all leaving Sunday and we’re arriving Tuesday morning.  We went back to Bob and Martha’s boat and took them to Waterside where we parked the dinghy and took the ferry ($0.75 for seniors) to the same place we left the dinghy the previous day.  Our friendly sailboat dinghy hosts had all left so the ferry idea was a good one.

We strolled around the water front, ate lunch at a coffee shop after touring the nautical antique store.  Then headed back to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum before grabbing the ferry back to Waterside across the river and to our dinghy.  I dropped Mary off at our boat so she could rest and re-joined Bob and Martha for a few drinks before heading back for the night.

June 29 2014

Computer work all morning.  We watched the poker runners leave and a number of barges and freighters come and go.  Ran the generator a few hours to do laundry and charge up the batteries since its gotten cloudy now.  And cooler.  We plan to head back to Portsmouth with Bob an Martha so we can tour the Portsmouth Lightship.  And we may take the dingy down the channel where the no wake zone ends to let it run a bit.

Light ship

We took the dinghy down the channel and ran it fast for a while before collecting Bob and Martha to go see the Lightship.  We couldn't find a place to tie the dinghy up at the Tidewater Marina  which is right next to the anchorage.  So went back to Waterside and left the dinghy there while we took the Ferry over to Portsmouth and toured the  lightship.  Ferry trips are only $0.75 for seniors.

The Lightship was eerie.  Round bottom boat which would roll like crazy in any heavy seas.  And being cooped up in that boat for 2 months at a time?  Yikes.

We eventually returned to Waterside and made arrangements for us to come in tomorrow morning which is a day earlier than we planned.  I wanted to get in there before it filled up too much and restricted maneuvering space.  It's a tight marina to begin with and larger yachts eat up even more maneuvering.  Bob and Martha are heading out to the James River tomorrow until Thursday when they join us at waterside.

Meanwhile we are trying to plan out this Wisconsin trip and clean the boat.  Tonight we have to haul up the dinghy, make water and get to bed early so we can arrive before 9 at the marina.