To Deltaville

Continuing North

Friday, 10 May – Norfolk to Deltaville – 45 mi.

Blue sky, 65 degrees. Said goodbye to Mazel Tug – Ralph got up early to help us with our lines – what a nice guy! The Waterside Marina folks handed us a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts – an unexpected pleasure.  This was the first day we did not have to wear jackets on the bridge. We left the marina with SeaGlide, Bucket List, and Lightfoot, following them at the end of the line.  The Doziers invited loopers to their Ragatta Point Yacht Club in Deltaville for a festive post-rendezvous weekend, so 17 boats were headed there today. We passed many more US Navy ships, and we saw a submarine crossing in front of us, being escorted in the channel by US Coast Guard vessels
. Not far north of Norfolk, my chart plotter started to display a blue screen. Turns out the next chip in the sequence was not working.  Although we had paper charts as backup, we were so glad that we were following SeaGlide and the others. I tested all my chips, and they were all recognized by my plotter, except the one I needed now – Shennecock Bay to Lake Rudee. I immediately called Jeppessen, the manufacturer. Technical support confirmed that the chip was bad, so they sent me a new one to the marina via overnight UPS delivery. Well, UPS does not deliver to Deltaville on Saturday mornings, so we settled in for the weekend. Dozier’s offered a special deal to loopers – buy two nights, get one free. To start the festivities, they held a wine and cheese welcoming reception on their front porch.

Saturday to Monday – Dozier’s Regatta Point Yacht Club.

Saturday - Early thunderstorms diminished by mid morning, turning into a beautiful 80 degree day. We took advantage of the marina’s courtesy car to go into town for groceries and marine supplies.  Not being able to find a metal cover replacement for our dinghy motor from any used marine supply centers, we bought a canvas cover as a temporary way to keep out the weather. We stopped at Latitudes, a shop owned by one of Laurie’s friends. Nice little gift shop, but Laurie’s friend was not there.

Four boats entered the blindfolded dinghy races, and they awarded wine bottles as prizes for the fastest and slowest in each of two categories at the pot luck barbeque. Music was provided by a guitarist, who worked for Waterway Guides, and a keyboard player, who worked for the marina.  Besides playing his son’s toy piano, he
also played a few wind instruments.  Al was pleasantly surprised –
and sang along - when they played several John Prine songs. Afterwards, Freewheelin Joe and Deb gave us a dinghy ride to see the beautiful sunset.

Sunday - It rained overnight, and the wind picked up a bit, then it turned into a nice sunny day. We celebrated Mother’s Day with a brunch at the marina’s party room, complete with mimosas! Later we took measurements of our boat’s height, to see what we needed to do to clear the 15.5 ft fixed bridge in the Champlain Canal. We will need to drop the radar mast, the VHF antennas, the TV antenna, and the bimini top. Lowering the mast and VHF antennas is easy, we figured how to drop the bimini top, but we still need to rig something for the TV antenna. The issue is not how to lower them for the bridge – we can do that at the previous night’s marina - the hard part will be to raise everything up again after clearing the bridge and being underway. CoCoMoS restaurant (“where summer never ends”) made three trips in their minivan to pick up 22 of us for dinner.

For our turn, we filled the van with 10. Interestingly, they had all their ceiling fans connected with long fan belts.