We decided to spend two days in Hampton VA at the public marina. We had a coupon for one free night that we picked up at last year’s boat show and the fees are reasonable for the 2nd night. We also needed wifi for me to do some work on my Dad’s estate and we had a list of things we needed to buy, not the least of which was fresh provisions (a fancy sailing word for groceries if you haven’t figured that out by now. It’s the first time either of us has been in Hampton and we were ready for a rest day and a little exploring. We treated ourselves to a nice dinner (MB’s first of what she hopes will be many Chesapeake crab cakes!) after we pulled in a got settled in the marina, and it was nice to sit and get waited on.
Boaters Garden at marina. Anyone staying here can take whatever they like. Just lettuces available right now, but so nice to have this available.
There was also a T-Mobile store within walking distance so we went there to try and get my (David) phone fixed. It turned out that the phone could no longer read Sim cards, so I now have a new phone. It was the most positive cell phone store experience either of us have ever had! Both of the employees working there last night went way out of their way to help us and another customer who were both having problems with our phones. The other customer didn’t even have T-Mobile and the employee called her provider, asked very good questions, and was very persistent about getting to the bottom of the problems she was having. We want to bring them home with us!
Today we did some cleaning/tidying/baking and I was able to get some work done on my Dad’s estate since the wifi actually works well here. We also went to the air and space museum and watched an Imax 3D movie set in the Amazon rainforest. We were a little disappointed in the exhibits in the museum, but the movie about Henry Bates’ work studying Amazonian insects and other animals was very good. While his efforts started before Darwin’s work was published, his findings lent strong support to Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Banana Coconut muffins MB baked this morning (recipe courtesy daughter Erin)
We opted to stretch our legs and walk the 1 ½ miles each way to the nearest grocery and were able to see a bit of Hampton and discovered some delightful neighborhoods with” victorianish” architecture and well-kept homes. As a bonus, midway into our walk back to the boat laden with bags and packs of food we came upon an ice cream truck so of course we got ice cream and sat on the curb to enjoy it. We believe in sampling ice cream at all ports of call!
Tomorrow we’re back on the water wending our way north.
A few more pictures from our trip up the ICW:
Workmen picking up crabs from crab lines. Lots of crab pots we had to dodge so we wouldn't get them tangled in our prop.
There are lots of bridges on the ICW. This one rotated to open, but some have the whole center span lift up, some pivot from one end. Some bridges only open on the half hour or hour and others open upon request, but you need to radio the bridge tender at each one and request it be opened so you can pass through. Timing the openings can be a bit tricky, but we were very lucky on the trip up and didn't have to wait anywhere.
This guy kept us company at our last anchorage on the ICW. It was not a great anchorage, we were really just pulled to the side of the channel and there were lots of tree stumps sticking out of the water which we worried about hitting. We kept bright lights on and our AIS transmitting so boats transiting at night wouldn't run into us. Not a very relaxing night.
