August 6-11 2014 Colonial Beach and Traveling to Washington DC

August 6, 2014

We use the swim platform  to get on and off the boat

We were back aboard!   We have to get on and off the boat using the swim platform since the pier is so short.  When the tide is out the step up to the dock is about 4 feet.

It took us a while to air out the boat and put everything away.   And by that time it was getting late so Bill offered to take us to Densons where I bought him dinner since he was the one who picked us up in Fredricksburg which is about 35 miles from Colonial Beach where the marina is located.

Densons.   Dinning area is on the left, ice cream on the right

Densons is a Deli, meat market, fish market, grocery, wine store and eating establishment all rolled into one.  Eclectic, very good food and great, fun people.  They even sell ice cream through a window!  It's run by Rocky a retired guy and his wife.  He always wanted to do something like this when they retired.  And so they are, and   doing it really well.





August 7, 2014

At the laundromat with the nice marina truck

We took the Marina truck, one that was luxurious compared to some of the beaters we've driven from other marinas, and went to Halls laundromat which was about 5 miles outside of town and conveniently near Halls grocery store which was quite nice.  One of the downsides of Boathouse Marina is the lack of laundry facilities but its more than made for, by the courtesy cars available.  In time they'll have laundry facilities here I'm sure.

The laundromat though was expensive and not up to Mary's standards so I guess we'll be doing laundry on board while we're here.  And since its rather easy to make water here in the rivers it wont present a problem.

The Food Lion

We purchased a few things at Halls and then went to the Food Lion which is another grocery store much closer to town.   The ABC liquor store is right next door too.   And a Rite Aid pharmacy.  And of course the obligatory MacDonalds.  Yes, we stocked up!

We were too tired after all the laundry and shopping to cook so it was off to Densons.   Morigan was our waitress again.  Fun lady!  I said it was a great place!

August 8 2014
We got back and stored everything aboard and then I went and talked to Bill about the winch and decided I'd confer with UMT Marine in Fort Lauderdale.  They were the ones who originally installed the davit and winch about 10 years ago.  I called them and sent them an email with the particulars.

A davit, by the way, is really just a crane.  Most larger bots have these as a means to launch and recover dinghies which are usually carried up and the boats deck.

Bent bracket plate and drum

Meanwhile talking with Northern Tool and WARN, the winch manufacturers, I learned about winches and hoists.  Leaving out a few other details it comes down to the free wheeling clutch and dynamic brake which is standard for winches.  Hoists dont have these features and when your hoisting several hundred pounds aloft its a bit more comfortable to have equipment that can handle the load.

Crane fully upright and dinghy re-positioned on cradle

Charlie and Cliff came over later in the day and the three of us were able to manhandle the dingy further up in the cradle so it sat with all four supports on the hull.  It was siting on fenders and held down by Bob's block and tackle.  Cliff had this brilliant idea of using a 2x4 as a lever to basically lift and inch the boat ahead as Charlie and I lifted and pushed.   Besides it being far more stable sitting up there, it also was moved far enough to starboard that the list to port was substantially reduced.  In other words we weren't leaning so far to one side any longer.


August 9 2014

Beach along the Potomac

We cleaned the boat a little today and spent some time on the computer.  I went for a long stroll around town again.  They have beaches here!  Water temps were in the low 80's and its only slightly salty.

We both showered when I returned and then headed for the marina party being thrown by Bill for everyone here as well as some of his non boating friends around the town.  Beth, the office manager picked up almost a 100 fresh crab for the festivities.  Fresh crab,  a whole crab with arms, legs and everything are caught and cooked right away then refrigerated with the idea they would be consumed within few hours.

Shortcut through the covered boat shed to the party area

This was a first for us.  You take a crab off the pile and snap off the claws and, after some strenuous prying, remove the shell an eat the meager offering of meat.  Its a lot of work for very little and for me anyway, it wasn't all that tasty.

That's Bill in the yellow shirt waiting to grab a few crabs

We stayed around for awhile and had a few cocktails and talked with some boaters.  Phil and his wife are long time cruisers who have a house here and use this marina as a base of sorts.  Jim and Sue are similar to us in that they sold their house and live aboard full time.

We also watched in amazement as Cyrus, Beth's dog would slurp down any unattended cocktail.  Also found out they have a water moccasin that lives along the shore in the marina where an old boat travel lift was once operating.  Perhaps that's why there aren't a lot of swimmers in the bay here, only in the river?

August 10 2014
This morning, Charlie helped me re-attach the davit support struts so I could get it fastened down horizontally.  I got it secured and got the dingy cover back on and was able to coil the lifting cable inside the dinghy.

I laid out a course to Washington DC.  72 miles so we'll need to leave around sunrise to make it to the anchorage before it gets too dark.

Greg and Dona, you'll be so proud of us.  We declined the offer to use the marina truck and instead we took the marina golf cart over to the Ace hardware store so I could buy some snap-shackles and batteries.

2 cones please ...

We then headed over to the Food Lion but not before going through the MacDonalds drive through in the golf cart.  Another first for us!

We stocked up at the Food Lion and also made a stop at Densons to buy some meat and have ice cream. Would you believe the ice cream is so  much better at Denson than MacDonalds.  Who knew?  And since the sell wine I bought 3 bottles of reds.  At a discount of course.

We stowed all the stuff and then were debating about dinner when Bill wandered over so we all went to ... How did you guess.  Densons.  Again.  Morigan is getting sick of us I think.  But they have enough variety in the menu and the wine is good.

August 11 2014

We had 72 miles to go.  So we were up at 5:30.  Smirking are we?   Yeah, OK.  It was closer to 6 AM but we were on the move almost before 6:30!

There are a few shallow spots here but it was high tide so we had no issues running out of the bay.  There is a naval ordnance laboratory just north of the city but we were lucky in that the firing range was cold today meaning they were not conducting any live fire exercises.  When they do, boat traffic is routed around the live fire area and that can add miles and hours to ones journey.  A range boat is stationed at either end of the live fire area and it contacts every boat that gets close.  Instructions on how to proceed are given in great detail by the range officer.  They really do lob explosives into the water north of the city.  Its clearly audible here.

As we made our way up river I was finding the current surprisingly strong.  So strong in fact that we dropped below 6 mph for several hours.  We were fighting an ebbing tidal current plus the natural river current.  So you wouldn't classify our progress as swift by any means.

We cruised by Quantico, a well known marine base.  And Quantico is also a small city dwarfed by the marine base.  And I've been told you can anchor right off the city sea wall if you want to visit.

We made water as we ran up the river.  The further up river we went the less brackish the water became until the water maker was only running at about 200psi.  Brackish water usually requires between 400-600 psi.

We also ran into small areas of heavy debris consisting of unearthed vegetation, branches and tree stumps.  We also saw some small areas of algae.   The debris evidently gets washed down the Potomac from tributaries in the mountains of West Virginia.  

The wide Potomac began to narrow somewhat but still kept the mix of development intermixed with areas of just natural shore line.

I was anticipating seeing Mount Vernon.  There is a dock there one can use at certain times to tie up and tour the mansion.  And there is also an area right in front of the mansion where you can anchor although its quite shallow, around 5 - 6 feet which means we'd have only 6 inches of water below our keel.  Anyway its an alternative when the kids are here in DC with us although is about 12 miles down river from where we'll be staying.  A 5 hour boat ride for a 2 hour tour.

Mt. Vernon (from a distance)

As we passed by Mt. Vernon I couldn't locate it at first.  There were no white mansions up on the bluff, just this yellow thing.  Maybe, as Mary pointed out, its actually painted yellow?   My first thought was it hadn't aged well.

Yeah well  ok,  so she was right.     It is actually  painted yellow.  But I swear it was white back in the early 60's when I was there last.   Well that's how I remember it anyway.  Or perhaps my memory has been tainted with age?  

We followed the river through Alexandria, past numerous buildings at the Naval research facility and into Washington DC.    As we approached the I-95 bridge, planes taking off from Reagan National airport in the distance appeared to be flying under the bridge.  Neat optical illusion.

The Washington Channel is located very near Reagan national airport.  We swung right into the rather large but relatively narrow body of water.  It's quite deep, 15-30 feet and lined with marina's and tour boats.  And a fort, Fort McNair.

Construction.  Yacht Club on the right

They have begun a complete refurbishment of the channel area which is called The Wharf.  The area encompasses the Maine Avenue Fish Market too!  Construction is everywhere.  It'll be quite nice once its complete.  The first phase is due to be finished by 2017.

Anchoring in the Washington Channel

There wasn't much boat traffic and only three other boats in the anchorage. It was easy to anchor.  It’s a big channel but we all (4 boats) seem to be anchored in a line pretty much in front of the Capital Yacht Club which is where we'll be tying up tomorrow for a week.  Holding seems good.  And we have a nice rain shower washing off the boat.

Capital Yacht Club where we will be tomorrow

Tomorrow we'll see where they stick us in the marina.

July 17 - August 5 2014 Wisconsin and Minnesota

Seany getting the bad guys

We loitered around The Hagen house in Ixonia and recouped after the whirlwind travel.  We went to Greg and Laura's for a little party and campfire Friday.  Its been a while since we sat around a fire.  I kind of miss that.  For some reason I always think back to sipping martini's and eating Judy's Sauerkraut around a campfire back in the ... well, a long time ago.



Went to a Pig roast party on Saturday, thrown by Larry and Sue, Laura's parents.  Nice!  We devoured some port and fixings and then took a troupe of kids on a walk around the Nashotah House grounds.

Next day we headed to my cousin Judy's house for a mini family re-union.  But first we picked up a rental car at Enterprise.  The Enterprise office moved from downtown Oconomowoc to a  location only a few blocks from our old house.  Needless to say the neighborhood has changed a bit since we lived there.

The car rental cost was pretty reasonable.  But, since we are without car insurance we have to obtain it it from the rental company and we all know how cheap that is ....  it cost as much for the damn insurance as it did for the car.

This insurance dilemma has dogged us every time we rent a car.  But, we've read of many insurance companies offering non-ownership car insurance!  Great!  Yet we have not talked with a single agent or company that admits to handling such policies.  Are we looking in the wrong place?  Perhaps we are blacklisted because I drove classic (beaters) for decades.   Sheez .... But the search continues while we shovel buckets of money to the car rental company for insurance.

The mini Family reunion was wonderful.  Some of us hadn't seen each other in many years.  It was a great time!  And thanks to Larry and Judy for putting it on!

Mary "suggesting" clothes for me

Since we now had use of a very well insured Chevy Impala we hit the outlet mall in Watertown where I purchased replacements for most of my shoes.  Bought Croc's!  And a shirt.  Much to the chagrin  of others, I now consider myself "styling".

We headed out to Minnesota on the 23rd to see LeAnn and Brant.  LeAnn and Brant both were working Thursday so took the opportunity see Bob and Carole some boating friends of ours who lived a few miles from LeAnn and Brants house.  They fed us!  I even sampled a few shots of  Bob's prized rum collection.  They were delicious but lets face it.  I could be drinking Oklahoma backyard rum and think it was superb.  It was great seeing them again.

The next day we spent several hours poking around the Ikea store near the Mall of America.   Mary and I tend to wander.  LeAnn was doing a pretty good job corralling us before we ended up spending the whole day there.  Payback I guess from the years I chased LeAnn up busy streets and through crowded stores.

We went to Minnehaha Park, ate lunch and hiked around the falls and river. Fun!

Me ready for a procedure.

We left in the late morning the next day and headed for Green Bay for our medical appointments / tests.  So over the next few days we took care of all the medical stuff while staying at the Country Inn  Suites in Suamico  near our former house.  And sorry Tim and Jill.  We didn't stop and see you.  But the nature of the tests we "eagerly" anticipated precluded much time for socializing.

Mary ready to drive me home.  I was heavily anesthetized.

Not much has changed in Suamico but the highway construction has really transformed the Hwy 41 corridor.  It resembles a big city with all the new over-passes.

At the Oilerie

After all the tests were completed we had one recovery day and decided to drive up to Door County to purchase Olive oil at the Oilerie in Fish_Creek.  We didn't stay long because we had appointments with Amanda who cuts our hair.  Well she cuts Mary's hair.  I get cleaned up.

Amanda doing Mary

The next day we drove to Mequon to see Bob, Jan, Dan and Judy.  Went out to dinner in Thiensville and then stopped by niece Ann's house for desert and her Creme Brulee.  And to see her bee-hives.  She's a bee keeper with 2 hives and since I've never seen any up close she offered to give us an up-close tour.  Really cool.  And no, I didn't wear the costume.  The honey bee's swirled around and pretty much ignored us even as she lifted the tops off the hives.

That hotel shuttle should be here by now

We hung around the Hagens for another few days before Laura and Seany took us to the airport.  Our flight to Washington DC was leaving around 6:30pm.   After the obligatory lay over in Chicago we In Washington  at 11pm and luckily the hotel shuttle was still running so we got to the hotel. They gave us a suite of all things but we were too tired to care.  Didn't wake up until after 9am which gave us just enough time to spend a princely sum on breakfast because this Radisson didn't offer the typical free breakfasts other, less high end hotels routinely have for their guests.

Waiting for the train

We finally left the place around noon, wandered around the Crystal City Marriott and retail shops before getting on the Metro to Alexandria where we boarded the Amtrak train to Fredericksburg Virginia.  Bill, the Boathouse Marina owner met us at the Amtrak station  and after an hour of driving through the Virginia countryside we were back on the boat.



Then dingy winch which we all assumed would be an easy repair turned out to me a bit of a nightmare but that story is for next time.  Meanwhile we're waiting here until Monday August 11 to leave for DC.  We plan to anchor in the Washington Channel and then get our slip at the Capital Yacht Club on Tuesday.

Wednesday the Hagens arrive!