Fond Farewells.

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We just stayed one day in Norfolk as Pat and I had been there with Mat. Its amazing sailing through it though with all the aircraft carriers and helicopters flying overhead. We did visit the Hermitage museum. It was a beautiful house converted into a museum and gardens. The above picture was the dining room and the array of silverware. (I would be terrified to eat there and use the wrong spoon).

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We had a lovely sail across the bay (Dodging freighters and tug boats) to Hampton where we met up with Chuck and Donna of Freedom again. Everywhere seems to be suffering with shortage of staff and we had a waitress who immediately told us she was new, swamped and kept apologizing. The meal was far from perfect but the apologies before anything happened really helped her! There is a fantastic aeronautical museum celebrating the Wright brothers and all the newest airplanes and space rockets. We all loved it and then popped over to the Carousel where we had a ride and the girl was charming giving us the history and waving to us every time we rode past her. Unfortunately the video of this won’t upload.

It was very sad to see Pat Rausch go. Chuck picked him up and took him to the airport.

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Pat and I sailed on to Deltaville where Brian and Paula joined us. There were two boats from the UK. Our neighbor told us that he had started to circumnavigate last year and COVID took over. He had to leave the boat here for 16 months. They told us that a number of boaters from the UK have their boats stuck here but one did say he would rather be stuck here than the Philippines like quite a few others.

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Once we stocked up we sailed over to Onancock. A beautiful town and gorgeous anchorage. We got a taxi to take us to Chincoteague the island which has wild horses that they round up once a year. Unfortunately we didn’t see any wild horses and the beach was packed ( It was a Sunday). We had a lot of fun with our driver though. There are a few good restaurants and with excellent live music.

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On our way to Crisfield I noticed our shaft to the propellor was vibrating and am a bit concerned about this. Unfortuately it seems that ALL the mechanics in Crisfield were backed up with work. One of them told me he can’t get any help. Its strange, Crisfield is a very poor town which was once thriving but they over harvested the crabs and it is said that most of the crabs are imported now. Very sad to see all the closed shops. The marina and everyone we have met are extremely friendly. Pat and I were walking with our bikes and one of the marina guys stopped and asked us if everything was ok because we weren’t riding the bikes. He even offered to give us a lift and we could leave the bikes by the road and he would go back to pick them up!

On our first night we were having difficulty getting a place to eat as it was a Monday so we called a taxi and asked her where she would recommend. She told us to get ready NOW as the American Legion would serve food up to 8pm. (It was 7.35pm) she dashed us there and although we weren’t members and it was now 7.55 they still served us when Brian showed his VET card. Our Taxi Billie Joe was a little crazy. She was going off to drink with her friend so her husband Fred would pick us up to take us back as he didn’t drink cause he wasn’t allowed to! She told us to mention her name and we would get served. When I did mention her name I think it didn’t really go in our favor as the barmaid said “YUP. she is a little crazy” and didn’t seem to fond of her at all.

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We’ve had a storm go by but it was very convenient as I rescrewed to bolts to the shaft and by dinner time the storm had passed and we all went out for blue crab and had a lesson on how to break crab up from the owner.

Brian and Paula have now left to stay in Norfolk for a few days to complete their holiday. It was a real treat having them on the boat and we were sorry to see them go. Now we had up to Solomon Islands tomorrow to make it up to Herrington marina where a mechanic will check the boat.

Photos of the last night and those sky pictures were all at the same time. just differentiations angles.

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