Washington DC

The original plan had us with at least three days to see the Washington DC sites, as it turned out we had only two and tried to see as much as possible.  Our hotel was in Alexandria and provided a shuttle to the Metro and to Old Town in Alexandria.  If you ever plan a trip to DC be sure to book in advance, we couldn't find an hotel in DC with availability for the three nights we needed.  We bought two day tickets on the "On and Off" bus and used this to get to the most popular attractions and even did the night tour.

We also used the Metro, which some of you might find surprising as Denise is not a big fan of traveling underground.  Maybe the 1100 miles so far on the boat has softened her up.

Of course we visited all the national monuments and took pictures of all of them, but I won't post these as you are likely pretty familiar with them.

We did go to the marina we had reservations at because I wanted to see if was as great a location as it sounded.  It was a short distance to many of the sites and had a view of the Washington Monument and even had a railroad track just a couple of hundred feet away.  They were also impacted by the high water and the debris and had a constant clean up effort going on.

You can see how high the water is still in this picture of the park office just across from the marina.

We had dinner one night at Gadsby's Tavern in Arlington.  Whats noteworthy about this place is that it has been operating since 1785 and includes many of the founding fathers as guests, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Monroe and James Madison.  They even offer a beer from Thomas Jefferson's own recipe.

With the shortened visit we only were able to spend a few hours at the Smithsonian and chose the American History Museum, probably seeing only a quarter of it.  We talked about coming back.  Denise said she'd meet me there if I want to try it by boat again.  We'll see.  We're home now and I am off to Minnesota at the end of next week.  Maybe I'll post some fishing pictures.  The Great Loop resumes June 15 providing Tranquility is up and running again.

Part II

While tied to Bob and Barbara's dock and after I had been in the water and under the boat I saw a rather large snake slithering along, but I couldn't get the camera before it was gone.  I asked Bob what kind of snakes were in the river, but he wasn't sure.  I'm sure glad I didn't know about snakes in the water before I went diving. 

Denise and I were up early and prepared to leave the dock for the 20 mile trip down river to Goose Bay.  We would be running on just the port engine and were not exactly sure what speed we would obtain or how long the 20 mile trip might take.  We were just off the dock and turned back south when we realized that the starboard shaft was turning from the forward motion of the boat and the noise encountered the day before was back and sounding like we could cause further damage if we continued.  Actually, Geo had suggested tying a line around the prop and securing it to the boat to keep the shaft from turning, but I had not done that.  I tried putting it in gear, both forward and reverse, but that did not stop the shaft from turning.  We slowed and headed again towards shore as I was again thinking of anchoring and trying to get a line around the prop.  Not surprisingly, we realized the better choice would be to go back to Bob and Barbara"s dock.

We were reluctant to go back to the dock because we were afraid Bob and Barbara had probably had enough of us, but surprises were still in store. Denise kept referring to us as Bob in the movie "What About Bob".   We just wouldn't leave.  As we approached the dock, Bob came down and caught a line for us.  It was time to go back in the water, only now I knew about the snake.  I tried to block the image of the snake from the day before and in I went.  It took several dives under the boat to finally get a line wrapped just right and secured to a cleat topside to keep the starboard shaft from turning.  I got out of the water as fast as I could and luckily didn't encounter a snake.  I did get a few "barnacle bites" though.

But this is nothing compared to the bruise Denise got on her knee from bumping it somewhere on the boat.

I didn't even know about this until a few days after it happened as Denise was toughing it out.

Anyway, back to the the trip to Goose Bay.  After successfully securring the starboard shaft we again took off and this time we kept going.  But it was not without discussion.   We were back to cruising, albeit a little slower than usual, but othere than that it seemed pretty normal.  I told Denise we could probaly make it to Washington and even though we couldn't get the boat fixed, we thought about the possibility.  It was only about a 10 minute discussion and we soon came to our senses and kept going towards Goose Bay.  We turned from the wider portion of the river to the narrows and our speed jumped to over 6 miles an hour on just the port engine as we were riding the out going tide along with the river current. 

Bob had offered to pick us up from Goose Bay and give us a ride to Washington as he was heading back to Alexandria, VA and back to work and we were still trying to salvage a few days of sight seeing before heading home.  We had made hotel reservations in Alexandria..  While on the way to Goose Bay, Bob called to check on our progress and again invited us to dinner at the River House before heading to Washington.

I wanted to post a picture of Bob and Barbara, but they declined.  I wanted to show you what angels looked like.  Had we not met them, we would have been calling Tow Boat US and I'mnot sure how that would have turned out.  I'm certain there wouldn't have been nice dinners and good converation and who knows how we would have gotten to Washington.  As it is, the boat is now out of the water at Goose Bay and we are in Washington seeing the sights and forever indebted to Bob and Barbara.

Tomorrow we head home as I will be leaving on my annual fishing trip to Minnesota next week.  We have flights back to Washington on June 14 and are hoping the boat will be fixed by then and we can contine the next leg of the loop.  I'll post a few pictures from the Washington trip soon.

 

The Perils of River Cruising

It was a nice warm morning, so before leaving the anchorage at Sandy Point I launched the dinghy to take some pictures of Tranquility.

Note the oars and lack of a motor.  I made a brief attempt to start the motor, but gave up after just a few pulls.  Denise waved goodbye as I floated off.

On the way out of the anchorage we came past the aptly named "Great House Point".

The Potomac is a very wide river, 4 miles across where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay and still this wide for the first 40 or so miles. 

I read in the Waterway Guide that we would be passing the Dahlgren Naval Weapons Training Center and that it was possible to encounter live fire training.  The charts indicated an area deemed the "danger zone" and explained that in the event live fire training was taking place we would be directed to a safe side of the channel, but may have to endure loud explosions.  Unfortunately, there was no training taking place as we passed through the area.  At about mile 45 the river narrows to about a mile and a half wide and here I started seeing debris in the water, mostly logs and other brush like stuff. 

We started looking for an anchorage as the afternoon thunderstorms looked to be forming again and pulled into Potomac Creek.  This is the site where Pocahontas was captured in 1613.

At this point, Washington DC is 50 miles up river and we got an early start hoping to get to our downtown marina by early afternoon.  Here the river widens again to about 3 miles and we again started seeing more and more debris.  We had gotten a DC televsion station the night before and there was a story about how much debris was in the water due to recent flooding.  Their video even showed a refrigerator floating in the water.

We had only gone about 5 miles when I heard a loud thud against the hull and knew I had hit something, but I didn't see anything as we continued on and told Denise to listen for any unusual noises from the cabin.  The debris continued to increase and it was getting harder to try to find clear spots.

I was less worried about the stuff I could see in the water and more worried about what I couldn't see.  It wasn't long before we hit something again and this time it caused the starboard drive shaft and / or propeller to start making bad noises.  I had to shut it down and we began to ponder our options.  We headed towards shore and shallower water where I was thinking I could drop the anchor and dive under the boat for an inspection, but as we got closer I saw a few docks in front of houses and started scanning them with binoculars hoping to find one I could tie up to for the inspection.  After passing a few that had collected massive amounts of debris I spotted a larger one that seemed clearer and we got close enough to get lines around the posts.

I donned the mask and snorkel and headed under the boat, but couldn't see all that well in the dirty water, so felt around the shaft and propellers on both sides, but didn't come up with anything tangled or wrapped around.  We were hoping that it was just something that could be untangled or cut loose.  That wasn't the case.

Time for a phone call to Geo to get advice on what to do and help further troubleshoot the issue.  We determined it was likely a bent shaft and think this is worst case.  There could be less serious trouble, but we're prepared for a need for a new or repaired shaft. 

Thinking we could still run on the port engine, I called the marina in DC to see if they could lift the boat and fix whatever problem we found.  Unfortunately, their lift capacity was under the 24,000 pounds we needed and also said there were no marinas downtown that could do it either, now we had a dilemna.  About that time the owner of the house and dock came home and immediately tried to help with options.  Bob invited us up and we met his wife Barbara and were overwhelmed by their willingness to help and even offer us transportation.

 After a few more phone calls and with Bob's help we determined that the best course of action was to make plans to take the boat to the Goose Bay Marina, which was 20 miles back down river, the only problem was that it was necessary to have an incoming or high tide to be able to get into their docks and we were currently at low tide.  They would not be able to provide the lift until Monday morning (it was Saturday), so Bob and Barbara offered to let us stay at their dock, even providing water and electricity.  As this is their weekend house and were just down from Alexandria, we let them get back to their plans.  Later in the afternoon, Bob was going to his boat which had just been put into the water from winter storage at Goose Bay, so I rode along and was able to talk to the service man and solidify the plans for lift and repairing whatever was found.  If you're getting the impression at this point that Bob and Barbara were awfully nice people, keep reading, it gets better.

After the stop at Goose Bay, Bob informed me he had a few stops to make in La Plata, MD and these included picking up some groceries for the dinner they were inviting us to at the "River House".  He at least allowed me to bring a bottle of wine and we were treated to a very good steak dinner, which included some nice conversation with them and their son Allen, who had come down from Alexandria for the night.

I'm going to call this part of the story Part 1 and will soon post Part II, which continues with the incredible Bob and Barbara.  Stay tuned.

Captain of Tranquility appoints new Weather Officer

I'll get to the weather news in a minute.

We got off to a late start from the Atlantic Yacht Basin, at least by "butt crack" standards, but are still happily back to boat cruising.  Well, some of us anyway.  More about that later.  First thing we had to do was wait for the Great Bridge Bridge to open and then immediately move into Denise's first lock.  At least it was an easy one, only moving up a couple of feet and she handled her line perfectly.

I've been forbidden to tell you what she said when she realized I took a picture.

We had a couple more bridges to wait for on the way to downtown Norfolk, but in both cases the wait was cut a few minutes short because of other traffic that doesn't have to wait.  Once the Coast Guard and another a barge.  But even after clearing the second bridge I had to stop and wait because I heard on the radio that the adjacent railroad bridge was closing, we went around in circles for a few minutes until the train passed.  Most people don't get it, but at least Denise does, I like trains.

Soon after the excitement of the train passing, we came to downtown Norfolk (on the east bank) and downtown Portsmouth (on the west bank).  Both have yards where work is being done on Navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Dwight D Eisenhower.

We then came to three extremely large supply ships all tied to the same dock.

I took dozens of pictures of various Naval ships and won't post them all here, but will post a couple from the Naval base of active and ready ships.

Along with all the Naval ships came constant air traffic, like this helicopter that I thought was coming for us.

The confluence of the James and Elizabeth rivers, along with several other smaller rivers is known as Hampton Roads and is one of the largest natural harbors in the world.  With that comes an abundence of commercial traffic.

Eventually we cleared all the hubbub of Hampton Roads and made our way into the Chesapeake Bay.  It was a little rough with 2 to 3 foot waves on winds out of the east / south east.  Eventually we wanted to head north, but I thought it best to keep the waves on our bow for as long as possible so that the left turn to the north became more of a north westerly direction, putting the waves on our stern, which is more comfortable.  It also made the gathering storm clouds behind us seem like they were getting further away.  Needless to say, when we eventually turned to the north west the storm clouds all of a sudden were closer and moving fast.

I have to admit I became a little complacent with keeping tabs on the weather.  After all its been pretty nice for a long time.  But now we're in big water and trouble can appear in a hurry, which made my first mate a little uneasy.

I was a little more prepared and donned my special issue rain gear.

And my first mate prepared for the worst.

But these were "scattered" thunder storms and we luckily found a patch of less severe weather and let one storm pass in front of us and another behind us.  I did get a little wet as we headed for an anchorage, but was dry by the time the anchor was down in Mobjack Bay on the western shore of the Chesapeake just north of Hampton, VA.  It rained pretty heavy again before my bedtime, but the first mate was lights out and missed it.

Before getting underway this morning I decided we couldn't be complacent with the weather anymore and appointed Denise as Tranquility's new Weather Officer.  Her duties, which are already many, now include checking the NOAA marine forecast on the internet each morning and also periodically throughout the day.  This action has already paid dividends as the Weather Officer warned of nearing bad weather today and we were able to duck into tonight's anchorage just before the thunderstorms came rumbling through.  Not only did the boat get a much needed washing, but we also got to see a nice rainbow.

This is in a little cove near Sandy Point, VA just off the Potomac river.  Its about 20 miles due east of Langley Airforce base.  It was tough at times today as I was trying to spot the source of the frequent loud jet noices while keeping the boat on course.  I was able to spot a few, but couldn't get the pictures before they were out of sight.  I think we get a little closer tomorrow so I'll keep trying.

"Lets get a boat that big"

Thats what Denise said when she saw the battleship Wisconsin, which we toured yesterday in downtown Norfolk.  Of course its a big boat, 887'3" long. 

It is located at the Nauticus Naval Musem, which also includes the extensive history of Naval history in the Hampton Roads area.
The 90 minute guided tour allows access to only some of the upper decks and we got an idea what it might be like on one of these massive ships.  The Wisconsin was commissioned in 1945 and saw extensive action over the years, including WWII, Korea and Desert Storm.  It was brought out of moth balls in the late 80's and was outfitted with Tomahawk missles and fired the first one to start Desert Storm.   As you can see below, Denise took this pretty seriously.

While on the outside deck, we spotted another bronze statue.  This one was called the Lone Sailor, representing all sailors who have served and was located in a little park next to the Wisconsisn.

The smaller monuments behind the sailor represent several naval ships that were commissioned at the Newport News shipyard and were damaged or sunk either in combat or in accidents over the years.

To be consistent, there had to be a kiss from Denise, but this guy is about 8 feet tall, making it a little harder to really plant one.

Budget Rental Car brought us to a grocery store near the marina and we picked up a few things and the grocery store brought us back to the marina.  These are really nice services that are provided for the many boaters that come through here.   We're prepaing to leave and resume boat cruising and will head to the Chesapeake Bay.  As we pass through downtown Norfolk we will pass mile marker 0, which marks the beginning of the ICW.  While this is only 12 miles away, there are several bridges that will need opening and one lock to pass through and as these usually only open on the hour, I expect this 12 miles may take awhile.  Over the past two weeks, Tranquility has been in a covered slip at the Atlantic Yacht Basin marina.

More sight seeing is on the agenda as we are planning to leave the Chesapeake at the Potomac River and cruise to Washington DC,  planning to get there this Friday.

Land Cruising

We're back in Chesapeake, VA after an uneventful flight on Sunday.  We rented a car at the airport because we needed groceries and are planning to go to downtown Norfolk tomorrow to see the sights.  We didn't have specific plans for today until Denise asked how far it was to Nags Head, NC.  As it turns out, it was a great question because we made the 75 mile drive this morning and had a great day in Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head on the NC Outer Banks and then drove to Elizabeth City, NC on our way back to Chesapeake.  We knew from our faint memories of elementary school history class that Kitty Hawk was where the Wright brothers flew for the first time.  I also knew from recent reading about the area that there is a monument there commerating this feat.  The experience was more than worth the trip.  We stopped first at the visitors center in Kitty Hawk and discovered another monument involving flying.

The monument documents all of the significant feats regarding flying, which are many.

I didn't know many of the actual dates, but at least knew of alot of the feats.

But not all of them.  I was amazed at this one.

 

32,000 years?  The year will be 33,972. 

Maybe I should have been paying closer attention to current events in 1972, but his is mind boggling to me.

The next thing we learned was that it wasn't really Kitty Hawk where the first flight occured, but a place 5 miles further south at Kill Devil Hills.

 

 We had never heard of Kill Devil Hills and certainly were interested in the origin of the name.  It dates to the colonial times when shipwrecks were common along the Outer Banks.  Many of these ships were carrying rum from the Caribean and when there was a wreck, the locals tried to salvage the cargo.  Often it was rum, which they would hide in the many sand dunes in the area.  It was said that the rum was strong enough to "kill the devil", so they called the dunes the Kill Devil Hills.

Denise and I both thoroughly enjoyed the visist to the Wright Brothers Monument, which is at the actual location of the first flights.  We watched a very informative 45 minute presentation given by one of the National Parks Service staff.  There are exact replicas of both the glider and the first powered plane that the Wright brothers flew here.  Their story is truly remarkable and the site is much more than just a monument to them.  Each of the first four successful flights, which all occurred on December 17, 1903, are physically documented.

The rock on the left marks the spot where each of the flights started and the rocks in the distance mark the distance and time of each flight.  The first was 120 feet and the last was the longest at 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds.  What is almost equally amazing to me is that the take off of the first flight was actually captured in a picture and this was because the brothers were also interested in photography and asked a local man, who had never even seen a camera before, to "squeeze the bulb" at the right moment.

 The monument itself sits atop a large dune on the site.

It was a long walk, but we made it and Denise took the opportunity to take a break,

and take in the view.

On the other side of the monument is a full scale replica of the first powered plane complete with bronze statues of each of the participants, including even the photographer.

And if you've been following all of my posts, you know what happens when Denise is around bronze statues.

On our drive back to Chesapeake we decided to take a 25 mile detour and go to Elizabeth City, NC.  We had read about it in the Waterway Guide and were interested in seeing it.  Its on the Dismal Swamp route of the ICW and strives to be very boater friendly with several free slips downtown.

We had dinner here and then proceeded up US 17 towards Chesapeake.  The highway runs parallel to the Dismal Swamp ICW route and we found a rest area that gave us a chance to see this historic canal up close.  It is the oldest operating canal in the US, dating to 1763 and George Washington supervised the digging of the first stages.

While it is obviously scenic, we talked to a couple on a sail boat who were tied to the free rest area dock and they said it was not usually the preferred route of power boaters because the entire distance of around 50 miles is a no wake zone.  So I'm glad we didn't go that way, but at least we got to see it.  We still have the rental car tomorrow and more land cruising is planned.