Friday, April 18, 2014 Still in Portsmouth

statue honoring soldiers

old courthouse on walk

Rita called bright and early this morning.  While at the Kitchen Koop yesterday afternoon, she purchased two stainless coffee mugs...one for her and the other for David.  David didn't want his. So, she wanted to see if I would walk with her to the store to return the mug....as soon as the temps warm up.  Well, that's not going to happen.  The high today is 49 degrees!!  As it turned out, all four of us decided to walk to the corner Coffee Shop for some HOT coffee or tea and a bite to eat.  They have bagels, muffins, scones, and breakfast sandwiches.  It's a neat little place but nice and cozy.  After sitting around passing some time, the guys headed back to the boats and Rita and I continued on to the Koop only to find out that the store only gives even exchanges.  What a bummer.  Two bottles of wine later, we also headed back to our sailboats to get out of this wind!!

in front of bike shop

Chuck was waiting for me to move Happy Hours II over to the North River Basin to pump our holding tank out.  This basin is very similar to the one we're in but it has the free pump out station and a spigot for water. We definitely are going to take advantage of both.  David helped us with our lines and met us over at the dock.  Whoever designed that dock, ought to be shot!  It is so tiny with  little room to maneuver our boat up to the pilings to tie up. Plus, they have one of the public ferries docked close making it even more difficult to squeeze near the dock.  Chuck was very persistent and after a few tries and David's help, we were tied nice and secure.  Dave then headed back to his boat to make sure no one took our spot.  It was much easier to get off the pump out dock and back out into the raging Elizabeth River to our bulkhead.  Yeah we made it back without any problems.

Great!  Chuck just dropped our hose nozzle into the water beside our boat.  Guess what?  It doesn't float!  We set off walking from one end of town to the other looking for a hardware store. There aren't any near by.  We even checked out the Dollar General Store and the Drug Store. Nope!  We did get the chance to check out  all the neat restaurants in town and even found a 'Thumpers'.  It is the same bar and grill that we've eaten at in Elizabeth City, NC.  They have some good food.   When we got back to our boat, Rod the custodian form the condos stopped over to chat.  He's become our 'local' friend.  Before we knew it, he left and came back with a nozzle and gasket for  Chuck.  These Southerners are so ready and willing to help out!

We all decided tonight is going to be pizza night!  But before we can go, Mike the Mechanic is coming to install the new transmission  in sv/Whisper. He was suppose to arrive around noon but then the time kept getting pushed back.  He didn't get to their boat until about 4:00   So we are all crossing our fingers that everything goes smoothly and it takes care of  David's boat problems.  Rita called at 7:00 to say the transmission was completely installed and they were ready for pizza.  We are walking to Segundo's which is about 4 blocks away from our boats.  We are so hungry!!  The pizza was so good but maybe it tasted scrumptious because we were so hungry!   It was also warm in the restaurant so we all enjoyed out night out!!  I so love heat these days!!

It is so easy to see that David and Rita are so relieved about the replacement of the transmission.  They said that when they ran the engine it sounded so much better.  We are all getting anxious to move north, but the weather just doesn't want to cooperate! It actually feels colder today than yesterday.  Tomorrow is suppose to stay the same temps but rain. What's wrong with this picture?  This is the south!  Where's the warm weather????