2025-06-08 - Norfolk for Harborfest and healing for Kris

We stayed on the free dock another night, and then on Tuesday moved to the bulkhead wall next to Deep Creek bridge where we usually stop, as there is a Food Lion, and good pizza restaurant so close.  It's not a scenic stop, but convenient.  There are doing construction on the bridge, so the area is additional rough looking with construction trailers and fencing.

Kris not feeling well at all, but went ahead and made the 1000 ft. walk from the boat to the store and back.  She made it, but had to rest 3 or 4 times during the trip.

Dean finished getting groceries, and got pizza to bring back to the boat as Kris assumed her unhappy position back in the salon.

Back pain, stomach pain - not a happy camper

Dean enjoyed his pizza for dinner, and Kris ate a couple of bites, before giving up and her stomach pains were getting worse.

Deep Creek bridge bulkhead - not scenic

We enjoy the trip up the ICW from Beaufort, NC to Norfolk, but the water is the negative.  It is not dirty water, but colored brown from all the tannins from decaying vegetation.  

Tap water on left, Dismal swamp water on right

Unfortunately, the tannins do stain the boat exterior as well, so at some point after Norfolk we will have to clean the hull to make it nice and white again.

Wednesday we got the first lock north, and went and filled up with diesel at Top Rack Marina.  They consistently have the best diesel prices we can find.  It's a weird little place, with condo's, docks, fancy restaurant and racked small boat inside storage.

Once tanks were filled, we headed north to Portsmouth/Norfolk.  We found a nice open spot to anchor, and then at 4:00 went in to see the Chiropractor.  They did a full exam, and took x-rays of Kris's full spine, as they were concerned about some possible rib breakage.   They did an adjustment after checking the x-rays - which showed no obvious breaks, but lots of spine issues.  Part of the adjustment was to "open" up Kris's pylorus sphincter, which is a "valve" between the stomach and small intestine.  It brought immediate relief for Kris's pain, as did the back adjustment.  

Thursday, back to chiropractor for another adjustment - which meant Kris actually ate a meal on Thursday and felt more like a normal person.   

Friday, we walked to the Post Office, as our new anchor light had arrived.   After that we walked up to the local WaWa gas station that has an Amazon locker, and picked up our small Amazon order and then back to the boat.  Almost 2 miles, and Kris was able to make it, although pretty exhausted at the end.  Portsmouth has a very scenic residential downtown area, and we enjoyed walking and seeing a bit of it. A few photos below of some of the scenic items.

Very cute house - well-kept

Herringbone brick sidewalks everywhere - must watch your step

Nice sandstone? Church

Nice mix of architectural features

Friday was the start of Norfolk Harbor fest.   We enjoy watching all the boat traffic, and seeing the fireworks, and wandering through the activities.  The anchorage is big enough to take quite a few boats, but of course, this year we had extremely inconsiderate people choose to anchor practically on top of us.  Then they had a friend raft up, making them even worse.  Then of all things, after the wind shifted, and they pulled a different direction, they upped anchor because they were too close to a boat behind us, and anchored even closer.  

Pictures don't do it justice, they were about 30' behind us.

Worse was they pretty much completely ignored us the entire time, not even acknowledging the situation.  We on Charm try to stay pretty low-key, non-confrontational, but these folks were sure pushing our boundaries.    Luckily there was very little wind, and although we spun around in many different directions, we never touched, and they had people onboard the entire time, so we felt we could leave our boat.  If they had all left the boat at some time - Kris might have stepped over the boundary - not a pretty sight.

Friday we saw the parade of boats - the start of Harbor fest.   Friday night was the drone show - neat to watch, but it only lasts maybe 10 minutes max.  Saturday we took the dink over the activities at Harbor fest.  Saw part of a comedy / unicycle / juggling show, and had an ice cream.  Had a great view of the Coast Guard demonstration as well. We last saw it with our friends Ed and Cathy on What If who enjoyed Harbor fest with us 2 years ago while on their boat.

Parade of boats - starts with fire boats spraying water

Tall ships always in parade of boats

Juggling/Unicycle/Comedy show

Glad diving has progressed past this

Watching Coast Guard demonstration

Saturday night was the fireworks show.   It is an impressive party because you are so close to it, but it is a decent show even from further away.

Photos taken with our little Olympus waterproof camera from the bow, no zoom.

Fireworks and lights of downtown Norfolk in the background

We were fortunate the wind was blowing the smoke from the fireworks just to the south of us, right up until the grand finale - at which point the wind shifted over our way.

Sunday morning, we awoke to a very dirty deck.  Luckily, rain forecast, so Dean got out and scrubbed the deck using salt and the brush just as the rain started, and it got a nice fresh rinse.

Dean out scrubbing in the rain

We have decided to stay a bit here in Norfolk, continuing Kris's back treatments for a while to get her healed up before moving north.