Thursday, June 4th - unplanned lay over - Portsmouth, VA 

Stayed in Portsmouth due to chart plotter malfunction.  it appears it got wet and stopped working, but did not notice until we were untied, pulled out and on our way so we turned around and came back in - in and out sounds simple but it ain’t - ugh.  Cables had gotten wet up top on the fly bridge with all the rain and moisture in the air.  It didn’t take long to fix the problem (Abner still assisting from afar!) but decided to stay put - weather was still yucky - just less so.

The bad weather kept many boaters in the marina and so we got to know our next door neighbors, Mike and Karen.  Unfortunately, their lay over was due to mechanical problems as well as the weather.  we’d been following their boat ‘Liberty’ off and on since River Dunes.  The mechanical problem was a bent rudder? that happened when they tried to assist a sailor who had gone aground - when they ventured over to assist - they too got pulled over into a stump and bent their rudder.  They were awaiting a new rudder being delivered to the marina.  It turned out to be a $5000 dollar assist…  

Lesson learned, bigger boats should not attempt to assist smaller boats.  We had seen that grounded boat earlier and I asked Harry why we didn’t go over and throw them a rope and pull them out, but he said a smaller boat should do that.  i thought, well that’s not very nice…the only thing we did was to rev up the engines to provide them with a big wake that would perhaps dislodge them off the bottom.  But i learned this after the fact so when Harry sped by them i could NOT believe he would do such a thing as to plow through when someone obviously needed help.  HA.  the two captains were talking on the radio and the fellow boater had requested Harry provide the wake.  lots to learn here.

So some of the day was spent with Harry helping Mike and Karen on their boat (their boat was taking in water?) and I read most of the day…I guess i’ve started three and finished two books while here in Portsmouth.  I now know i could read all day long - all day - just moving from place to place so my bones won’t get sore.  :)  Did i tell you gals how much i love my kindle!? Thank you. Read so far:  All highly recommend. 

The Farm - Tom Rob Smith - psycho/mystery

The Good Girl - Mary Kubica - psychological thriller

A Head Full of Ghost - Paul Tremblay - horror/thriller 

I think this was the day we went to Walmart via cab to stock up.  I thought i was kinda worldly about different ethnic foods…but what the heck?  anyone ever heard of these - see pic?