MADDELYN ROSE
Norfolk - VA;
We finally finished in Thailand and arrived in Norfolk on the 29th July 2013, we
had planned to get a friend Gary to help with some minor repairs to the exterior woodwork
but AYB would not allow Gary on site and AYB quoted us $40,000 to do the repairs, this was a total rip off so we arranged to move out of AYB and moved to Tidewater Marina in
Portsmouth, Sparky and Gary came with us on the trip so was non stop fun
and laughing with Sparky giving his usual annacdotes on everything we seen or passed , Portsmouth is only a 5 minute ferry ride across the Elizabeth river to down town Norfolk, at least at Tidewater the staff and owner were very friendly and helpful.
At Tidewater Gary started the repairs, Bill re checked all the wiring, installed a
second bank of engine batteries ( a mission as each battery weighed 40 kg, sheeez they were heavy ), changed oil and filters in all engines, sanded and re chalked the teak decks ( took a week of hanging onto a belt sander, Bills back and knees will never be the same again ) , replaced the fridge / freezer, replaced the carpet as old carpet was worn, replaced the aft deck screen with clear view, plus many other small odd jobs to many to mention.
In between getting Bills beer, cooking, washing and tidying the boat ( in that order )
Rose sanded and re varnished all the teak hand rails, followed Bill around with
the vaccum cleaner while he was sanding the decks, oiled the decks, cleaned up after Bill and Gary and reorganized all our bits and pieces making Maddelyn Rose our home.
Our 2 crates of stuff ( 350 kg in total ) we sent from Thailand arrived all intact although a couple of weeks late, only took us 2 days to unpack and find spaces, the 2 electric scooters we brought in Thailand were the talk of the marina with us both scootering around having a ton of fun and looking like idiots, but who cared.
Portsmouth is a nice clean city with everything we needed close by and in walking distance, we tried several local restaurants that were ok but nothing special, our favorite was the little restaurant at the marina where we could have dinner and look at Maddelyn Rose berthed 100 feet away, the owner was Filipino so Rose got the chance to have chats in her own language.
Portsmouth also has many floating docks that the US Navy use so there was plenty of Naval vessels coming and going, the view from the marina was spectacular at times with sun rises and river traffic.
We went across to Norfolk a few times on the ferry, $3.00 each return to Mac Arthur shopping center mainly to recharge the WiFi and have a look around, ( Rose's most popular place's were the shoe and bag shops )
We also meet up with some of the local boaties that were friendly and had a few drinks with them, but they found it hard to fathom that we were driving Maddelyn Rose back to NZ.
On the 30th Sep we tried to haul out at the marina but the travel lift operators really stuffed up by not having the slings placed correctly and did damage to the foreward rub rail, Bill was not a happy person to say the least, but what really pissed him of was that the
travel lift operator did not offer to help with the repair or even talk to him about it, we would not recommend to use the travel lift at Tidewater Marina.
We did a quick 2 day trip to Cancun Mexico for Bill's visa renewal, flights delayed and re outed, but lovely hot weather and totally touristy and expensive so only walked about 5 mile along beach ( and back !!!!!! ) and lazed around eating and having a few drinks, ( only a few, true ).
While waiting for the weather to clear we finally lifted out on the 15th October at Portsmouth boating center, the lift was handled very professionally and went without any issues or damage, the owner Mike and his staff were helpful and friendly, certainly a big difference from our previous experience. After anti fouling, replacing anodes, installing a new transducer for depth sounder and did a minor repair on starboard stabilizer. Rose polished the stainless on the anchor plates by standing on wonky ladder, Bill replaced gland packing in prop shaft seals and cleaned toilet pipes ( yukky yuk ) we went back in water on the 17th. Anyone needing to haul out we would recommend Portsmouth Boating Center, phone 757-397-2092 < www.portsmouthboating.net >
We spend a day doing the tour and sightsee of a couple of the local attractions, first we went to the General Mc Aurther memorial which was really interesting especially to Rose with the Philippine connection ( I shall return ) we were not aware of the full career of Mc Aurther, once we started to read about him it became more and more interesting.
Another stop was the Battle Ship "USS Wisconcin", which served in all the US campaigns since and including WW2 and is now moored in Norfolk as a permanent exhibit, all we will say is sheet it is huge bugger and will let the photos explain.
All and all we enjoyed our time in Norfolk, we met some nice genuine people, had a couple of really good times having drinks ( a bit too many drinks at times ) but it will be good to get away and start our trip.
Now go to ICW,
We finally finished in Thailand and arrived in Norfolk on the 29th July 2013, we
had planned to get a friend Gary to help with some minor repairs to the exterior woodwork
but AYB would not allow Gary on site and AYB quoted us $40,000 to do the repairs, this was a total rip off so we arranged to move out of AYB and moved to Tidewater Marina in
Portsmouth, Sparky and Gary came with us on the trip so was non stop fun
and laughing with Sparky giving his usual annacdotes on everything we seen or passed , Portsmouth is only a 5 minute ferry ride across the Elizabeth river to down town Norfolk, at least at Tidewater the staff and owner were very friendly and helpful.
At Tidewater Gary started the repairs, Bill re checked all the wiring, installed a
second bank of engine batteries ( a mission as each battery weighed 40 kg, sheeez they were heavy ), changed oil and filters in all engines, sanded and re chalked the teak decks ( took a week of hanging onto a belt sander, Bills back and knees will never be the same again ) , replaced the fridge / freezer, replaced the carpet as old carpet was worn, replaced the aft deck screen with clear view, plus many other small odd jobs to many to mention.
In between getting Bills beer, cooking, washing and tidying the boat ( in that order )
Rose sanded and re varnished all the teak hand rails, followed Bill around with
the vaccum cleaner while he was sanding the decks, oiled the decks, cleaned up after Bill and Gary and reorganized all our bits and pieces making Maddelyn Rose our home.
Our 2 crates of stuff ( 350 kg in total ) we sent from Thailand arrived all intact although a couple of weeks late, only took us 2 days to unpack and find spaces, the 2 electric scooters we brought in Thailand were the talk of the marina with us both scootering around having a ton of fun and looking like idiots, but who cared.
Portsmouth is a nice clean city with everything we needed close by and in walking distance, we tried several local restaurants that were ok but nothing special, our favorite was the little restaurant at the marina where we could have dinner and look at Maddelyn Rose berthed 100 feet away, the owner was Filipino so Rose got the chance to have chats in her own language.
Portsmouth also has many floating docks that the US Navy use so there was plenty of Naval vessels coming and going, the view from the marina was spectacular at times with sun rises and river traffic.
We went across to Norfolk a few times on the ferry, $3.00 each return to Mac Arthur shopping center mainly to recharge the WiFi and have a look around, ( Rose's most popular place's were the shoe and bag shops )
We also meet up with some of the local boaties that were friendly and had a few drinks with them, but they found it hard to fathom that we were driving Maddelyn Rose back to NZ.
On the 30th Sep we tried to haul out at the marina but the travel lift operators really stuffed up by not having the slings placed correctly and did damage to the foreward rub rail, Bill was not a happy person to say the least, but what really pissed him of was that the
travel lift operator did not offer to help with the repair or even talk to him about it, we would not recommend to use the travel lift at Tidewater Marina.
We did a quick 2 day trip to Cancun Mexico for Bill's visa renewal, flights delayed and re outed, but lovely hot weather and totally touristy and expensive so only walked about 5 mile along beach ( and back !!!!!! ) and lazed around eating and having a few drinks, ( only a few, true ).
While waiting for the weather to clear we finally lifted out on the 15th October at Portsmouth boating center, the lift was handled very professionally and went without any issues or damage, the owner Mike and his staff were helpful and friendly, certainly a big difference from our previous experience. After anti fouling, replacing anodes, installing a new transducer for depth sounder and did a minor repair on starboard stabilizer. Rose polished the stainless on the anchor plates by standing on wonky ladder, Bill replaced gland packing in prop shaft seals and cleaned toilet pipes ( yukky yuk ) we went back in water on the 17th. Anyone needing to haul out we would recommend Portsmouth Boating Center, phone 757-397-2092 < www.portsmouthboating.net >
We spend a day doing the tour and sightsee of a couple of the local attractions, first we went to the General Mc Aurther memorial which was really interesting especially to Rose with the Philippine connection ( I shall return ) we were not aware of the full career of Mc Aurther, once we started to read about him it became more and more interesting.
Another stop was the Battle Ship "USS Wisconcin", which served in all the US campaigns since and including WW2 and is now moored in Norfolk as a permanent exhibit, all we will say is sheet it is huge bugger and will let the photos explain.
All and all we enjoyed our time in Norfolk, we met some nice genuine people, had a couple of really good times having drinks ( a bit too many drinks at times ) but it will be good to get away and start our trip.
Now go to ICW,
