Start time and hours 1100 3386.28
End time and hours 1300 3388.13
A very short hop
today, eleven nautical miles. We were
running from Hampton VA across the James River and into Portsmouth/Norfolk
harbor and into the south branch of the Elizabeth River. This is where we would take a few days to
reprovision and rest for the official start of the ICW.
There is a lot of
boat traffic in this area. The port is
full of navy ships, cargo ships, tugs, barges, and pleasure craft. You really need to be paying attention to all
of traffic as some of them move quickly.
We pulled into
the Ocean Yacht Marina in Portsmouth VA. http://oceanyachtmarina.com/ This marina is at the beginning of the ICW. We had a perfect landing at the fuel dock,
and after getting 150 gallons of diesel we made another successful landing into
our slip.
The marina is
good but not great. The wi-fi stinks,
the pump out was not working, and the bathrooms are a little dirty. The staff, on the other hand, is very helpful
and polite. They have a well-stocked
ship’s store and are centrally located in downtown Portsmouth. We have floating docks and full finger
piers. We take these for granted back
home but they are not always available down south. Floating docks and finger piers make getting
on and off the boat so much easier. They
also make docking easier.
After getting
secure we walked into town to check out the shops and restaurants. The downtown area of Portsmouth is seriously
lacking in shopping. There were only a
few stores and most of them were closed.
We did find a great Italian restaurant called Mannino’s. http://manninositalianbistro.com/ We went back for dinner that evening and it
was great. I had a veal parmesan layered
with Portobello mushroom, Parma ham, and mozzarella. Elaine had lasagna Bolognese. We didn’t even notice until the bill came
that it was half price wine night on Mondays.
We walked back to the boat and slept very well that night.
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