Saturday, October 10, 2009

Waiting to enter the ditch (ICW)

Spent last couple of nights in Willoughby Bay awaiting an entrance into a marina for the weekend. Ryan has some family in VA Beach that plan on stopping by.

Willloughby Bay was rough. Tried to train dogs to go onboard and they looked at us as if we were nuts then stoically held it for 24 hours. We decided to forgo this training. We can't stand their suffering and will do everything in our power to either anchor or dock so they can go onshore. It's only fair. Little did they know this wasn't simply another week-long vacation.

As we turned to port entering Waterside Marina in Norfolk after spending a harrowing morning (well deep inside adrenaline pumping) dodging naval warships and freighters, Ryan calmly informed me, "No forward. Prepare lines for emergency docking." Luckily, I too remained calmed and quickly moved all port lines to starboard side of boat just in time for a dock landing.

No damage to Prudence. Transmission key is loose but didn't shear off this time. The mechanic in Annapolis who originally fixed it said that it may be best to haul it b/c now that all is in alignment, the problem may actually be the shaft or cutlass bearing.

Got towed across the channel to TideWater Marina and will find out Monday if a mechanic can make the repair while the boat is in the water. If not, we will haul her out and go to a hotel.

TideWater Marina is nice. Historic Portsmouth homes are beautiful. We can also take the ferry to Norfolk with the dogs. So, this may just turn out to be a nice diversion before entering the ditch.