VA: Deltaville

Day 349
July 7, 2016
NM Today: 37
NM To Date: 5662

We are suffering a heat wave with temperatures that feel like they are well over 100 degrees. Sleeping last night was a challenge as the two air conditioners on the boat struggled to keep up with the temperatures and remove the humidity from the air.

Having no obvious reason to prolong our visit to Yorktown, we pulled away from the docks shortly after 9:00 and made our way back out the York River into Chesapeake Bay. Traveling with the wind meant we had no breeze. At least I could find some shade, but the sun hit the captain's seat forcing Clark to stand beside or behind the seat to reduce the sun's impact.

Besides being very hot travel, the scenery on the Chesapeake today seemed limited. We passed the Wolf Trap lighthouse.

Wolf Trap Lighthouse

Otherwise, the only other things of interest we passed on the water were stingrays. Lots and lots of stingrays. Clark saw one then another then another until we both lost count. When I took the helm from Clark for just a quick health break for him, I counted at least seven stingrays that passed the boat in those five minutes. Clark said the stingrays looked like pancakes underwater.

Two of the many Stingrays we saw on the Chesapeake

We planned on traveling to a resort-type marina for tonight's stop; however, after over four hours driving in the heat, we decided to look for somewhere else to stay to reduce travel time. We ended up at Dozier's Regatta Marina on the Rappahannock River. This is a friendly little place with a pool, laundry, and courtesy car - all the things we wanted.

As soon as we got tied up at the dock, we turned on the air conditioners in the boat, headed up to register, and took the courtesy car to the grocery store. The person who checked us in at the marina, Nancy, said that she knows very little about boats but just helps out in the office doing paperwork. She told us she is a psychotherapist, i.e. a "head doctor". Whereby Clark heard only the word "head" and asked her if she was a sanitation engineer. She and I both turned to Clark and said together, "Not that kind of head!" I tapped my finger on the side of his head to drive home the point!

Nancy compared Deltaville to Mayberry RFD. She told us to look for Sheriff Andy coming out of one of the local stores. Between the grocery store and a produce stand, I managed to find most of the items I needed in terms of food. However, Clark's watchband broke the other day, and we had no hope of finding a replacement in this little burg. We did find a watch for sale that had a compatible watchband, but buying that would have equated to paying $49 for a watchband. We decided to pass.

After we brought the groceries back to the boat, I quickly defrosted the refrigerator and then stowed the food. That done, I collected up all my laundry, and Clark helped me drag it up to the laundry room. The plan was to start the wash and jump in the pool. Unfortunately someone got to the one washer shortly before I did, so I had to get in line. I spent well over two hours bouncing around between the laundry room and the pool.

I finally got back to the boat around 8:30 with my two loads of laundry that needed to be put away, and we still had not eaten dinner yet. Fortunately Clark had suggested I buy items at the market that could be used to make a cold dinner. I left the laundry for after dinner and got us both something to eat.

Instead of a beautiful sunset tonight, we got a cloudy sky and some lightening. Clark tried to take a picture of the sky, but it did not come out well enough to include in the blog.