Stuck in Portsmouth

First posted on December 12, 2022.

In one day we made it South to Portsmouth Virginia. Motored the whole way with occasional help from the sails. Portsmouth has a nice free docking wall for folks boating up and down the ICW, so we stayed the allotted two nights. It was a chilly sail, but the weather ahead looks worse. So we checked into Tidewater Marina for several nights. 2 days of rain from stratus clouds, followed by seriously strong winds then 3 days of bitter cold. Nice to be tied up securely and plugged into shore power for a little space heater. The rains weren't bad but winds were sustained at 30 to 40 mph with gusts to 50 according to Athena's wind gauge. Whitecaps everywhere and occasional spume spraying off the tops. Then cold! 11 F the first night, 17 second. Daytime highs below freezing. Condensation forms on the hatches and windows at night, then drips down as the cabin warms up. But our diesel heater in the aft cabin and electric heater in the salon keeps us toasty. Occasionally we also fire up our tiny wood stove. We are still on the learning curve there, as every time the glass gets all smoked up.

The other challenge is to keep boredom at bay. We each have computer projects to do and some reading. We've taken walks around town for exercise. There is a really cool restored movie theater in town, the Commodore. Instead of regular seating they have tables with a phone on each where you can call the kitchen and order dinner. We watched Avatar 2.

South of here are several bridges that need to open plus one lock we hear reports that one of the railroad bridges is currently stuck in the down position. They'll be no traffic until they fix it. And it's Christmas weekend. We're stuck for an additional day before we can resume sailing south.