Today, the Silver Linings girls and Kelly ran errands – Hobby Lobby, Ross and Grocery Store. And, we enjoyed lunch at Chick-Fil-A! We’ve eaten at a fast food restaurant only a few times since we’ve been traveling so it was a big treat!

Kelly filled the fresh water tanks for the first time by herself….mainly due to our leak!  

That evening, Kelly adjusted the fenders again for the change in tide!

At the Tidewater Marina, we are on a fixed dock. It’s been a bit tricky because the tide can swing as much as 4 feet. Each day, Kelly kept changing the fenders to make sure the boat didn’t rub against the posts. Today, she thinks she got it right!

In the evening, Kelly had dinner with “Silver Linings”, their Aunt and Uncle and Sam from “Tidbit” at a local German restaurant. It was a great time. We enjoyed meeting Katie’s aunt and uncle. They were loud and funny! Her aunt gave Kelly and Sam a hot chocolate ball (just add warm milk) and a dollar to buy a lottery ticket. She didn’t want us left out from getting a gift.  

Throughout our journey, we have seen the effects of labor shortages and tonight was no different.  Our food took a long time and it arrived cold. As a result, we got many of our meals for free and the cold meals to take home which made for a great leftover. Once they fixed the problems, the food was good ….and so were the drinks!

Afterwards, Kelly came back to the boat and adjusted the fenders again!!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!! This is probable the first time one of us had a birthday and we were all in different locations. Jennifer is in Austin, Michael in Lubbock, Mike in Chicago and Kelly in Portsmouth. I guess this might happen more often as the kids get older.  

Today was a fun day!! The girls on “Silver Linings” and Kelly took all 3 dogs to the groomer – Groomingdales in the Ghent district. We loaded them up in the wagon, crossed the river via tunnel to a new groomer. Our biggest challenge on the loop is finding a groomer. Fortunately, it worked out this time. The dogs look great.  In fact, Bonnie and Teddy got the best hair cut they have ever had!

While they were getting groomed, we all went to Chrysler Museum of Art. It is a free museum with over 30,000 objects spanning 5,000 years.One of the more memorable objects were the “Yad Torah Pointers”. Yad is Hubrew for “hand” which is a jewish ritual pointer used to follow text during Torah reading from parchment Torah scrolls. The extensive collection looked like fashion statements and were fun to look at. Most didn’t look very ergonomically correct.  Ha

Another boat issue is a water line leak from the fresh water tanks.  If we leave the pump on, we lose about ¼ of water from the tank each day.  That’s a lot of water considering our tank holds 275 gallons.  So the new problem means we have to turn the pump on at the helm every time we want to use the water from the sinks.  If we forget to turn it off when done, we lose water.

Mike showed Kelly how to fill the tanks before he left….and it looks like it is her official job going forward!  Kelly is glad to do it because it is one less job for Mike to do.

Today was Ruby on “Silver Linings” 13^th birthday!  They invited Kelly to dinner to celebrate at a local Mexican Restaurant.  Food was good and so was the company!

Today, Kelly took Mike to the airport and spent the rest of the day watching movies with the dogs.

There is a joke in the family over the years that mechanical things go wrong when Mike is not around. At about 11 pm, the spot light at the bow turned on and spun around all by itself. It got stuck in position and made a loud clicking noise.  Kelly could not find the switch to turn it off. Mike was at dinner and Jen was driving.  Michael tried to help but didn’t know where the switch was either. After about 30 minutes, Jen was able to call Kelly and tell her where the switch was. It was a toggle switch (not labeled) that was half way between on and off. A few minutes later, the light started clicking again. Took a while to figure out that the same switch in between the on and off position is at the flybridge also. Note:  the clicking was very loud and Kelly was concerned about waking neighbor boats. …..all taken care of for the night.   

Today, we rented a car and did some clothes shopping for Mike for his work trip to Chicago next week. It felt like a day at home running errands!

In the evening, the marina had a party with food, drinks, and music for their guests. We enjoyed the event with a fellow boater, and his future son in law.  They loved hearing about our trip and we enjoyed his life stories and time in the military. The best part of the trip is meeting so many great people. Afterwards, we went back to the boat to watch the Harborfest fireworks across the river in Norfolk. Great day. 

The dogs hated the fireworks, especially Harley. Not having his mom (Jen) here is hard on him tonight. He will most likely have firework PTSD for the next week or so… poor guy.

Because the marina ties up the boats so close to each other (the sailboat was almost under our bow anchor), we were a bit nervous leaving in the morning.  Fortunately, every boat was gone before we left at 8 am. The dockhands held the line on our bow so we could maneuver the stern out and the current pulled us into the canal. Easy peasy!

The spacing of the bridge openings and the lock were a bit tricky. We needed to manage our speed to avoid arriving at a bridge opening to early/late because some open on the hour. Mike did the calculations the night before and it worked perfectly. Another boat (that didn’t plan) followed our lead. Sometimes, we sped up and/or slowed down to avoid the risk of maintaining position in front of bridge.  

The Great Bridge Lock was a new experience. We watched videos last night and it looked easy. As we approached the lock, we caught up another boat that had experience with the lock. The Lockmaster heard the 3 of us boats discussing the process and joined the conversation. He gave us confidence by telling us our plan was correct. We really did not need to stress over it. It was fun and easy.

Once we entered the lock, we parallel parked on the port side which has the fenders on the wall. The Lockmaster used his hook to grab the line from us, he looped it around a huge cleat and handed the line back to us. Once Kelly had the bow line, Mike left the helm and took the stern line. The water change was about a foot so it happened fairly quickly. 

When it was time to leave, we pulled our lines back to the boat and the current gently pulled us away from the wall. And, off we went! The lock transitioned us from salt water to brackish water (mix of salt and fresh water).

Arriving at Portsmouth across from Norfolk was a big change in scenery.  We are now in the city! Tidewater Marina is a Suntex Marina and after telling the manager about our travels and all the Suntex Marinas we’ve stayed at, he gave us a big discount! Yay!!

There’s tons of pictures, but if you make it to the end of the slide show you’ll get to see cute Bonnie pictures.

Today, Kelly spent the day doing laundry and cleaning while Mike worked. The laundry facilities were convenient with large washers. It helped to get it all done quickly.

In the evening, we ate at the restaurant with the famous prime rib! It did not disappoint. Mike had the 36 ounce prime rib, Kelly had the fried chicken and we topped off the meal with lemon cake. It was a great meal!

Traveling to Coinjock was an easy trip. Crossing the Albemarle Sound was relatively flat and we had little wind. It is known for being a bit choppy and challenging. We were able to choose a good day and did not have any problems.  After the Albemarle Sound, we traveled through the North River to Coinjock. It was calm and quiet. The trees, plant life and few houses made it a relaxing trip.  

Some looper will elect to take the Dismal Swamp Canal because it is said to be one of the most beautiful journeys along the loop. It is a very narrow and shallow canal. The trees draping over the canal protect it from wind which creates a mirror reflection in the water. The beauty of the canal comes with risks. Many boats have kicked up logs in the shallow waters and caused damage to their boat. While we would have loved to see it, we decided our 4.5 foot draft boat was too much of a risk.

Arriving at Coinjock Marina was easy. It is a long strip along the river to tie up too.  We were one of the first boats to arrive. It was like parallel parking on a street with few cars around! By sunset, the marina was full with very large boats that stayed for the night.  

Shortly after we arrived, a sailboat that we passed along the way arrived. They are a nice family from Switzerland. They bought the boat in Canada and were exploring America. It was fun to hear about their travels. Their two young daughters enjoyed helping Kelly walk the dogs. Kelly walked Harley while the girls walked Bonnie and Teddy. Bonnie figured out quickly that she could do the leading and go wherever she wanted. The girls really enjoyed it.

Coinjock Marina is nice. It is definitely a cash cow for the owner. Huge boats use it as a stopping point and pay the higher daily rate of $2 foot for their 50-100 foot yacht and enjoy the restaurants 36 ounce prime rib dinner. We have reservation for tomorrow. They are very professional and we really enjoyed watching the boat traffic.

Tacos for dinner.

In the morning, we pulled away before Mike started work. The owner at the marina taught us a better way to move away from dock in a parallel parking situation without risking our swim platform. Since we don’t have thrusters it’s a challenge to turn out without crunching the back. He held a line at the bow while Mike put the starboard gear forward. The stern swung out into the fairway, and he backed us out. We looked like professionals!

Our travel was calm and easy which helped because Kelly needed to drive while Mike worked! Kelly thinks she saw a bald eagle which was the first we saw since Louisiana. So cool.

We were going to anchor at the end of Alligator River but decided to stay at the marina since the rate was $1.86 a foot for overnight docking (total was $78). It was a good decision because we got to finally meet Sam on Tidbit. We had some fried chicken at the marina together and shared stories. Sam is traveling by himself which is so impressive.