2013-10-07 — There are times boats drag!

Thankfully the above does not reflect on our life which is anything but a drag! We arrived the Portsmouth Naval Hospital anchorage on Friday afternoon. The last time I was in Portsmouth must have been at least 20 years ago. The town has come a long way developing (at least its downtown area) a real destination with a number of restaurants and shops. Very touristy!  We visited the farmers market, Mile Zero Marine Supply and maybe a pub or two! We did also visit the Portsmouth Navy Shipyard Museum and the Hog Island Fresnel lens from 1896!

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Magnolia was also able to add another relative to her visitors log. My niece Lori is here in Portsmouth with her friend Adam. We were able to have them aboard for a lovely dinner on Sunday evening. 

Monday we awoke to some reasonable windy conditions but persisted in our efforts to complete the requirements for our Customs & Immigration Vessel Registration. We hopped into the dingy set off across the Elizabeth River for Norfolk docking at the Waterside Marina. (Note To Norfolk – “If you want boaters to frequent your city and spend their money, quite charging to dock a dinghy!”)   After finishing our business with one of the few government agencies still open we saw asked some people on the street about a good sandwich place. They said they just came from “Al’s Hotdog, it’s a local institution.” They had me at “institution!” I told Annette its time to get institutionalized. If you have the chance (yes Leclercq’s I am talking to you) stop by Famous Al’s for a pretty darn good dog!

After lunch we headed back across the river with the same “fun” wind blowing down the river. As we approached Magnolia it appeared we had drug our anchor a little. Nothing significant but noticeable. More significant was the boat 1/4 mile from us that looked dangerously close to a monster channel buoy. I dropped Annette on Magnolia and ran the dingy down to take a look and see if I could get a boat name off the stern. When I arrived I could see they were within a boat length and in addition noted a French flag (ie French vessel). Just as I arrived back on Magnolia they passed aboard their dinghy as we were repositioning Magnolia. Through broken English they asked if we had drug as well. I said “yup” and they were off to tend to their boat. They came back by after we were all repositioned. They had sailed from France via Barbados. Scary part, they learned to sail on the way here!

Well we are off to a few days at a marina in Hampton, VA tomorrow!

PS I will try and take more pictures!

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\\\ FamousAl’s near Waterside and the waterfront

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