TIM PATTI RILEY BIG ADVENTURE

5/28/2018

Memorial Day

BOATERS GARDEN, HAMPTON

BOATERS GARDEN

We left Homer Smith on Monday 5/21 as planned. Even waited for near high tide to make sure we had enough water. Five minutes after leaving the dock we were hard aground. I told Tim I would take the hit for that one. Instead of watching my charts & giving direction (which I am very good at!), I was out pulling lines & fenders. That will not happen again. Someone did go by & waked us hard. For a minute I thought he had rocked us off. No such luck. Tow Boat US to the rescue, again.

We eventually made it to Grace Harbor River Dunes in Oriental, NC. We were accompanied by hordes of biting flies of some sort. I'm sure we were a sight, swatting flies while trying to maintain our course. It was so bad, I used the fly swatter on Tim & Riley whenever one landed on them. I swear, it was the only way😛 The marina was very nice, but not much around within walking distance. Riley was entertained by the jelly fish surrounding the boat.

Tuesday 5/22 we moved on to River Forest Manor in Belhaven, NC. The docks were a little rustic, but the restrooms & laundry were excellent. Henry & Josh were the best. Henry was the Dock master & Josh was a dock hand. They had free golf carts to get into town. We used a golf cart to go to town for dinner at the Fish Hooks Cafe. That, of course, was after we walked Riley to town & back. It is a beautiful town. Some of the nicest houses I have seen. The restaurant was good. I got to indulge in one of my favorites, fried green tomatoes.

Wednesday 5/23 we planned a short day to Alligator River. We arrived there early as we were able to run on plane & were able to make the bridge & no waiting. We decided to keep going to Coinjock, NC. We knew we had to cross the Albemarle Sound, which can be difficult, depending on the weather. Wednesday appeared to be a better weather day than Thursday, so the decision was made to go for it. It was not pleasant. Bigger biting flies. I think the ones from the day before called in reinforcements. The water was choppy & boasted 4' swells that were hitting us broadside. Just to make it interesting.....crab pots everywhere. We made it without incident. There was a boat in front of us that docked at Coinjock. They have run that many times before & said that is the worst they have seen. From our prospective, crab pots were the only thing making it difficult!

Coinjock is a long face dock right on the A-ICW. We tied up & looked ahead. The sky was dark as night. It poured, but we were safe & dry in the marina restaurant. The restaurant is famous for it's
32oz prime rib. The plan was to split one. Ahh the best laid plans....we both opted for something else. I tried the Cobia. It was pretty fishy. Wouldn't order that again. Tim got shrimp & grits. That was good.

Thursday 5/24 on to Hampton, VA for the weekend. Another long day. I like to refer to it as HELL DAY. We had bridges to time for opening & a lock. Not to mention the Norfolk Naval Ship Yard & restricted areas.

The bridge waits were about 20 minutes. Not bad, except for the other boats waiting & crowding. Next the lock. It was right after the bridge. The lock master informs us we will not be locking thru for at least an hour so might as well tie up to the wall. Problem is there is not enough room on the wall & everyone makes a mad dash for space. Given the way these people were going, it did not look like rafting would be an option. Some of the boats managed to muscle into wall space & then the lock master informs us, we can start into the lock. Since we were still floating in the river, we were 2nd into the lock. Now we are all in the lock. It was at least 80 degrees & full sun & while in a lock, one must wear a life jacket & maintain your lines. So I am sitting on the bow roasting. Now comes the Coast Guard with their dog. They boarded the boat in front of us. The dog & his handler first on & first off. He started walking toward us & I'm thinking what am I going to do with Riley. Will they let me take him off the boat. That would be good, not only cooler under a shade tree, but Riley gets a potty break. Riley stands up & starts barking. The guy & the dog walked past us & on to the next boat! We were never boarded. I say because of Riley, Tim says because of our safety inspection sticker. Probably a combination. We sat in that lock for an hour & a half. There was a barge & workmen on the other side & we waited for them to clear, I think, or was it the inspections? We will never know.

Just as the lock is opening, the guy from the boat behind us, comes running over. The Coast Guard is still on his boat. A BIG boat. He wants to know if we have any spare life jackets. He does not have enough for all the people on board & he is not allowed to go until he does. We do have spares, & Tim goes into the dinghy to grab 2 for him. The guy tries to hand Tim money & Tim says just take the jackets. The guy will have none of that & forces the money on him. Tim takes it so we can get moving & clear the lock. After we are clear & on our way, he looks & sees he was handed $200. We thought he would catch up to us & we would be able to give the money back. We never saw him again. We even walked the marina looking for him.

Next was the Norfolk Naval Area with much restricted space & a call from the dock master at Hampton asking if we were still planning on getting there today. Tim said yes, but we were about an hour out. He informed Tim no one would be at the dock after 5PM & gave him a dock number & told him given the current & the wind & the short finger docks it was not going to be easy to get in.
The decision was made to move a little faster. At that point a couple of things happened. There is a Securite call on the radio, saying they are escorting a submarine out of the harbor & to stay back 500 yards, my Navionic chart plotter is way off, (so I am lost till I figure it out) a container ship is headed in our direction & the Navy escort boat is on the radio again calling to a "white hulled boat" to not come any closer. She is saying "Can you see blue lights?" The harbor has many "white hulled boats" including us & I don't see any blue lights & I don't hear anyone answering her. Tim spotted our channel while I'm looking for blue lights & just headed toward it. No one came after us, so I guess she was not talking to us. Never saw the lights, but I did see the sub & a little later I saw less of it. Either my sight was failing or it was beginning to submerge.

Now for the marina. We got there about 5:15PM. Michael the dock master was still there. He was right, this has to be the worst marina ever to dock at. Tim as usual did a great job & we were in & tied quickly. As the weekend wears on more boats are coming in. It has taken some boats many tries & as long as 20 minutes to get in a dock.

The marina is in downtown Hampton, so easy walk to restaurants & sight seeing. We toured the NASA Langley Visitor Center. The IMAX theater was great, as was the solarium exhibit, but large areas were poorly lit or had sun glaring off the glass cases, making it difficult or impossible to see whole cases of exhibits.😞

We rode the Hampton Carousel. It is one of 70 classic wooden carousels remaining in operation in the USA.

Of course, I found another cemetery. It is part of St John's Episcopal Church, the oldest continuous Protestant church in North America founded in 1610. The church was completed in 1728. There is a grave site from 1701.

It is also home to Hampton University. I found the campus this morning while walking Riley. It is on the other side of the river. I plan to go back there tomorrow & check out another cemetery!! No luck. It is a National Cemetery & it was Memorial Day & we couldn't get in as they were setting up for a ceremony.

Now for a little wrench in the trip. Tim started complaining yesterday of the same back pain he had before his back surgery 2 years ago. I have prescribed rest, ice & Alleve. He is doing that except maybe the rest part. We shall see if he improves, if not, not sure of next step.

Last but not least, the generator is not producing electricity. We have someone scheduled to look at it at the next stop.