Swimming Lessons

Yes, the title is correct. I decided to go swimming in the water where the boat is docked.

Actually I kind of fell in the water by not paying attention to what I was doing on the dock.

The docks here are small finger piers and are not that long. So I was carrying two packages that I had picked up this morning down in Hampton. I was not paying attention to putting the packages on the boat first, and then in a half a second I was in the water. I was able to keep one package above the water, and the other package was on the finger pier. Fortunately, Joy was on the land and ran over and extended our large fishing net for me to hold onto. I ended up swimming to the back of the boat, holding on the package and the next and climbed up the back ladder. Quite an experience. Joy hurt her ankle but is okay. My shoulders are a little sore.

Major casualty was our camera, but saved today's pictures. Jen had sent me my new phone, battery seems to work, but phone needs to go to a Verizon store to be turned on. Lost a valve that we had bought for the grill on the back rail but that was not that expensive.

The projects on the boat should be finished by Tuesday late afternoon. We have found a couple of other boats heading down to the Bahamas and we plan on sailing with them.

In the afternoon I had gone to Yorktown to visit the National Park site. Joy stayed back to work on her flooring project. She is working the flooring in the cockpit, trying to glue down all the strips of wood that are loose. I was very impressed by the Park Ranger who led my tour. She talked about the siege of Yorktown, how American artillery fired over 15,000 cannon balls into the British position. Eventually the British knew they ad to surrender when their plan to escape by boats down the York River did not work out. The French fleet defeated the British rescue fleet and drove them back to New York City. Yorktown is definitely worth going to.

At night, one of fraternity brothers from the Class of 1970, Reid Ashe, drove down from Richmond and we went out to dinner at this place called the Whitestone Wine and Cheese Shop. It is a small restaurant built around wine and cheese for sale. On Sat night they have a fixed price menu which Reid and Joy choose. They had a scallop/cheese bisque, tomato brescetta, and lasagna rolls for starters. Joy had a chicken dish, Reid had a sausage/pasta dish. Joe with his food allergies had Caesar salad along with fish which was tasty. We got to the boat after 9:30 or so and it was time to hit the bunks.

Joe

ps Pictures today are from Yorktown, the cannon shown is over 230 years old, it was a British cannon that was seized after the British surrendered. The other picture shows the trenches that were dug by both sides to protect their troops from artillery fire.