Portsmouth, VA

Days on Cruise:  38

Distance Today: 9.4 miles

Time Traveled:   1 hour, 27 mins

Total Trip Odometer: 1,063

High Five!!!!  Very kind and reliable dockhand John from Top Rack Marina arrived at the boat promptly at 7:50 this morning with our new sender for the starboard engine, and 30 minutes later Bob completed the installation of the new sender:  SUCCESSFULLY!  The starboard engine started up, the oil pressure gauge went to 60 psi, and 10 minutes later when all remained well, we shut her down.  We’re back in business.  Woo hoo!

Collage: Top left: new sender; Top right: Bob working on the installation; Bottom: the gauges at the upper helm showing the proper psi.

Leaving the often rural wilds of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina that we’ve traveled the past few weeks and coming into Norfolk, VA was a bit of a shock! There is a huge Port here, a large military installation, and LOTS of commercial traffic, along with 4 bridges that have to opened for almost every boat, including us, one right after the other. As we passed close to a Warship, the boat with the flashing blue lights (Security) tracked us the whole time to make sure we weren’t coming close. Four tows with barges were traveling through the bridges at the same time we were, and it felt urgent to stay out of their way as they take up lots of room and don’t stop quickly at all.

We pulled into South Harbor at Portsmouth, VA and tied up to the FREE dock! There are no electrical hookups, or water, but the dock is nice and right downtown

We picked up a copy of the Historical Portsmouth Walking Tour (self-guided) and spent a couple hours seeing the residential and commercial neighborhoods.

Streets are clean and leafy, and homes are not enormous but are generally in good repair. The people are friendly too.

Crawford:  click on the photo below to enlarge it and take a look at the banner on the balcony: this one’s for you!

 

Giant ships are passing the mouth of our tiny harbor regularly, but it is so well protected that we’re not getting bounced around badly at all.

Next door to the Harbor tie-up is a shop called “Mile Marker Zero”, a marine supply shop.  It’s a small shop, but the proprieter Bob has practically everything you need, and anything he doesn’t have, he will order and get for you immediately, including going to pick it up for you!  We gave him our list, got most things right away, and the last two items are on order for tomorrow. He offered to drive us to the grocery store or laundromat if we need it.  Talk about a nice guy who will do ANYTHING it takes to keep his customers happy!