Day 114 - Light Ships and Bayou Boogaloo

The morning began cloudy, warm and humid, and we took it slow.  We had until noon to return the car so no need to rush.  Once at Enterprise, we had to wait in line, then wait again as the agent had to “verify” that the damage on the car was not done by us.  The damage was clearly marked and signed off on by the person who rented us the car, but that was not good enough – really???  I do not blame the agent; she was very polite and only doing what she has been told.  But why do the paperwork if it doesn’t mean anything?  Ok, thanks for listening to me vent about Enterprise.  Their customer service leaves much to be desired!

In the afternoon, we visited 2 museums in Portsmouth, the Portsmouth Light Ship and the Naval Shipyard Museum.  The first is actually in a ship, built in 1915, that was used as a light off the coast of Rhode Island.  Light ships date back to Roman times and were used in areas where the land was not suitable to build on but where mariners needed a warning system for shoals and reefs.  The Naval Shipyard Museum chronicles the history of Portsmouth as a shipbuilding town.

 

 

Later, we took a ferry across the Elizabeth River to Norfolk Town Point Park for the Bayou Boogaloo Cajun Food Festival.  Two music stages provided entertainment all afternoon and evening.  New Orleans style Cajun food was sold, with such favorites as Po’boys, oysters, jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp and grits, and crab cakes.  A very popular item was the crawfish boil with corn, sausage and potatoes, like the seafood boils in the Low Country.

We watched a cooking demonstration of a typical Cajun boil, sponsored by the Praline Connection Restaurant in New Orleans.  If you asked a question you were able to pick your choice of a seasoning packet or spice.  Our question was what drink goes best with jambalaya. The answer was beer (not something we drink, but that was the answer).  We walked away with a gumbo seasoning packet and a bottle of rib seasoning.  When the cooking demonstration over, they handed out samples of the jambalaya.  This one had peppers, chicken wings, sausage and rice and was quite tasty.  We bought a few items from the New Orleans grocery tent, including Pat O’Brien’s Hurricane drink mix.

The music was awesome!  We listened to the Bayou Swamp Band playing Zydeco on the smaller stage, featuring an accordion and spoons player.  There were lots of dancers up front, including whole families.  The Dirty Dozen Brass Band was on the big stage – a New Orleans Brass Band with plenty of horns.  This group got the whole crowd up and moving.  The highlight was a parade of people holding decorated parasols, bobbing up and down with the music.  It was beautiful!

The headliner on the main stage was Dr. John, a blues singer whose career dates back to the 1950’s and most famous song went like this “I was in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time”.  His band features a young female trombone player who was excellent.  On the sidelines we saw something we had not seen since Alton, IL – girls twirling lighted hula hoops.

 

We had lots of fun in Norfolk/Portsmouth/Virginia Beach and were ready to resume our journey the next day.

Day 113 - Sandstock

As we fly back and forth on our Loop journey, the TSA often wants to screen Captain Randy’s suitcase.  Usually it’s because he is carrying boat parts and they don’t know what they are looking at.  This time it was due to the bottle of Chef Hans Blackening Seasoning. TSA carefully sprinkled some of it out and “tested” it on their computer – for what????  It is hot but not that hot.  It came out OK and we were on free to get on the plane.

We landed in Norfolk at 11:30 am and picked up our rental car.  We rented from Enterprise, so the agent carefully walked around the car with us, noting a couple of scratches on our paperwork.  There always seems to be issues with Enterprise; more on that later.  We took our carry-ons to the boat at Tidewater Yacht Co, where we had left it.  The sailboat next to us with the big poodle named Buffet was gone.  We settled in and then used the car to go to the UPS store to send back some things we had bought on earlier legs, then to the Food Lion for groceries.

We had the car until the next day, so we decided to drive to Virginia Beach and walk the Boardwalk.  The earlier clouds had cleared and it was beautiful.  Hotels line the shore, many with patio bars and restaurants overlooking the ocean.  Along the walk is an old Coast Guard Station that is now a museum.  There is a Norwegian Girl statue, saluting ships that come and go (reminding us of the Waving Girl in Savannah).  She is a memorial to a Norwegian ship lost offshore in 1890’s.  A copy of the statue stands in Moss, Norway facing west so that the two statues stand on either side of the Atlantic looking at each other.  At the 31^st Street there is a huge statue of King Neptune, complete with trident, turtles and porpoises.  By now it was 6:00 pm and we sat down at the lovely outside bar for Catch 31, a restaurant in the Hilton Hotel, for drinks and an appetizer.

 

 

 



The town of Virginia Beach sponsors live music on the beach and Atlantic Avenue every night all summer at 24^th Street.  We made our way over, stopping at the Naval Aviation Memorial for a few minutes and also trying a sample of salt water taffy from a street vender.  This particular weekend’s festival was Sandstock, a tribute to the famous Woodstock Festival in 1968.  All of the musical performances were tributes to bands of that era.  We listened to Sky Dog, playing Allman Brothers tunes and later The Machine, doing Pink Floyd (my favorite).  There was great people watching, including a woman with a perfect 60’s hippie outfit.

 

 

 

We wandered back to Atlantic Avenue, where there was more entertainment and stopped in the candy store for taffy – a must for Captain Randy.  For dinner, we sat on the outside deck at CP Shuckers for oysters, tuna with cucumber/noodle salad, and mahi mahi tacos.  We drove back to the marina, happy to be on the water again.

 

Day 112 - "That Day"

That day was here again – the last day of the leg when we clean up the boat, do laundry, and fly home.  The weather was gorgeous as it always is on the day we leave.  At 3:00 pm we climbed into our cab for the ride to the Norfolk Airport.  At least we had a direct flight to Chicago this time, and only a small delay.  We look forward to exploring Norfolk and then the Chesapeake Bay when we return on June 20^th.

Day 111 - Birds, Bridges, and Bottom

Most of the sailboats and slow trawlers were gone by the time we left at 8:15am.  Luckily the boat behind us was one of them so we could back out.  The sun was bright and the air was dry and cool, with the wind from the north.  We had heard that a north wind blows water out of the Currituck Sound, where we were headed, creating shoaling and shallow depths.  Very true as we discovered 3.5 miles into the journey when we hit bottom and the port engine died!  Luckily, it was a gentle touch and there was no damage.  Later, we saw a sailboat do the same thing.  Between watching depths and the crab pots, we had to pay close attention.  At mile marker 34 we said good-bye to North Carolina and hello to Virginia.

Things got a little better by the time we entered the North Landing River.  This is a sparsely populated area and the shores were rustic with lots of ospreys and a few eagles.  The ospreys liked to make their nests on top of the flat markers and were busy feeding the babies.  The Pungo Ferry Bridge at mile marker 28.3 was the first bridge we encountered, but it is fixed so we cruised right under.  On the north side of the bridge the remains of the dilapidated Pungo Ferry Marina sit on the east shore.  We noted a jet fuel storage facility just before the North Landing Swing Bridge, which opens on the hour and half hour.  We arrived at 10:20 am so it was only a 10 minute wait. 

 

 

 

The river narrowed and got more winding and Captain Randy had to slow down often for small fishing and pleasure boats.  It was 11:15 am when we got to the Great Bascule Bridge which opens only on the hour.  There was a dock on the east shore that we could tie up to, so we waited there until noon.  Right after the bridge is the Great Lock and the lockmaster had the door open for those of us that had waited for the noon bridge opening.  In the lock, Captain Randy noticed a small monument to the battle of Great Bridge during the revolutionary war.  The Battle of Great Bridge, on December 9, 1775, ended with what is claimed to be the first patriot victory over the British in the Revolutionary War.  The victory over the British lead them to leave Virginia and give up Norfolk, the best sea port between Charleston and New York.

 

It was 12:23 am when we left the lock and 12:43 am when we hit the Steel Bridge (Dominion Boulevard Bridge).  This bridge also opens on the hour and half hour, so it was 1:00 pm when we got through.  We were happy with our progress through the bridges and locks.  Our contingency plan was to stay at the Atlantic Yacht Basin Marina near the Great Bridge if we had been delayed too long to make it to Norfolk.  We were now on the Elizabeth River, which is very industrial all the way to Portsmouth/Norfolk. The last bridge was just ahead, the Glimerton Bridge, and it had enough clearance (35 feet) so that we did not have to wait. 

 

The Navy has a huge presence in the Norfolk/Portsmouth/ Newport News area.  We passed a huge Naval Shipyard before arriving at Tidewater Yacht Basin in Portsmouth at 2:20 pm.  Our neighbors are a live-aboard couple with a black standard poodle named Buffet (for Jimmy Buffet) and a sailboat named Kokomo.  How appropriate for Captain Randy!  Buffet wasn’t so sure about us though, and barked every time we walked by.  About an hour later, Dollinger came in and docked on the other side of Kokomo.

 

We were all invited to “docktails” at 5:00 pm and met several more boaters in the harbor.  There seem to be a lot of live-aboards in this marina.  We had dinner at the marina restaurant, 757 Crave on the Harbor, and enjoyed a singer/guitarist named Amy.  The Captain had soft shell crab and I had a stir fry with fresh shrimp, scallops, and vegetables.  We started doing laundry and turned the Hawks game on, hoping for a win.  Although we were ultimately disappointed, the team sure made it an exciting Game 7.