Friday, May 31, 2013

Norfolk, Portsmouth, bottom paint and gone.

Norfolk is a very nice city; at least the parts of downtown Norfolk I walked through seemed to be.  There is a mix of new and old buildings, mostly new, and everything seems very well maintained.  I stayed at Waterside Marina for two nights before moving across the river to Ocean Marine Yacht Center.  I have no idea why this marina is not completely full all the time.  The price is fair.  The docks are well maintained. The staff could not be more helpful and friendly.  Yet, it seems like the place is always almost completely empty.  Perhaps folks don’t like the noise of the environs.  The marina is right on the public park and plaza where there are at least two restaurants and nightclubs that stay open late, as well as a hotel and shopping mall.  It is also right across the river from a large ship yard where there are at least 6 large navy ships having work done 24 hours a day.  Yes, there is a lot of noise there, but it’s what is referred to as “white noise”, meaning it’s in the background and if you focus on something else, you tune out the sounds.  Nevertheless, there is plenty of activity around this particular marina.  I guess it doesn’t help that there are two places on the other side of the river (in Portsmouth) where travelers can tie up for free.  However, there you will find no power or water, and there is absolutely no security of any kind.  In fact, one of the cruising guides recommends that you not leave your boat unattended.  There is also a decent anchorage in the heart of it all.   I enjoyed my time at Waterside.  I was able to take off and walk wherever and whenever I wanted without concern and the noise didn’t bother me at all.


After two days, however, it was time to leave.  I had an appointment with the folks at Ocean Marine Yacht Center for bottom paint.  No, not for me, for the boat!  I scheduled an 8:30 a.m. haul out so I left Waterside at around 7:45.  This gave me plenty of time.  When I got over there, however, I called and they told me I could tie up on the long face dock and wait because they were using the travel lift to move another boat in the yard.  No problem.  They had someone meet me out on the dock to help.  It was pretty breezy and it would have been very cumbersome to try to dock this boat by myself, especially with the wind blowing me away from the dock and the river current working against me as well.  I did not have to wait more than half an hour before they called me and told me to make my way over to the lift.  Ocean Marine Yacht Center has the ability to lift boats in excess of 200 feet out of the water and place them in a huge warehouse.  They do this on a special platform that drops down into the river more than 40 feet.  Prior to lowering this platform, however, there are a series of small steel platforms that move on rails that are fitted with the makings of a wooden cradle on which the boat will be secured before being lifted out of the water.  This process involves divers and a lot of pre-planning by both the yard and the boat’s owner.  While I did not get to witness such a lift take place, it was interesting taking a look at the hardware involved and listening to Steve, the yard manager, describe the process.

 
To lift our little boat out of the water, however, all I had to do was drive the boat into this narrow opening in the sea wall and into the waiting slings.  The operator was in the crane watching and waiting until the boat was in the right spot, then he would lift the front slings which basically stopped the boat where he wanted it.  Then he could adjust the position of the rear sling to where he wanted that one to be.  Ultimately, with a little nudging here and a little nudging there, the boat was properly supported and was lifted up out of the water with me in it.  The operator stops when the bow of the boat is even with the yard, and another guy puts a ramp across to the front of my boat so I could get off.  Pretty slick operation if I do say so myself.  Fortunately, I am no expert given I spend so little time in boat yards.  Then, they temporarily block the boat on a concrete pad and pressure wash the bottom.  Having sat in the Pasquatank River for a year, Abreojos’s bottom was stained black.  There were no critters attached nor any obnoxious plant life either.  The prop, shaft and rudder all looked to be in fine condition, al beit stained black.  However, the nasty tanic blackness of the Pasquatank River was no match for two yard hogs and a pressure washer.  Within minutes, all that nasty stain was just about completely removed and I could see the underlying paint my friends at Anchors Way Boat Yard in Oxnard put on in January of 2010.  I was very impressed with how well that paint job held up over the last three and a half years and almost 10,000 miles in everything from Atlantic ocean water to Mississippi River drainage canals, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf.  The paint had really been tried and tested and held up wonderfully.  I could have probably held off another year, but given that the price was so reasonable in Virginia compared to California, I decided to get it done.  I’m sure it will last a long time.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, due to OSHA rules, OMYC would not let me stay on the boat while it was in the yard.  So, I took a room at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Portsmouth.  It was very nice and it was AIR CONDITIONED!  It was hot the last three days in Portsmouth.  And it was humid.  It takes some time to acclimate.  This was not like “out in the country” hot and humid.  This was “in the city/concrete jungle” hot and humid, which I can tell you is a whole different kind of miserable.  Brenda and I explored Portsmouth the first time we passed through this neck of the woods so I was not necessarily compelled to go running around trying to figure this place out.  I was content to merely remain in my room where it was nice and cool and enjoy the pool.  I managed to read a couple books and otherwise relaxed.
Last year, Brenda and I spent three months working at a marina in Deltaville.  We made a lot of great friends.  I told you about my friend Jerry who was kind enough to go out of his way to fetch me at Norfolk Airport and deliver me to Abreojos.  Well, while in Portsmouth, my friend Robert visited.  Robert and I worked together at the marina and had many opportunities to fine tune what can only be described as a very special friendship.  Imagine landing in a place and meeting someone with whom getting along is effortless and with whom interesting and often intriguing conversation is so simple and readily available.  I figure the chances of landing in a strange place and leaving a few months later with a lifelong friend are not real strong.  But it happened.  We met others in Deltaville who will be lifelong friends and it’s a shame I did not get to see more of them while passing through.  But again, I am just passing through. I’m sure some of our paths will cross again somewhere, somehow, sometime.

So, this morning, just as the sun was starting to come up, I fired up the engine and started heading north.  It was a great ride out of Norfolk.  I had an outgoing tide and saw speeds of 10.3 knots using very little throttle.  The sunrise was beautiful and then, it’s always exciting to be heading out onto the Chesapeake Bay.  Those wonderful and effortless speeds were short-lived, however, and as soon as I turned left and started north on the bay, I slowed down dramatically.  I was fighting the tide until almost 4:00 in the afternoon as I approached the mouth of the Great Wicomico River.  The wind had picked up as well and was certainly blowing the better part of 15-20 knots.  But, it was behind me so no big deal.  I’m anchored for the night at a place called Sandy Point on the Great Wicomico River.  This place provides great protection from the southerly winds but is a bit “rolly” since the wind chop is blowing in around the corner.  The wind will settle down with the sun, however, and I’m confident  I will be able to make myself a nice dinner and catch a movie and turn in early.  I am going to push another 70+ miles tomorrow in similar conditions to pick up my friend Brian who is flying in from California to Baltimore and then to Annapolis, to make some of this trip with me.  Brian is an excellent waterman so I’m sure he’ll fall right into the routine of east coast cruising which I understand is something he is not familiar with.  This will be especially true when we get up onto the Hudson River and into the Erie Canal.
Call me strange, but every time I think of the Erie Canal, it reminds me of a spooky/eerie joke my friend Dave posted the other day:  What did the ghost say to the honey bees?  Booo Bees!   Ah ha ha ha! 

I’ll leave you with that and catch up some more soon.
Out

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