Not the destination vacation spot we expected but for advice
on cruising and one of the best boatyards on the lower Chesapeake we couldn’t
have found a better place to spend time.
For any cruiser the name Dozier is a familiar one. Jack Dozier and his wife not only run the Regatta Marina
in Deltaville but also are the owners and publishers of the Dozier Waterway
Guides, which we use extensively.
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| The Dozier's |
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| Sandy and Dan at Dozier's |
We
arrived on Saturday after an uneventful run from Norfolk. We had called earlier
in the morning to ask Jack for assistance with helping us diagnose and repair,
if necessary, the leaking dripless shaft seal.
Unfortunately, the first we could have anyone look at the seal was
Monday so we decided to make the best of the weekend at Dozier’s. Sunday came with a hosted breakfast, the
proceeds of which go to the Maritime Museum reconstruction fund (the Museum
burned last year). We also used the
marina courtesy car to go “to town” to re-provision, washed and tidied up the
boat and did laundry.
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| Pedro and Dan |
We also contacted old and dear friends, Pedro and Syamy who
live only about an hour from Deltaville in Gloucester, VA. They accepted our invitation to visit us on
the boat and planned on joining us for lunch on Monday. Monday was also the day we met Chuck from
Deltaville Boatyard who arrived early to assess our problem. He delivered the bad news advising we’d have
to have the boat hauled in order to fix our leak. Later that morning Pedro and Syamy arrived
for a delightful reunion. Hearing our
bad news, Pedro invited us back to Gloucester and gave us his Toyota P/U truck
to use for however long we needed it (an exceedingly kind gesture and one that
proved invaluable).
We also ate a late lunch at Bangkok Noi, outstanding Thai food. Using Pedro’s truck we visited thelocal quant and historic communities of Kilmarnock and Urbanna and the shoppingGloucester for needed visits to Wal-Mart and Home Depot .
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Dinner at Bangkok Noi (twice)
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| Sandy and Syamy |
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| Some R Lovin' in the sling |
We were finally hauled out on Wednesday, had the majority of
the work completed on Thursday only to learn that Tropical Storm Andrea was
headed our way. In addition to excellent
work provided by Deltaville Boatyard, the yard manager, Chuck also invited us
to stay “on the hard” to wait out the storm rather than go back into the water
in unsafe conditions. We gladly accepted
even though we were tiring of climbing the ladder to the swim platform and on
up to the boat. Confounding our living
experience, we had only enough power to run essential systems like the refrigerator
and lights and we couldn’t use water onboard as all grey water would have
pumped into the yard below (bad form).
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| Our home "on the hard" |
Making the best of a bad situation, when the weather
cleared, we put another coat of paint on the bottom of the boat and waxed her
from top to bottom. Not light work by
any stretch but good use of spare time.
We also visited the Maritime Museum and ate in nearly every restaurant
available in Deltaville.
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| Hurd's has it all -- REALLY |
The town boasts
a ratio of three boats to every resident so as one would expect, a sizable West
Marine was only a short distance away (which we visited daily and didn’t even
buy anything on at least two occasions).
Hurds True Value was another frequent stop where their motto is “if we
don’t have it, you probably don’t need it. Not your normal True Value whose
motto is incredibly accurate.
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| Owned and operated by friends of Randy and Sue (small world) |
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| Good food, questionable entertainment... |
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| Best grocery store in town (the only grocery store in town) |
We met up with Pedro and Syamy a couple more times during
our Deltaville stay for dinner and to return the truck. On Monday Some R Lovin’ went back into the
water but we had to wait 24 hours before conducting a sea trial on Tuesday, yet
another delay but finally after a successful sea trial, transmission fluid
change, shaft alignment and various final checks we were able to get underway
early Wednesday enroute to Tangier Island.
We had stayed so long in Deltaville, Sandy had to buy a shirt – it was
long enough to be considered a vacation destination J.
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Departing Deltaville under the watchful eye of a nesting Osprey
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