The first priority for the day was getting groceries. In addition to other things, I was completely out of produce. I didn’t realize how important fruit and veggies were to me until I’ve not had them! There is really no substitute. Canned fruits just don’t cut it. Of course, I would have to go ashore for that, and the closest real grocery store was a Food Lion about a mile and a half away. I planned to walk there from the marina and Uber back. But first, I had to get to the marina.
I also needed to see if the marina would work for what I needed. That meant finding a diver to clean Serendipity’s bottom, seeing if they had slip availability for getting that done, and seeing whether I could dinghy in and use their laundry and shower facilities before bringing the boat over next week. I also needed to see if I could have packages shipped there. If so, I planned to have my friend, Tom, send me his used Starlink system which I was buying off him. I also had a list of things on Amazon that I needed, and a refund check sitting with my mail forwarding service.
Most of the midges had died, but there were still about 20% alive and flying around. I wanted to start cleaning up the boat a bit, but knew it would be wasted time until they were all dead. So, that would be tomorrow’s business (or later).
I topped off the paddleboard with air and set off for the marina with my list of demands and my grocery list. The marina personnel were very nice, gave me the number of a recommended bottom cleaner, and said for $12/day, I could use their facilities. They also said getting a slip later shouldn’t be a problem this time of the year. I could also have packages shipped there. All good news! Marinas up here are so much more helpful than those in Florida, which all act as if they’re doing you a favor for any little thing.
So, I set off on foot for the Food Lion and used the time enroute to set up all the shipping stuff so I’d have a chance to receive it all before departing. After that was done, I decided to take the scenic route, going through the old historic part of Portsmouth. All I can say is wow!
Historic, indeed. Many houses built before the Revolutionary War. So much history here! Portsmouth has the oldest Naval ship building yard in the country, and has been critical to our nation’s navy ship production since nearly the birth of the country. Some really cool houses and neighborhoods.
I knew that I’d have to dig deeper into the history of this place later. But first I needed groceries and today was the day to do it as it was gloomy and drizzly, but forecast to be sunny tomorrow and Saturday. Those would be the days for sightseeing.
I had brought a backpack with me to carry the groceries back on the paddleboard to the boat. But, as has been the case every time I’ve gone shopping with it, my eyes are always bigger than my backpack. I ended up with it stuffed full and four additional plastic grocery bags. And that was ignoring non-critical things on my list to conserve space! I borrowed a kitchen trash can liner from the marina and stuffed the four bags into it and slid that into the bungees on the paddleboard and, while wearing the backpack (which weighed probably 35 lbs), climbed on the paddleboard. This was really not very safe. I was very top heavy, even when kneeling. I reviewed in my head how to get the backpack off quickly if I capsized, and off I set toward the boat, which was a quarter of a mile away. Luckily, the winds weren’t too heavy, so the journey was uneventful, if tiring.
This was not a very good solution. It was one thing to transport just myself back and forth to shore, but with groceries, laundry, packages, etc., it just wasn’t the right venue. I thought of my dinghy stowed on the foredeck, unused for the entire trip so far, and knew I had been very reluctant to launch it. Doing so was a lot of work, took a lot of time, and I always seemed to break something on the boat. And, I was also worried that I would find that it now had a leak or the outboard engine wouldn’t work. I just really didn’t want any bad news.
Yet, I realized that if I weren’t going to deploy it in a place like this–where I was 1/4 mile from the marina with many sites were further than that away across the river in Norfolk, where I was going to have to transport a lot of stuff back and forth, and where I was likely to be for a week–then just when was I going to deploy it. I made up my mind to spend the afternoon biting the bullet and putting it in the water.
I took my time, but still, sure enough, while trying to maneuver this unwieldy, heavy dinghy in the winds off my foredeck, I broke my foredeck hatch. Well, that hatch’s latches. Fairly easy to repair, but the way that the dinghy’s transom sits, it will happen again if I don’t come up with a solution. Other than that, though, even taking my time, it only took about 2.5 hours to get it inflated, in the water, and the engine and gas tank installed. Not too bad, really. I am also confident that with practice and figuring out a process, I will probably be able to reduce that to an hour. Securing it will likely take longer, but just like everything else on the boat, the more I do it, the easier it will get.
And boy, is it nice having a dinghy with an outboard! So fun to scoot around the harbor at 15 knots! Getting back and forth to the marina takes about five minutes from boat to dock. I also explored some bays and harbors over on the Norfolk side. And, it definitely made my laundry toting much easier then it ever would be on a paddle board. It seems to be the last piece of my cruising lifestyle to come into play, and I can see that it will be a game changer, opening up a lot more possibilities when at anchor.
I had promised myself when deciding to finally to the trouble of launching the dinghy, that if I got it all done successfully, I would reward myself with one of my favorite beers, which I had discovered a biergarten downtown had on tap! So, after getting it all put together, I motored to the marina, took a shower, and walked to one of the better German restaurants I’ve experienced in the U.S. The Aventinus Bock bier was awesome (the first time I’d ever had it on tap), and the goulash soup wasn’t bad, either. I also got to try out my new, solar-powered, Mantus running light which I had installed on the dinghy. As I motored out of the marina in the dark, through the anchorage to my boat, I felt like a true cruiser at last!
