Saturday, 24 August 2013, Washington, D.C.

A couple of additions to previous Blog Postings, when we were at Point Lookout Marina, another maintenance issue popped up.  This was the marina where there were thousands of Jelly fish in the water.  When we returned to the boat from the swimming pool, I noticed that we were not pumping any water through the air conditioner outlets, sure enough, when we got inside, the air conditioners had tripped their breakers.  I reset them and checked the water flow, but no go.  Dreading the worst, I pulled the sea strainer for the air conditioners and it was jam packed with sucked up Jelly fish.  It was extremely disgusting.  Anyway, I cleaned them out thoroughly and in the process of blowing out the water line with the shop vac, I blew nasty pieces and parts all over myself, mmmmmm.  Once completed all was well.  Also, in my reading of the Cruising Guide, I had read ahead to the Washington D.C. section and discovered that to operate a watercraft (boat) on the waters of the District of Columbia; the Operator (driver) must possess a Boaters Safety Course Certificate.  Under the current laws of Kansas, only people born after a certain date have to have this certificate. (And I was definitely born before that date) Researching the Safety Course Information on-line, I discovered that for only $29.95 I could enroll and take the course on-line.  This course is designed so that you cannot test out of it.  Each section has a timer and you must take the minimum amount of time before you can go on to the next section.  It is fixed so that no matter what you do it takes about 8 hours to complete.  So I began.  After two late nights taking this valuable course, I graduated and am now certificated.

Now back to today.  It is Saturday, 24 August, the city is packed with attendees of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, and we have to go sightseeing.  But, before we could go, it was discovered that we were out of fresh water.  Well , we were not out, it just was not in the water tank, it was in the bilge.  We had heard the water pump cycling off and on at odd times during the last two days.  After refilling the water tanks and powering up the pump, the leak made itself known.  One of the original "tees" in the water line had cracked and was emptying our tank.  Now, this water line fiasco, has been plaguing us for over a year.  I think this is the last piece of original water line left in the boat.  So it was off to the Washington Marina, which fortunately was open on Saturday mornings.  Of course they only had three of the four parts I needed, so I had to reengineer the design and buy about 10 more parts.  Amazingly enough, putting it back together was simple and it worked.  After repairs, we are off to Arlington National Cemetery, which I had never been to before.  It was very somber.  We visited the Eternal Flame of JFK, the Battleship Maine Memorial, and after huffing and puffing up the hill, made it just in time to observe the changing of the guard at the Tomb of The Unknowns.

Then off to lunch at the Pentagon City Shopping Mall Food Court.  Hooray for Chipotle.  Then back to the boat to prepare for dinner.  We hopped on the Metro, and rode over to Crystal City to meet Sue and Bernie Kozosky at The Famous Hamburger Hamlet.  After drinks we headed over to the Blue Indigo Restaurant which is waterside with a great view of the Potomac and aircraft landing at Reagan National Airport.  A great dinner and conversation.  We were going to ride the Metro back to the Marina, but Bernie cautioned us that we would probably not make it from the Metro stop to the boat in a serviceable condition, so they drove us to the marina doorstep.

Friday 23 August 2013, Washington D.C.

We departed Quantico Marina at 0805 after dropping off our slip contract with Phil at the marina office.  We have about 33 miles to go today to get to Washington D.C. and the Capital Yacht Club.  Weather was forecast to be rainy but it was clear when we started.  Travel up the Potomac continued to be scenic. Places passed today were George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, Fort Belvoir Army Base, Old Town Alexandria waterfront, Reagan National Airport, 

Bolling Air Force Base, and Anacostia Naval Base.  About the time we were passing Mount Vernon it began to rain.  After we came around the river bend just upriver from Mt. Vernon, the Washington Monument came into view.  Stirring view. Here we are passing under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

 We needed to top off with fuel and attempted to do so at the Bolling Air Base marina, but it must have been their furlough day as no one answered either the radio or telephone.  Instead we stopped at James Creek Marina, on the mouth of the Anacostia River.  The dock attendant was more than happy to stand out in the rain while we refueled.  Once fueled, it was only another mile to the Capital Yacht Club.  This marina is located as close to the National Mall and all other tourist attractions as you can get.  Once the rain stopped we went sight seeing, sort of.  Debbie, of the Capital Yacht Club, told us that we might get a rain poncho next door at the Washington Marina. To get to the Washington Marina, you walk through the waterfront wharf fish market. 

 Smells great.  There must have been about 20 or so seafood vendors selling all kinds of stuff (seafood related). A particular delicacy that Beth was interested in were the Tuna heads.  On to the marina store.  Of course there were many other items we bought, in addition to the rain suit, which now required us to take back to the boat prior to continuing the sight seeing.  Off we went and went and went.  After a couple of wrong turns, we were off.  Went in the front door of the Smithsonian Castle and out the back onto the National Mall area.  Then it was down the mall towards the Washington Monument,  

then a right turn to head to the White House. 

  The President, nor his dogs were sighted. Since we were so close, 1 mile, it was off to the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. Prior to getting to the Reflecting Pool we toured the World War II Memorial, neither of us had seen that before and it was very impressive.  

While walking down the side of the reflecting pool, I noticed that preparations were underway for come kind of event. 

 I thought it was some Hispanic event as there were playing Santana music on the loudspeaker system. On a boat you are really out of touch with current events. I “googled” the event was pleased to discover that it was a multiday celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of the Civil Rights March on Washington.  It begins on Saturday and climaxes on Wednesday.  Notable speakers such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Travon Martin’s family and such. Unfortunately for us we will be elsewhere. The White House needs to start serving more goose meals to its visitors and there were many at the Reflecting Pool, crapping everywhere.   After milling around the Lincoln Memorial,  

we decided to go even further away from the boat and see the Viet Nam Women’s Memorial. 

 Now that were at the farthest point possible from the boat, it was time to return. On the way back, we passed through the Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. 

 On the way back to the boat we passed by the Jefferson Memorial.

 I was about to die from walking forever and hunger.  We passed through the Wharf Fish Market and I crumbled under and bought a pound of jumbo spiced shrimp, mmmmmmm.  Back to the boat finally and we collapsed. My son Jason lives in the D.C area and he and his friend were going to stop by after work and we were to eat dinner at the Phillips Flagship Seafood Restaurant which was about 50 feet from where we were tied up.  They arrived about 9:00 P.M. and we all selected the “all you can eat” buffet.  After stuffing ourselves and making additional plans we said good night and really collapsed.  More sight seeing on the schedule for Saturday.

Thursday 22 August 2013, Quantico Marine Corps Base Marina

We were up and out of the Marina by 0700 as we are still 95 miles from Washington D.C. and we will not get there today, but we will go as far as we can.  Beth and I have determined that travelling with only two people on board does not allow enough time to accomplish much when you are off shift.  We need Joe back and soon.  I had been studying the Cruising Guide that we had purchased in Portsmouth and about noon or so I returned to the bridge and asked Beth where we were.  She pointed out on the chart where we were and I told her that I thought I remembered something in the Guide about a Naval Firing Range somewhere about where we were and we were supposed to ask permission to enter the area.  Sure enough, we were a mile or so short of the range, so I called the Range Control Boat to request the Range status and find out what we were supposed to do.  The Range Boat replied that we needed to move over to the Maryland side of the river and follow the course that he was prescribing.  I jotted down many notes which at the time did not make much sense, however it all worked out. About every 15 minutes or so we heard large naval guns firing but could not determine where the projectiles were falling.  This impact area was about 8 miles long and as we got to the upper end of it they announced that they were done firing for the day.  It was now 2:30 in the afternoon.  I then called the Quantico Marine Corps Base Marina and asked if they had any transient slips available for the night.  He replied that they did but I needed to get there before they closed at 4:30 to complete necessary paperwork.  We were then 22 miles away so we sped up to 21 mph for about 30 minutes to ensure that we got there in time.  We made it with 15 minutes to spare.  We were still trying to decide where to leave the boat when we went back home and I asked the Marina if they had any space available for the next month or two or three.  After much discussion, they decided we could stay and provided us all of the government paperwork to turn in when we got back on Sunday.  It was an excellent deal for only $176.00 per month.  Sure beats $500.00 per month that we had been paying.

Wednesday, 21 August 2013 The Potomac River

Departed the Doziers Regatta Point Marina after 0800 so we could get some of the free coffee and donuts from the Boaters Lounge.  Today we are headed to the Point Lookout Marina which is located about one mile up the Potomac River from Chesapeake Bay.  There were several large ships heading to and from the Port of Baltimore but they stayed away from us.  This is "Smith Point Light" a lighthouse marking the Smith Shoals, looks like an interesting place to live. 

Once again, the waters of Chesapeake Bay were smooth, almost glass like.  We entered the Potomac River about 3:30 in the afternoon and headed into the Marina.  It was very surprising to me that a mile up the river it was still 7 miles wide.  We encountered crab pot markers by the hundreds; we had not seen any for a couple of hundred miles, now they were everywhere.  We pulled into the fuel dock to refuel and noticed thousands of Jellyfish swimming everywhere. 

We enquired of the Dock Man and he said, yes indeed they were the stinging variety.  So much for a refreshing dip in the water.  We moved into our slip and headed up to the swimming pool, as there were no Jellyfish in it.  After cooling off, we dined at the Marina Restaurant. We turned in early as we had quite a distance to go on Thursday.  We also stocked up on fuel filters at the parts department.