We got up early this morning (about 0800, that’s retired-people-early) and got ready to go, and drove 2.5 hours north of Norfolk to a marina that Kurt Seastead sent up too. Kurt is a good friend whom we made after he invited us to the Transworld 41 Facebook Page.
He recommended this marina for a lot of reasons, but mostly because he’d kept a boat there, it’s close to his “family vacation home” in the area and it will handle our keel and mast height.
The marina was a long damned drive from here in Norfolk. Two and a half hours by car. One hundred twenty-one miles by car. It’s about an eighteen hour sail, but I’ve not measure it on the charts yet… something for me to do tomorrow.
Anyway, they had nice bathrooms, a pool, they have camping and cabins. The owner and I have a LOT in common. He and I are both ex-Air Force. He and I both worked for the Missile Defense Agency. Two of the guys he introduced me to are former Navy Chiefs, guys for whom I have a lot of respect anyway. So all of us are former military. All of us are sailors to boot. How cool is that?
The marina is half the cost of the place we’re currently located.
So…. JoAnne and I have to work out the details. We have to get a car, bicycle and a boat up there for the summer. So, likely we will rent a car in the area where the new marina is located, take it and our car and my bike over there, then drop them, drive back to Norfolk…. turn in the rental, have them drop us at our old marina, and then drive the boat up.
We will take between 3-5 days to move the boat in the day time. JoAnne’s back still isn’t up to doing night shifts, and sleeping two or three hours between shifts. Thought, God knows, that lady can sleep if there’s a nuclear war going on around here, and I CAN NOT. Which is the problem. I’d rather stay awake and do the job and sleep when the zombies are dead than try to sleep when bombs and shot guns are going off around me.
I haven’t been right since certain incidents have happened to me. Long ago, I could sleep anywhere, standing up. Now, I can’t sleep if a cat sneezes six blocks away. Oh well.
What remains is setting a date that includes decent sailing weather for sailing northward up the Chesapeake Bay and into the Potomac River. Probably some time next week.