Tuesday 6/02 - Portsmouth, VA (Tidewaters Marina) - stay over day…

Woke up late (9:00) and Harry already had the salon floor up and he was down in the engine room checking the generator.  I packed up all my goodies and headed out on my bike.  I had noticed last night on our golf cart ride that the town was full of historic homes and had a rich downtown - again, i road up and down all the streets in the historic district.  I’m right now sitting in the corner of a little coffee shop with my iced mocha latte (i never know what to order) trying to write and NOT meddle in all the conversations going on around me….two guys meeting with a town lawyer about a new business, one loud woman talking about going to the dentist, and two coast guard people talking about selling their home because of being restationed to Texas…and some people just have voices that shriek and scrape on your nerves….don’t they know?  Shouldn’t they whisper?

  

I always imagined that on days off i’d travel into town and hang out…it feels good to be off the boat and with other people.  I think i’ll just stay put for a bit because it’s thundering and dark outside.  i have to say we’ve been amazingly lucky - we’ve not had any rain when traveling.  and a rainy day on our day off is heavenly - that means i can take a nap and not feel guilty.  

It appears that everything i’ve learned up to now re: navigation and chart reading will change now that the ICW has ended.  Going forward we will be crushing in either bays or the ocean and reading water markers on the charts will be different in these waters.  So part of our lay over day will be spent on looking at charts.  So signing off to attend my chart reading class with Captain Harry…lord, give me strength....   

Stay tuned for the next few days itinerary.  

Ahoy mates!!