July 14-20

Nora & I

Ports:  Norfolk, Hampton, Tides Inn Marina, Machodoc Creek, Washington 

This was our first time on the boat since the Bahamas, Capt Luke brought the boat to Norfolk from Ft. Lauderdale.  It was a somewhat problematic trip.  After having the boat hauled in Ft. Lauderdale and the props overhauled, the port engine overheated and damaged the exhaust pipes requiring several days to repair at a yard near Charleston. 

The cruise to Washington began from Norfolk with Nora and I and Captain Bernie Davids on board.  We had dinner the night before departing at the marina restaurant, which was quite good. 

We departed Tidewater Marine and made the short run to Hampton where we stayed at Bluewater Yachting Center.  The dockmaster there was Sean ?, who was the dockmaster at the Hampton City Dock when we were there in 1998 and he remembered the infamous anchor dragging incident.  Great guy, very hospitable.  We visited the maritime museum again, however the downtown area of Hampton was not as picturesque as I had remembered, nor was the Hampton City Dock.  Bluewater is definitely the place to stay for future visits.  

The second night we stayed at Tides Inn Resort http://www.tidesinn.com/ near the mouth of the Potomac.  Nice place and good food.  We were at a dock on the other side of the cove from the resort, but they offer a free water taxi which operates till 11 PM.  Lost the aft cockpit cushion in a thunderstorm in the afternoon - 40 knot winds and heavy rain.  Fortunately Marlow had saved the original cushions and was able to UPS one to me in DC.

Continuing up the Potomac, we anchored the next night in Lower Machodoc Creek.  Another thunderstorm in the afternoon after we were at anchor.

We decided to run on in to DC the next day, arriving at Gangplank  Marina http://www.gangplank.com/ at 4 PM.  The marina is very well located in downtown Washington, only 15 minutes from Reagan Airport, but is not exactly a classy facility.  We docked next to the Sequoia, the former presidential yacht, with the Washington Monument and Capitol clearly visible from the boat.  The other interesting feature of the marina is that they had a popular waterfront bar and restaurant at the foot of the gangplank.  This actually turned out to be somewhat of an advantage as they had pretty good food and the noise didn't bother us inside the boat. Soot from the planes departing nearby Reagan National is a definite problem in this marina.

We left the boat here for a couple of days, returning to Kansas City before flying to Dallas where we met our granddaughter Morgan and returned for a week of sightseeing in Washington.