Around and About D.C.

Yeah!! It’s Tuesday morning! I’m up, outside and on my way to pick up a car from Enterprise Car Rental on “D” Street in Washington, DC. In 15 Minutes (it’s only 7/10ths of a mile from the marina) I’m at the Enterprise counter where an incredibly efficient staff has me in my car and on the road in another twenty minutes. In less than an hour, I’m back on the boat with Kim and Schooner and we’re ready to tour the outlying areas of D.C. and all of its special attractions and points of interest.

First on the list of places to visit is a local propane dealer. We ran out of gas in both of our tanks and, unless we get them filled, cannot cook anything on the boat. We had to go to Maryland because D.C. law prohibits propane tank filling within the city limits (Blue Rhino service ONLY!) A nearby U-haul store solves the problem and it’s back to the boat, drop off both FILLED propane tanks and then hit the road again.

Next stop is Alexandria, VA, on the western bank of the Potomac. Alexandria, which has played a prominent part in American history since its founding in 1685, is now a quaint town filled with small shops and bistros. It’s a great place to just walk around, see the sights and talk with the local people.

From Alexandria, we went to the Pentagon to see the 9/11 Memorial. It’s quite impressive and the local security staff is helpful in explaining the significance of the Memorial’s layout. You can take pictures of the Memorial, but don’t photograph the Pentagon building. Apparently, the government doesn’t want anyone to know we have a building there!

Last stop for the day was the National Marine Corps Memorial, dedicated to all of the United States Marines who have died in the defense of our country since 1775. This is only the second time we’ve been here and it still makes me speechless. A list of conflicts in which the Marines have served encircles its base. The list has gotten a lot longer since when I served in Vietnam.

From the USMC Memorial, we headed for the new World War II Memorial, which is located on the Mall, between the Lincoln and Washington Memorials. The best time to see this memorial is from dusk into nighttime. The fountains and marble courtyard are beautiful in the glow of the recessed and underwater lighting. It’s a fitting tribute to those who gave so much of themselves for all of us.

Tuesday, we struck out for parts south. Arlington National Cemetery, to visit the grave of a friend of Kim’s and her family, was first. Next was the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico. The finest compliment I can pay to this facility is, whoever designed and built the museum “reflected great credit upon themselves and upheld the highest tradition of the Marine Corps of the United States Navy Service.”

Wednesday was spent with Vern and Judy, old family friends from our Ohio days. They took us to see the Capitol Building, Union Station, the C & O Canal and Georgetown. What a tour!! Going out with Vern and Judy gave us an opportunity to see things that only a local person would know. We had a great day and lots of fun.

The next three days were spent walking the streets of D.C. We visited the Holocaust Museum, every available part of the Smithsonian, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, the Korean War Memorial, The Wall, and the White House. And, speaking of the White House, through dumb luck, we were able to wangle invitations to the Annual Fall showing of the White House Gardens. Done once a year, by invitation only, guests are free to wander the south gardens (under the ever watchful eye of the Secret Service) and take close up pictures of the building and grounds. It was a real treat!!

With our time in D.C. at and end, we settled in on the boat and made ready to leave Sunday Morning. Hopefully, the trip down river will take less time than the trip up. At least we’ll be able to rest our weary feet for a day or two.

On to Washington D.C.

The alarm clock (I Hate Alarm Clocks!) went off at 4:00 AM and jolted me out of a really sound sleep. It’s dark outside and really cold; well, 54° feels really cold after it being 78° the day before. I checked the depth of the water under us and found out we now had 18” to spare. After being buried for the entire night in a foot or so of Potomac River mud, that extra 18” of water looked a mile deep. I woke Kim and, half an hour later, we had the boat ready to cast off from Captain Billy’s Crab House. Once free of the dock, the water depth quickly changed in our favor. After moving only 20’ or so from the dock, the depth quickly changed from 6-1/2’ to 10’, to 14’, to 20’ and finally, 30’ or more in the main channel of the river. We were finally free and back on track towards D.C.

My most favorite time to be on the water is during those two or three hours before dawn. As Kim said earlier, she had gone back to bed and at that hour, most everything else living has finally gone to sleep. It’s so quiet that you can hear a person cough or a car door slam miles away across the water. There was also a full moon the entire night, so this morning, I was treated to the moon setting around 5:45 AM. In a cloudless sky, it was as pretty a sight as any sunset I’ve ever seen. Then, half an hour later, the first light of day crept across the horizon and at 7:15 AM, I was treated to a gorgeous sunrise. Now if only the sun would warm up the darn cockpit of the boat and me along with it!!

With daylight finally here, the Potomac became more and more interesting. North of US Highway 301 and the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge, the banks became littered with enormous homes (5000 to 6500 sq. ft. in size) that, not unlike feudal castles, dominated their piece of the shoreline. Unlike their southern counterparts, which are built on top of one another, these homes sit on immaculately manicured lots that are a minimum of three or four acres in size and surrounded by acres of hardwood forest, adding further to their castle like appearance.

As we got closer to Washington, names of places along the Potomac River began to sound like my 6th grade American History class. Quantico, Ft. Belvoir, Ft. Hunt, Ft. Foote, Ft. Washington, Mt. Vernon and Alexandria, VA were but a few of the places that lined our route to D.C. Actually seeing these historical places finally gave some clarity as to why they were so important (most of then strategically important) to our nation’s beginning. Also, most could be seen from the waterway, so, of course, we took lots of pictures as we sailed by.

Finally, near 3:00 PM, we had the Capital City in sight on the other side of the new Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge. This new drawbridge, opened to unrestricted traffic just this year, now boasts a minimum, vertical, closed clearance of 70’ (it’s old clearance was only 55’) and makes the entrance into Washington, D.C. a piece of cake for high masted boats like ours. Thirty minutes later, we pulled into the Gangplank Marina, with two VH-60N White Hawk, Presidential helicopters flying overhead as escort. We then made our way to the slip that would be our home for the next week. After checking in with the dock master, Kim and I collected lots of tourist info and brochures. Returning to the boat, we kicked back, relaxed and began planning our adventures for the next few days.

Up the Potomac

It’s Sunday evening and we have stopped for the night at Popes Creek, Maryland. We are tied to a dock that hasn’t been used by any boaters in a while. (You can tell by the amount of bird doo covering the dock.) It is here for the sole purpose of being a place to come in off the Potomac River, after a day of boating, and tie up for a great meal at Capt’ Billy’s Crab House and Restaurant. Which is exactly what we did!!!

We were the only boat to pull in at the dock. Even though the books said we had plenty of water under us, we found it to be pretty slim in some spots of the channel. It is still early, 4:30, and after walking Schooner around the parking lot we went in to eat. Miss Dottie greeted us at the door, took us to our table, over looking our boat, and made some recommendations for dinner. We both opted for the sautéed scallops, homemade potato salad, and coleslaw. At Capt' Billy's, they are famous for their crabs, (and they looked great) but we didn’t feel like fussin' and fighting with our food!! Everyone around us was talking about the “big” boat at the dock as if they had never seen one there…we later found out why!!

Miss Dottie extended the invitation to stay the night there at the dock, (NO power or water but easy access to land) so we went back to the boat for the night. Gordon just happened to check the water depth and of course we were on the bottom…so stuck you couldn’t move the rudder!!! We couldn’t have moved if we had wanted to!!! After checking the tides, Gordon informed me we would be leaving at 4:30 and that’s AM!

Most of you know I am a night person and surely don’t like getting out of bed early especially if it’s cold! Well, I did help get us under way, but did go back to bed. When I went topside about 8:00am Gordon was in his jeans, Rugby shirt, jacket and hat! You would have thought it was the middle of winter the way he was complaining!! It did warm up rather quickly once the sun came up and ended up being a great day on the water at 70° or something close, and we're now on our way to DC.

Solomans Island, Maryland

It’s Saturday morning and we are leaving Baltimore. It’s chilly out here on the water but really pretty. The leaves are just starting to change and there is some fog along the shoreline where creeks meet the bay. It is a pretty boring ride so far, not much to look at except for the occasional crab trap, seagull or boat to pass. Trying to type this is also difficult, because of the glare and who knows when we will actually get Internet good enough to publish it.

We are headed to Washington DC, but that is at least 2 days away. So our first stop for tonight will be Solomans Island. Solomans Island is located at the tip of Maryland, and isn’t really an island!!! We should arrive about 4:45, says the chart plotter. While there, we will need to get some fuel, as we haven’t bought any since we left Atlantic Yacht Basin back in September when the price was high. Here’s to hoping for lower fuel prices, since the price of gas has dropped!!!


We actually arrived here at the Solomans Island Yachting Center a little after 5 and walked Schooner, had dinner and settled in for a night of TV. We made our weekly calls, checking on everyone, and I am finishing up on this part of the blog, although Internet doesn’t reach out to the dock we are on. As far as I could see from the diminishing sunlight, it looks like a summer vacation spot. We won’t get the chance to do any exploring here now, but will be back around the 20th when we meet back up here with friends.

Baltimore...Again

Well, (That’s a deep subject as they say!!) it’s been a long week and I need to update all of you on our adventures! First off, we got to Baltimore late on October 8th, not really “late” but days are sooo short now it seemed late. We are in about the same place, in the same marina as we were when we left 2 weeks ago, so all seems familiar.

We had a few places to see that we missed on our first trip here, but the first call to duty is to scrub down the boat! The dirt and grime from the big cities are taking a toll on the white deck!!! This seemed to take all day long and now both of us not only have sore legs, but the arms and shoulders are now sore, too!! At least the boat will be clean for the guy to come and fix our auto pilot motor…again!

The autopilot has been giving us fits since early July when we were still in the Bahamas and now has finally decided to all but fail. This is the second motor replacement the company has made and I hope the last. John, the repairman, had to come from Annapolis to do the work…about a 45 minute drive for him. It would take us a good 8 hour day to get to Annapolis by boat and Annapolis is not where we want to be because they are hosting the sailboat show now and space is limited. John was here for less than an hour and all seems well for now…always the skeptic!

We walked to little Italy and found an Italian Deli and had a great lunch. For me, an Italian sub and Gordon a spicy Italian sausage sanswhich. It was really good and hit the empty spot! We continued our walk about town before heading back to the boat. As I said earlier, days are short now and that leaves more time for sleeping…LOL!

ROLLIN’ ON THE RIVER

It’s zero early thirty on Sunday (6:30 AM civilian time) and we’re up and preparing to leave the Philadelphia Marine Center. We have to pull out of the marina between 7 and 8 AM, because the tides and current will be just about slack by then making our entry into the Delaware River its safest. It’s cold here this morning, 56°-F, but there’s no wind and the sun’s shinning brightly. It took us about 30 minutes to walk Schooner and then another 15 minutes to roll up the power lines and water hose, warm up the engine. Then, there was a bit of a delay because a work crew was busy rolling up the 150' of red carpet from the night before and had the dock blocked. Once they were finished, however, we handed in our gate keys and got underway. We hit the tide just right and in no time were heading down the Delaware, via the C&D Canal, towards Baltimore.


We have to go back to Baltimore because the autopilot drive motor failed as we were nearing Philadelphia. While in Philly, we called Lewmar, who manufactures the motor, and learned that their closest repair facility is in Annapolis, MD. It’s a three-day run to Annapolis from Philly, but only a two-day run to Baltimore. Once in Baltimore, it will only take 45 minutes for the service man to drive up from Annapolis. So, having communicated with all parties, we are going to Baltimore where Lewmar is replacing the motor at no charge. How’s that for service?

The trip down river was uneventful, almost to the point of being boring. There was a bit of pleasure boat traffic, a few tugs towing barges and one big ship, but, for the most part, we had the river to

ourselves. The most exciting part of the trip was as we entered the eastern entrance of the C&D Canal. There, perched upon the northern seawall, was a 26’-plus speedboat. It had sustained considerable hull damage from its climb atop the big rocks that made up the wall. We took a few pictures of the thing and, after reaching the Summit North Marina, learned that the boat had run aground late last night while going full speed at high tide. The moral of the story? Never run at night without a GPS and good charts.

The next day (Monday) we were up at 6:30 AM again. After a short walk with Schooner, we were ready to go and on the water by 7:30. Again, the trip was uneventful with a couple of other boats and us owning the waterway. We finally made the Anchorage Marina, in Baltimore, around 3:30 PM and settled into our slip. Here, we’ll wait for a couple of days on the new motor to arrive and the serviceman to come and install it. In the mean time, it’s cocktail hour and the Internet here is HOT, so a drink and E-mails are, for now, the order of the day.

I ORDER IN ENGLISH!

Two of our best friends in the whole wide world hail from Philly. The only problem with our relationship is, they now live in Billings, Montana (summer there is about two and a half weeks long) and we live on a boat (where we try to make it summer 365 days a year) bound for no place in particular. While this makes stopping by for coffee a real logistics problem for all of us, Harry and Dot have, nonetheless, provided us with the best recommendations available anywhere for where to go in Philly. With that in mind, we set out on our last day in Philly to find the Italian Market and Geno’s Steaks.

The Italian Market is really far from the Philadelphia Marine Center, so we elected to take a bus and save ourselves a lot of steps. So, we walked from the marina to 8th Street and from there, caught the bus to the Italian Market. I told our driver where we wanted to go and he let us know when it was time to get off of the bus, making sure that we went in the correct direction to the market. Two blocks and one right-turn later, we had stepped backwards about a hundred years to a time before supermarkets, barcodes and mass marketing existed.

The Italian Market has been in existence since 1915 and covers both sides of 9th Street, for the four-block stretch between Montrose and Washington Avenues. The sidewalks are lined with vendors selling fruits, vegetables, beef, smoked meats, hams, sausages and all types of Italian Cuisine. The narrow walkways are packed shoulder to shoulder with people buying fresh foods at really great prices. The visual impact, the wonderful smells and the dull roar of 10,000 simultaneous conversations mixed with the din of traffic sounds makes this area of Philly truly unforgettable. Kim and I bought some succulent, fresh Italian sausage, homemade pesto and marinara sauces and fresh baked Italian bread to enjoy later. From the Italian Market, it was a short walk to Geno’s Steaks, at the intersection of 9th St. and E. Passyunk Ave.

Geno’s (http://www.genosteaks.com/) has been famous for its Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches since its founding in 1966. More recently, Geno’s has been infamous for their signs, “This is AMERICA, When Ordering, PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH.” After a two year legal battle, it was determined that the signs didn’t discriminate against any ethnic group and they are visible at every window.

The steaks were NOT a disappointment. The bread was fresh, the steak, onions and peppers were hot and the cheese (whiz on mine and provolone on Kim’s) was robust and plentiful. And talk about quick, the sandwiches were served with my change and there was NO wait at all. McDonalds could sure learn a lot from this place. In addition to our food, I also bought an “I’m an AMERICAN - I Order in ENGLISH” T-shirt, which draws quite a few looks when I wear it. Harry, you were right, Geno’s is the very best in Philly!!


With our day’s adventure complete, Kim and I caught the bus back to the waterfront and returned to the boat. As we entered the security gate to our slip, we were greeted by a red carpet running the length of the dock and, down at the last slip, a Mardi Gras Band playing New Orleans style music. We found out that some folks were having their 35th wedding celebration on a river cruise boat and had invited a bunch of people to share in the fun. But we know this was really our special send-off from one of our most favorite cites, Philadelphia, PA.

In the morning we will begin the trip south.

Back in Philly

Today I am staying in bed!! I am so sore I can barely move and I have a headache from lugging my full backpack all over New York City (wah, wah, wah.) Gordon on the other hand is back on the train headed back to Penn Station in New York!!! Would you believe that when he was purchasing our tickets yesterday, he left the camera on the ticket counter in Penn Station, NY!?! When we reached Trenton, NJ, Gordon went to a ticket agent, who called back to New York City and, Yep…the miracle of it all happened, someone turned it in!!! So, instead of buying a new camera for $400, he bought a round trip ticket for $41 and is half way there already.

Schooner and I elected to remain here in Philly and be lazy, although I have plenty of laundry to do. Plus we had requested our mail be sent in hopes that our absentee ballots would be included…NO such luck!! I guess that will require a phone call and more mail to be sent!!

The weather has made a change…cold, at lease for us! Today’s high was only 62° with that spitting rain we love so much. I had to bring the orchid down below for fear of losing it. It has been surviving for over 18 months with me taking care of it…that in its self is also a miracle. We will need to do some sprucing up here on the boat before leaving… actually, a major cleaning is in order! It will have to wait, however, we need to rest and the weather needs to improve.

Here are the last of our pictures from the trip to New York City, including our (Gordon’s) trip back. I hope I haven’t bored you with them. For anyone who hasn’t been there, it’s an inspiration to go!!!