Rendezvous

**   Norfolk, VA   **

Time flies when you have lots to do and so many loopers near.

Waterside Marina

As we pulled into Waterside Marina, a cute, young, blonde greeted us with a big smile and asked if he could help tie us up and daisy chain our lines (we know what you old guys were hoping to see!). Reed was our next door neighbor for the nine days we would spend in Norfolk, and we would become fast friends with his whole family looping aboard Live the Dash.

Reed, our dock hand

Arriving several days before the rendezvous allowed us to do general maintenance, lots of cleaning, and enjoy Norfolk a second time around. We watched boats come and go the first few days and by the weekend Waterside Marina, in the heart of downtown, was hoppin’ with looper boats wedged in with precision throughout the marina. Many more looper boats gathered across the Elizabeth River at two additional marinas for the overflow.

Norfolk

While the captain tended to cleaning the grime off the outside of the boat, the first mate visited the Chrysler Museum of Art. The sacrifices our captain makes. The museum touts fifty galleries and a collection of more than 30,000 objects. Founded in 1933, the museum changed significantly in 1971 when Walter Chrysler (son of Chrysler Corporation founder) donated most of his extensive collection (more than 10,000 pieces) to the museum. Tasha enjoyed her morning strolling the galleries, taking in a tour that included odd tidbits on the works of art, and a demonstration in the glass studio, all for free. An enjoyable walk from the marina through the bustling streets of Norfolk and waterside district.

Chrysler Museum of Art while the captain cleans

Indiscretion, a large vessel of 118’ docked behind us for the week. Unconfirmed reports that it might belong to Howard Stern, had us keeping an eye out and watching the five crew team all week. Also used as a charter boat, the boat came in without guests, and departed without guests. Seems like it was a layover and the crew caught up on cleaning too.

Indescretion docked behind Now or Never

Intrigued by a Hell’s Kitchen sign, we popped in for lunch, finding a rustic, friendly, fresh ingredient kitchen. Don’t let the logo fool you like it did us, this Hell’s Kitchen was here long before Chef Ramsey’s. We didn’t quite get the skinny on the similar logos, but it was clear they wanted no association and have been cookin’ up wonders in Norfolk for over twenty years.

Hell’s Kitchen

David was amused by their tappers and associated photos on top of them including images of Jesus, Elvis, Michael Jackson and even Snoop Dog. And then to include an Alcoholics Anonymous handbook to boot. But the good news was when we were given the check and discovered that David’s pint of PBR was only a buck! The quotes on the wall drew our attention too.

We revisited the Battleship Wisconsin learning the battleship had a serious collision with the USS Easton on a foggy afternoon just north of Norfolk in 1956. Heavily damaged but still afloat, they returned to Norfolk for repairs. To speed repairs and to be able to quickly return the Wisconsin to service the mangled Wisconsin bow was replaced with the bow removed from the unfinished USS Kentucky. The work was done in a record 16 days by fitting the 120 ton, sixty eight foot bow section of the Kentucky to the Wisconsin. Above the anchor wells, the bull nose is original to the Wisconsin while a sixty eight foot section from the bulbous bow back aft is from the Kentucky.

USS Wisconin affectionatley known as WisKy

Crewmembers of the battleship Wisconsin lovingly refered to the ship as the “Wisky”. This intel goes back to when it was commissioned in the spring of 1944 and the nickname was used by sailors in World War II, the Korean War, throughout the Cold War, and during the Persian Gulf War. After Wisconsin was fitted with the Kentucky bow, however, one sea tale suggests that the nickname refers to the WIS in Wisconsin and the KY in Kentucky, resulting in WisKy.

Our dock was easily entertained by a cruise ship one afternoon making a spectacular turn around in the Elizabeth River beside the marina. As everyone was standing on the dock, here she came up the Elizabeth River which isn’t much wider than the ship was long. Right in front of our marina and the dock we were on at the time, the cruise ship spun 180 degrees to exit the river from which she arrived. Rumor had it that Norfolk was a backup port to Baltimore which she was supposed to go to, but since the bridge destruction, can’t.

Monster Cruise Ship – our photos from the dock

The precision of the turn, gracefully skirting the marinas on each side of the river while the cruise ships guests and marina guests stared with mouths wide open. It was big, rather a huge vessel, and our pictures show it. It wasn’t until we viewed pictures that our friend Tsali took from his hotel room above the marina that we saw just how big it was – UNBELIEVEABLE! 

Our friends photos from the the hotel, Now or Never on the far right, us standing in the middle of the dock

Waterside was the host marina for our AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association) spring rendezvous that we have been cruising up the East Coast to get to. Can you spell rendezvous? Took some practice to spell it without having to resort to help from Siri.

A group of 350 loopers and wanna be loopers met for a 4 day rendezvous full of camaraderie, education, and mostly fun. Sixty+ boats were in the area at three marinas for this event. This was our crew’s first attendance at the spring gathering, but fifth looper rendezvous overall. Our last attendance was October of 2021. Most of those from 2021 have completed their loop but we found one boat and crew that were at Joe Wheeler in fall of 2021 with us. Many new friends, and valuable information on the waters we would be transiting north to the great lakes and eventually through Chicago and down the inland river system before we cross our wake and complete our loop.

America’s Great Loopers Cruisers Association Spring Rendezvous

We soaked in the route information sessions. Once we hit the top of the Chesapeake Bay, it will be all uncharted territory for us. The gathering and cruising notes made us more excited to transit through New York City and up the Hudson River to the Erie Canal, across Lake Ontario, onto the Trent Severn Waterway to Georgian Bay and the North Channel. We have so many fond memories of Georgian Bay and the North Channel with Tasha’s Dad Kurt, but getting there from here, all new, lots of excitement, and a little trepidation, maybe more than a little.

We will first have to deal with lots of weather on the Chesapeake, ride the current to Delaware City on the C&D canal, get a good weather day for to head down Delaware Bay, and then several good days to skirt up the outside (the exposed Ocean) of New Jersey, into New York Harbor, the shipping channels, and one of the busiest harbors in the world. Whew!, sounds like we need a lot of good weather and prayers to the man above before we hit the Hudson River and can relax just a bit.

We opened Now or Never one evening for looper crawls. This is a part of the rendezvous where boat owners invite other loopers, usually those planning, to view their boat. An open house of sorts. It is a very helpful event when in the throes of looking for a boat to loop in or one just wanting to see other style of boats. We cleaned like mad to get ready and easily had 80 people view our boat during the two hour crawl.

We crawled on a few boats ourselves, always keeping an eye out for the next Mann Aboard adventure.

We met up with homeport friend Dustin, who is a sponsor of the Great Loop Cruiser’s Association and was there marketing his boat dealership, Bourbon City Yacht Tenders. A gold looper himself, it was the third time we have seen him on our travels. Always good to spend time with someone that shares our Ohio River roots. We enjoyed docktails with Dustin and others each evening during rendezvous.

Bourbon City Yacht Tenders

Scary excitement on the docks one evening late. Tasha had already retired for the evening and Dave was sitting on the aft deck when a woman was hollering from the dock behind our boat and reporting that one of the boats was sinking in the marina. Being past “looper midnight” (9PM) there weren’t many people up and about. Dave leaped into first responder mode and went to assist with a couple others from the dock.

Upon arriving it was discovered that a looper boat was not only taking on water but also had a fire under decks near the stern of the boat. The boat’s stern thruster had been damaged and was letting the salty water fill the compartment and allowing the electrical current to arc inside the electric thruster motor. Rags stuffed in the hull slowed the water and fire extinguishers were used to control the fire until the fire department arrived and took over. They used large bolt cutters to cut the power cables which stopped the fire from reigniting. Tasha, unaware to any action on the dock, slept through until morning. Heading to our meetings in the morning, the boat was not at the slip. We hope they were towed to a boat yard to be pulled and fixed as we never heard any more about the incident.

It seemed like we just arrived, and it was time to go. Off to some familiar stops and many new as we make our way north. Norfolk is where we say goodbye to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and more disheartenly our Bob423 tracks. The captain will need to be on his a-game as he charts our northernly track from here on out.

Live the Dash crew

Spending our nine days with Reed’s family which included, big sister Lauren, Mom Emily, Dad Jordan, as well as doodle Sherman, we decided to buddy boat (cruise together) with Live the Dash as we navigate Chesapeake Bay. Watching the weather on our last day in Norfolk, we planned an early morning departure to Deltaville trying to beat a front coming in and bringing wind and rain. Hopefully, it’ll be a good day at sea.

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Cheers!  David, Tasha,  

                  & Remy forever in our hearts!