Now that I had a chance to look around, I realize that the harbor is really an uppercase "E" with the open end closed by the River Walk.We are in the upstream half (lower part) of the "E". The setting reminds me a little of Front Street in Beaufort, NC and the Baltimore Inner Harbor. However it has several protected sand beaches an amenity missing from most marinas on Chesapeake Bay. The overnight docking rate here is $1.75/foot with electricity included. No cable or wireless is available, but Ben & Jerry's across the river walk from from the marina has wireless. Garbage pickup is at your boat and the preferred method of getting ice is paying for it and sometime later it is delivered to your boat. The staff is uniformly friendly and helpful. We like it a Lot!
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| Riverwalk as seen from "Spindrift" |
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| Yet another: Riverwalk as seen from "Spindrift" |
Our end of the Marina is almost under the massive Coleman Bridge, which probably explains our poor TV reception. Past the bridge and up river on our side is THAT place with an "agricultural name", made famous in numerous "spy" books and movies, such as, "The Recruit." I suppose it could be fictional and that is my official position.
The most surprising thing to us so far is - No Boats! Even crossing the Bay on Saturday, other than our sailing partners boat, Mazi, and, of course, the ship not seen by me, there were only one or two others. The same was also true upon crossing back on Monday. There has never been more than six boats staying at the marina at any one time. Seven, if you count the Coast Guard boat which may or may not been here and may or may not have tied up during the White Squall.
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| 4 lane, ß3750 foot Coleman Bridge connecting Yorktown to Gloucester Point and adjacent to the Riverwalk Landing Marina on the up river side. |
As I write this there are only two boats. Quite a few boats do come in at lunch time for temporary tie-up. Kay walking our dogs this morning meant a man walking a Westie. He told her that in 40 years this is the least boat traffic he has ever seen. The Marina which looks like it could hold 100+ boats says it has been sold out since January for Independence Day. Given the historical significance of Yorktown, that is not surprising, but January was a long time before $4/gallon gas prices.
For our part, on this cruise so far we have used 5 gallons of fuel. We could have easily used as much in one day at home in our cars.
Before starting out this morning, I thought that this would a day for nothing to go wrong. Perfect Conditions. A short trip home. I imagined I would start out by writing:
"No hits, no strikes, no errors."
Right, wrong! Actually getting away from the dock at River Walk Landing, where you are tied up side-to, was not as easy as it looked to be. True, the light wind was blowing us away from the dock, but once away, the current would carry you right back. But that was a minor "strike", little more than a foul tip at most.
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| "Virginia Responder" passes us causing our engine to respond in a very unfriendly manner to its wake. Magic and a pinch of salt solves the problem. |
OOPs! Kay says, "What do we do now?"
For those of you that know that I am a physicist, please keep in mind that I am a THEORETICAL physicist. To me a Diesel engine is a black box into which you pour fuel and out of which you get power (hopefully). Even if I do know the formula for the efficiency of an ideal Diesel engine given its compression ratio, I have no idea what the various whatchaMaCallIts do, that make up a device that actually works (or, at least, used to work).
A couple of years back in the Solomons I had someone put an electrical pump on the fuel line. He told me it was to bleed the line. Bleed the line? I thought that was something done in the 14th century to cure typhus or something. I don't even like the sight of blood. To tell the truth I had forgotten all about it until about 6 months ago. I apparently had turned it on accidently, and I never could understand where the strange whirring sound was coming from and would have ignored it, if not for a visit from Dennis Honneycutt. Dennis cannot stand unexplained sounds, leaks, floodings and other minor annoyances, and having tracked it down, called my attention to it. Thanks Dennis!
I had no idea how to answer Kay's question above. What the hell should we do? We tried "praying" and starting the engine. Didn't work. Stating the engine and then praying was also a no go. Then I remembered the comforting whirring sound of the "Dennis Switch". So I tried it and the motor actually sputtered and again I tried it, more sputtering. sputter sputter whir whir...whir sputter RRRRRRRRRRR!
I probably did the wrong thing, but I am here aren't I?
Well not actually, we still had two hours to go and then the very narrow, shoal entrance to Salt Ponds. We proceeded on with crossed fingers until we turned towards the entrance to Salt Ponds. And ... Then ...Kay Says "Oh No!"
Now I hate that, I have plenty of foresight but little farsight. I hated to ask:
"Oh No, What?"
"There is a dredge in the middle of the entrance."
"Damn"
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| My Hero and wife of 45 years. |
What more to say? Except Kay made it in, by the dredge, down the marina strand, and into the slip.
So now we are here!
However, I still have not related one of my favorite (among many) Coast Guard stories, and best of all it happened today.
About an half hour later"
Coast Guard: "Capsized vessel near Ocean View discovered to be a submarine. Cancel Pan Pan."
Carl