Mike
07/04/2009, Yorktown, VA

July 2nd Yorktown, VA

The York River narrows here to about a mile. From our mooring near the south shore we can see out across the Chesapeake to the east and up the York River to the west. The fetch is about 30 miles in one direction and 12 in the other. It would not be a good place to be in any kind of weather but the forecast continues to be favorable so we're happy here.

After a gook breakfast, we headed into the marina to tie up the dinghy and struck up a conversation with some Bayfield owners. Then we jumped on the free Yorktown Trolley to the Battlefield visitor center. We watched the requisite movie and then went with guide in to Yorktown to tour the old buildings and listen to his stories. He actually was very good.

Then we returned to the Visitor's Center and caught a free shuttle to Williamsburg about 10 miles down the road. We changed busses there and continued another 10 miles to Historic Jamestown where we saw another movie and joined an interpreter who wandered around the site giving his perspective from 1607. He was a retired trial lawyer from Richmond and his presentation was in the language of the day with a perfect British accent.

When we finished, we watched the dig for a while and then walked through the building that houses the artifacts found there.

We decided we did not have time to visit the Jamestown Settlement, which is a replica of Jamestown, and that it was time to take the shuttle system back to Yorktown. By now it was 4:00 pm and we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast so we stopped at a Pub on the waterfront in Yorktown for a burger and a beer.

Back at the boat we read until dark and then watched some video....there really wasn't any reason to eat supper.

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Mike
07/04/2009, Yorktown, VA

July 1st... Portsmouth to Yorktown, Va

We left Portsmouth a little before 7 and worked our way out of the Elizabeth River and into Hampton Roads without any close encounters with ships. It has to be one of the busiest shipping centers in the world when the Navy base is thrown in. It took about 2 hours to finally get into the Chesapeake where we turned north.

Yorktown is about 15 miles north from Norfolk and then about 5 miles up the York river. We read in a guide book that there is no anchoring in there so we made arrangements for a mooring about a mile from town.

We were moored by about 1:30 and by the time we had some lunch, lowered the dinghy and outboard, and read for a while it was 3 pm. We motored into the marina and tied up with the idea of paying for the mooring but there was no one in the office.

We went for a walk down the beach... there is a nice beach for about a half mile and it was full of people. There is a net parallel to the beach to keep jelly fish out of the swimming area which explains the number of people.

We picked up some brochures and returned to the boat to do our tourist thing tomorrow.

I fried some Mahi for dinner along with a potato. We watched a storm roll in about dark, but it never amounted to much.

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Mike
07/01/2009, Norfolk, VA

June 30th... Deep Creel to Portsmouth VA

We wandered up to Robert's shack at about 8am to see if there were any boats heading for the lock. There were none so there was really no rush. We talked for a while, drank coffee and ate Danish until we decided that it was time to leave. It took about 10 minutes to get the boat away from the dock and by that time Robert had the lock open and ready. It took about 15 minutes to lower us down to the level of the Atlantic... a drop of about 6 feet and then we were on our way to the land of big ships.... Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Hampton. We only had to deal with one bridge and it wasn't a problem. The railroad bridges were all in the up position and the Jordan Bridge is being torn down which makes the trip through the city much easier.

We traveled about 10 miles and pulled into the south basin in Portsmouth, which is supposed to be for day stops only but by all accounts, no one is bothered if boaters spend the night.

After getting the boat squared away and showers, we jumped on the ferry next door and rode over to the Norfolk side of the river. We walked the waterfront and ended up at a naval museum which has the Battleship Wisconsin tied up along side for tours. It was amazing. We spent a couple of hours there and then got something to eat before taking the ferry back to Portsmouth.

At 6 pm we wandered down High Street to the Commodore Theater. It is a restored, art deco, movie theater that is now a movie and dinner place. You buy your ticked and choose a table. Then after being led to our table, we were given menus and were told to call in our order using the telephone on our table.

So we ordered up some dinner, iced tea and popcorn and about the time the previews were finished, we were down to the popcorn.

The movie,"The Proposal", was pretty good, the screen was huge and the sound system was very good as well. We had a great time, and thought about our many of our friends who would love this place.

Back at the boat we sat in the cockpit for an hour or so and went to bed.


June 29th... Deep Creek, Va

We walked up and had coffee at Robert's office at the lock this morning. Our plan was to lock through at the 8:30 locking. We were headed for the Hampton River to check things out, but Robert convinced us that we should stay in the Portsmouth / Norfolk area for a day instead.

As we sat around Kathy and I decided that we really did have a few days to kill and if we stayed here we could wash our canvas without having to pay for a dock. Our dodger and bimini get mildew spots on the inside and to clean them they have to come off and get scrubbed with a soap / bleach solution. It takes so much water to rinse that we have to have access to a hose. We were planning on pulling into the Deltaville Marina for a night to get this job done before we flew back to Michigan.

We got all of our cleaning agents around, took down the Sunbrella and took half of it up to a picnic table next to the lockmasters office where there was some shade and a hose. We covered the picnic table with a tarp, mixed up our cleaning solution and started scrubbing. After about an hour of scrubbing and rinsing we were done with the dodger, took it back to the boat and put it back up to dry in place.

Then it was time for the bimini. We followed the same process and by about noon were finished and have an amazingly clean dodger and bimini.

We had some conch salad for lunch and then hiked to the auto parts store to see if we could find some 303 Fabric Protectant. After washing it I needed to retreat the fabric with waterproofing, and ran a little short. The parts store didn't have any so we'll just have to wait and hope it doesn't rain much this week...

After a stop at the grocery we walked back to the boat, and spent the remainder of the afternoon doing very little. We did walk back to the convenience store for ice cream before supper, and took a walk in the park.

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