We are staying at Tidewater Water Yacht marina (http://www.tyamarina.com/) in Portsmouth , Virginia
Initially Mark is not even able to locate the
saildrive/propeller as visibility is so poor he doesn’t know which way is up
and down but on his second dive he
appears with culprit, a piece of plastic sheeting was wrapped around the propeller,
which is great news as we thought it was going to be an huge expense.
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| Propeller wrapping! |
Mark has also had a trip up the mast to fit a new VHF
antenna, good exercise for him and some superb views over the empty marina, the Elizabeth River and Norfolk.
It hasn't been all work and no play, we have explored Portsmouth , the town was
established in 1752 by Colonel William Crawford who was an America Soldier but
from Scottish/Irish decent. The Gosport
shipyard was built here in the 1700’s which was later renamed to Norfolk Naval dockyard,
it has built many US navy ships and is the oldest facility belonging to the US
Navy, Norfolk is actually America’s largest naval base.
The Portsmouth Lightship was built in 1915 although
stationed in Virginia she was not in Portsmouth but now proudly
is stands between 2 apartment blocks.
The historic district of the town is very pretty and
contains lots of houses dating back to the 1800s which have been beautifully
maintained.
Many properties have the stars and stripes flying, they are pretty patriotic.
We have also had a few visits across the Elizabeth River
to Norfolk on
the paddle steamer, unfortunately the paddle is just for show but it is a convenient
and cheap way ($3 return) to cross the river.
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| Elizabeth River paddle steamer |
With such a huge naval presence they have a great naval
museum, “Nauticus” this is a naval museum but there is also other sea related
exhibitions, we enjoyed being able to stroke a shark! It was only a small cat
shark in a tank, he was a bit rough and squishy but weren't we brave! You also have access to the Battleship
Wisconsin which has seen active service in World War 2, the Korean War and more recently when
it was updated to fire Tomahawk missiles in Dessert storm, it was an action
packed day and we were a bit “navy ed” out by the end of the day. But look what fun we had!!
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| Mark is a sailor! |
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| Amanda is a mermaid |
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| On deck of the Wisconsin |
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| Disappearing down the hatch |
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| Mark standing to attention |
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| How huge is the ship - 58,000 tonnes |
We also love the mermaid theme in Norfolk
There always seems to be something going on in the area, Harbour
Fest took place one weekend with entertainment both sides of the river, we
spent Friday evening at an Arts centre listening to some local acoustic
musicians, again very friendly we were given a special welcome! On the Saturday
we visited Norfolk
where there were Tall Ship, stalls, music and water demonstrations – we enjoyed
the tug demonstration and some of the local musicians.
We have been so warmly welcomed in Portsmouth, the people
have been exceptionally friendly and helpful, Patty and LT on the boat opposite
have been kind enough to run us around to the supermarket and other place,
they also invited us to cocktail night on the dock (every Thursday at 5!) when we meet lots of other friendly
neighbours. We met Tom and Paula at one of these evenings and they have been
kind enough to provide various cruising advice, as well as inviting us to a
social on their boat to watch fireworks – our rum jelly shooters went down well.
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| There were many more |
Another exceptionally nice couple are Neil and Dot who went
out of their way to pick up information
on the countryside we were planning on visiting on the Blue Ridge
mountains and provide lots of advice on where we might enjoying visiting as well as offering us a bed, very kind
of people to go out of their way to make your stay enjoyable.
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