Finally, everything is done – well, almost everything. We
need a membrane for our watermaker and since the main factory is in California,
it didn’t get here in time. The service manager at Zimmerman’s in Deltaville is
having it sent to Zimmerman’s sister boatyard at Herrington Harbor North (HHN
is our next destination) so they can put it in there. Also one of our toilets
leaks – yes, it is in the master head, which is the one they fixed. On the good
news side, both we and the technicians know what is wrong and they have ordered
the part to fix it. On the bad news side, it won’t arrive for another week or
so either, so it is also going to HHN. And lastly … remember the winch that they
were supposed to have fixed? Well, it is partially repaired, but not completely
fixed. Tomorrow, I am going to try to fix it by turning the screw they told me
to turn. If that doesn’t work, we are going to get a new winch motor. Period.
Dot. I am really tired of the winch problem; it can’t be THAT hard.
Anyway, everything else seems to be working. We are going to
try it out over the next four days as we head north towards Herrington
North. Originally we had planned to take
seven days to get north, but because we had to make reservations at the marina before
we knew exactly what our departure date would be, we had to cut some days off.
Still, I think four days should be enough to put all our new improvements
through their paces. Before I tell you everything else about our summer
intentions, let me cover what has happened in and around Deltaville.While we were waiting for all the repairs/improvements to be finished, we took a look around the area. On Monday, we went to the Deltaville Maritime Museum. Although it was interesting, it wasn’t exactly what I envision when I think about a museum; there simply weren’t that many artifacts. There were a bunch of model boats and ships, a whole lot of pictures and a great deal of written explanations as to what went on in and around Deltaville during both the Civil War and the late 19thand early 20th Centuries, but there weren’t many “things.” The exception is the restored FD Crockett, a long-bottomed buy boat that plied its trade around the Chesapeake from 1924 until the mid-1990’s.
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| Model of a Chesapeake Buy Boat in the museum |
We didn’t do much on Tuesday, and on Wednesday we had a very
quiet Fourth of July – until that evening. You may remember that when we were
traveling up the ICW we met a sailboat called Outpost. In fact, since we had anchored close to each other one
night and since we were the only boats in the area that went “outside” the
following day, we struck up a little conversation over the radio. It turned out
that they were from Weems, VA – not too far from Deltaville – so we exchanged
phone numbers. On Tuesday, we called them and asked them if they wanted to come
over to the boat for a drink. They did, and we probably spent three to
three-and-a-half hours talking about the ICW, boats, boating, etc. Later this
month, they are heading up to Long Island and intend to spend some time in the
NYC area. We hope they have a lot of fun and that we see them again next year
on our way up the ICW.
The last weekend the boat was in Deltaville we went back to
Northern Virginia and stayed with our friends Dave and Joan Wolf. Before I go
any further, I need to say something. I am not sure it would have been possible
to embark on our little adventure without a great deal of help from outside.
Yes, we could have rented a storage locker (at a couple hundred dollars per
month) to store what’s left of our belongings. Yes, we could have hired a mail
drop to handle our mail, and yes we could have sold our car and spent more time
and money on Enterprise Rentals to get around. But doing so would have made our
adventure much more expensive and much less fun; we really like having the
freedom of possessing a car, even in beautiful, downtown Deltaville and we like
having people we trust on the other end of our phone requests. While a lot of
people have helped us, we really need to thank our friends Dave and Joan, and
our son and daughter-in-law, Tim and Carrie. Without Dave and Joan storing our
“stuff” and helping with some time-consuming logistical chores, and without Tim
and Carrie sorting our mail, taking care of our car and handling even more of
those logistical chores, our adventure might not have been possible. Ann and I
take out hats off to all four of you. We also promise that – now that we know a
little more about what we are doing – we will try to call on you less and less.
Anyway, back to my discussion of the area in and around Deltaville. On the way up to Northern VA, we decided we just had to stop and read those historical markers along the highway. Now you might think that would be an interesting, but easy task. You would be wrong about the “easy” part. Remember this is very close to Jamestown, Yorktown and colonial Williamsburg, so Rte 17, the main road between Deltaville and Fredericksburg has a LOT of historical markers. In fact, it was nicknamed by some alliterative-loving Richmond bureaucrat, “HistoryLand Highway,” so you can imagine how much history is recorded on markers. In case you doubt my comment about an alliterative-loving bureaucrat, an alternative name for History Land Highway is Tidewater Trail – and they are both on highway markers all along the road!
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| Mike in the pilothouse of the Crockett. |
Okay, I told you we would write a little about our plans for the rest of the summer. We leave Deltaville on Tuesday, 10 July. We will then take about four leisurely days moseying up the Chesapeake to Herrington Harbor North. If that marina sounds familiar to some of you, it is because we kept our former boat, Sans Souci at Herrington South, a somewhat nicer, but far more expensive marina. Herrington North, though, has a pool, a workout facility, a restaurant on-site, and a West Marine right next door – and it’s only about 45 minutes from DC where our friends, family and doctors reside. In short, we have left the 3-hour drives from Deltaville to northern VA behind. Hurray!
We plan on staying at Herrington North for about a month,
then taking about a week to meander down the Chesapeake and up the Potomac to
Washington, DC. We will be staying at
the Gangplank Marina for another month and will be literally walking to the
Smithsonian Museums and other DC sites (including, I hope, a Starbucks!). That
should take us to the end-ish of September after which we are heading back down
to Deltaville to get ready to head south along the ICW to the Exumas. Now, all
of that may change – as Ann says on boats we have “intentions” not “plans” – but
that is how we hope the rest of the summer will unfold.
Okay, Okay, now something important. You need to write this date on
your calendars: On Saturday, 4 August, we are having an “Open Boat” party or
maybe a “Boat Warming.” Anyway, we are inviting all our friends and family to
come to Herrington Harbor North to see our boat, have a few libations and enjoy
some munchies (haven’t decided what kind of munchies, yet). And the answer is
YES! If you are among the first 100 people to show up, you can even see the
infamous heads about which you have read so much! And if you are lucky, I mean
really lucky, we might even let you put salt in the Lectra Sans! We have
already sent the invitations, so if you didn’t get yours and are going to be in
the area, please, please, please let us know and you will receive one. Now,
some of you who reside in California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, the UK and other places (we actually have some readers
in Russia) probably got invitations. If you can come, please do! But, of
course, we don’t really expect you to make it. However, we don’t know where
some of you are and we would hate to assume you can’t come because you happen
to be a state or two away.
Anyway, I hope to have a new entry in a week-and-a-half to two weeks and Hope to see you on 4 August!!!!
ANN'S NOTES: As you can tell there is a small time warp in this addition to the blog. Let me explain the time and date difference. While some of the boat repairs/improvements where being done at Zimmerman's boatyard, Michael and I were in Arizonia visiting our moms. We left on 18 June together and returned on seperate dates. Michael came home on the 25th and I returned on the 30th. Michaels mom is doing well and we hope will be visiting us on the boat in October. My visit with my mom was one that had to be made. My sister Liz is living with her for a little while longer,thank heaven for Liz. Since my step-dad passed away, my mom has not handled things very well. A lot of the military paper work was very confusing and the papers were everywhere. Anyway...the lesson learned from this visit is have everything in order...your will, insurance, retirement papers...anything legal put it all together and in a file. Believe me...it will be much better for you and any family member that comes to help you. My mom is going to be ok...it will just take longer than we thought.
I am happy to report that my new stove/range is working nicely. Granted I have not made a big fancy meal as yet...why ? you may ask ? Answer...it is too FLIPPING HOT :( The thought of turning on anything that produces heat just makes me want to run in the other direction. Yes... we have AC but I try not to turn it on during the day. The mornings are usually nice with a slight breeze but then the sun comes out and heats up the day. If you don't know I am NOT a hot weather girl...Maine is looking like a great place to spend the summer if you ask me.
I am really looking forward to our month in Herrington Harbour North. I have made a few doctors appointments, just the usual stuff, and it will be a much closer drive. Also the up coming Boat Warming party will be fun...I hope you can come and see us.
I also want to thank Dave and Joan and our son Tim and daughter-in-law Carrie for all the time and effort they put in to make this adventure work for Michael and I. We are truly blessed to have them in our lives and I love them all very much.
Traveling Soul....OUT
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