Triangle Loop – Week 7 (Back In The Water Again!)

June 8th to June 16th

Day 42 – Sunday, June 8th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

Sunday morning was rainy and blustery. We started with breakfast at the hotel, then spent time in the business center until around 1:00, when things began to clear up. We then walked up to The Vanguard Distillery. Vanguard is in the old Hampton National Guard Armory. It is now a brewery, distillery, restaurant, and music venue. Their website mentions distillery tours, but they are not currently offering them. They make two single malt whiskeys, a bourbon-style whiskey, a couple of flavored vodkas, and a gin. Their brand name is Caiseal (CASH-EL), named after a style of Gaelic circular, stone ring fort. We had a snack and tried some different beers than Bull Island. They did give a tasting of their Single Malts, and I picked up a bottle.

We spent the rest of the afternoon back in the room. I took a nap, and Brenda snoozed while watching her sheep videos. Around 4:30, we started getting alerts about severe thunderstorm warnings starting at 6:30, so we went to Venture for an early dinner. As we walked back to the hotel around 6:00, we started feeling raindrops and jumped when a bolt of lightning, followed by a clap of thunder, hit nearby!

By the time we got up to the room, it was pouring out. The rain was so hard at times that we couldn’t see the marina from our window. We looked at the rain gauge on the boat, and we got over 3 inches of rain overnight.

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Day 43 – Monday, June 9th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

Monday was just another day of waiting. We started with breakfast, then spent most of the day in the hotel business center. The hotel manager was having his staff meeting at the conference table we sit at, and apologized for taking over “Our Office”. The staff here at the Landings Hilton has been super. Everything from the Front Desk clerk that we re-check in with each week and who juggles rooms so that we don’t have to move, to the housekeeping staff who make sure that I have plenty of coffee for the in-room machine. Everyone here is always friendly and says hello.

Day 44 – Tuesday, June 10th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

I had a conference call with our accountant at 8:30 on Tuesday morning, then had to make some phone calls. At 10:00, we went for breakfast, then came back to the hotel to do a bit more work. It was a cloudy day with a chance of rain, and also hot and humid. We decided to take a ride to the “Big Mall” in Norfolk, very near to the Waterside Marina where we stayed on our first loop. We called a Lyft (they were $10 cheaper than Uber for the same ride) and went to the mall. The McArthur Mall is a three-story mall that advertises over 95 stores and two major anchors, Dillard’s and Macy’s, on its website. What a major disappointment. More than 2/3rds of the stores were empty. Both Dillards and Macy’s were closed. The few open stores were mostly small one-offs like a charity shop, a model railroad club, an antique store, and a second-hand record store. There were a couple of regular stores open, including H&M, Bath & Body Works, and Claire’s Accessories, but that was about it. Even the food court near the eight-screen cinema (which was open) only had a couple of independent asian food choices and an Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. Malls are dead!

After the mall, we walked through town toward the waterfront and stopped at a couple of small local craft shops. Again, there were many vacant storefronts in downtown. As we were walking, we passed a window with some beautiful glass sculptures. It was the Glass Light Hotel & Gallery, a hotel with a nice glass sculpture collection. We stopped at the front desk and asked if we could walk through the gallery, and they said we were welcome to. The gallery spans two floors of the hotel and features works from a diverse range of artists, typically two to three pieces per artist. The two most impressive sculptures were two 5-foot glass rabbits. There was also a collection of Dale Chihuly Glass bowls, and many other unique glassworks. We got to peek into the hotel proper, and the halls are lined with sculptures as well. It would be a cool place to stay.

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When we got to Waterside Marina, we were just in time to catch the water taxi across the bay to Portsmouth, VA. We figured that Portsmouth would be closer to Hampton than taking an Uber back from downtown Norfolk.

When we got to Portsmouth, we walked into town and stopped at the “German Bier Garden,” a small restaurant and beer garden. We had only planned on having something to drink, but they had an “Authentic German Meat & Cheese Board” on the menu, so we decided to have a snack. The board was fantastic. All authentic German cold cuts, liverwurst, tea wurst, blood and tongue sausage, and a giant pretzel! Just like I grew up with! Who could ask for anything more? They also have a small German store offering a variety of imported German chocolates, clothing, wine, and beer for sale. We stocked up on some chocolate and had a great conversation with the owner, who was from the area near Stuttgart, Germany, where my mother’s family lived.

From there, we called another Lyft (again, they were about $8 cheaper, and much closer than Uber) back to the Hotel. We didn’t realize that the James River was so wide between Portsmouth and Hampton. We thought that we were avoiding a tunnel, but there is one between Portsmouth and Hampton, so it was about the same distance.

For the rest of the afternoon, we did some work and relaxed in our room. We were pretty full from our snack, so we skipped dinner.

Day 45 – Wednesday, June 11th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

Wednesday morning, I rode the bike down to the boat yard to check on progress. All of the fiberglass work is complete, and they are applying a barrier coat paint to seal the fiberglass. They have ordered a special drill bit to create a new hole for the rudder sleeve, which is expected to arrive tomorrow.

All during our stay, we’ve been watching the tour boat “The Hampton Queen” go out 2-3 times a day. We said that we would go for a ride and take the Hampton Roads Harbor Tour before we left. The weather was scheduled to be excellent today, so we bought tickets for the 2:30 trip.

We went next door to Bull Island Brewery and had a quick snack around 1:00, and watched for people to start gathering to board the boat. (The boat leaves from right in front of the brewery.) At 2:15, a crowd started to gather, and we joined them for the trip.

The trip is a narrated tour of Hampton Harbor (we’re pretty familiar with that). It goes past Fort Monroe at the entrance to Hampton Roads, crosses to the Norfolk side, and cruises down the Navy Yard giving an excellent view and explanation of the aircraft carriers (four were in port), guided missile frigates (three in port), amphibious assault ships (two in port), and nuclear missile submarines (three in port).

We got to see a number of tows and a massive dredge that we passed on our way in, but were too busy dealing with rough water to take much of a look. It was a nice 2-hour trip with excellent weather.

When we got back, we went back to Bull Island for Wing Wednesday, then an early bedtime.

Day 46 – Thursday, June 12th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

Thursday morning, I went to the boat to check up on the progress. I spoke with Tyler, the fiberglass technician, who was finishing up painting and waiting for the core hole for the rudder to be drilled. While I was there, Brenda did some laundry.

We stayed in the business center working for most of the afternoon. At 4:00, we met Jim & Jill from the boat Double J for docktails at the Bull Island Brewery.

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Day 47 – Friday, June 13th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

Friday was just a waiting day. We had hoped that the boat would be done, but they needed one more day. I’m not superstitious, but even though it means waiting until Monday, I’m sort of glad that we didn’t re-launch the boat on Friday the 13th.

We again spent most of the day in the business center. I worked on some articles for the Clever Boater, and Brenda wrote some postcards.

At 4:30, I got a text from Tyler showing the day’s progress. He had finished the fiberglass work, including the fairing and anti-fouling paint. In his message, he said that they would be installing the rudder Monday morning and that they would splash the boat in the afternoon. Woo Hoo!

We decided to go to Longhorn again for a celebration dinner!

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Day 48 – Saturday, June 14th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

On Saturday, we began bringing items from the hotel back to the boat, preparing for the promised launch on Monday. Brenda did some cleaning on the boat, and I put a few things back together that we had taken apart while the boat was being fixed. In the evening, we made the hopefully final round at Venture for dinner.

Day 49- Sunday, June 15th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

On Sunday, we again brought things to the boat and then took an Uber to Walmart for a supply run to restock water and a few other items. Brenda picked up some thank-you cards and flowers for the girls at Bull Island Brewery and the hotel’s front desk, and we said our thank-yous and goodbyes, hoping they were not premature.

Day 50 – Monday, June 16th, 2025 – In: Hampton, VA

Monday, we spent the morning packing up the rest of our clothes at the hotel and watching on our boat cameras to see when they would be ready to splash us. At 8:00, we saw Mike the mechanic on the boat putting in the rudder. Woo Hoo! We kept watching, and by 12:00, he was done.

We had requested a late checkout from the hotel, so at 1:00, we loaded our suitcases on a cart and moved downstairs. The business center, our second home at the hotel, was being used by a film crew, so we sat in the lobby area for a while. There was another boat in front of us in the boatyard that had to be moved so that we could be launched. We kept watching the cameras on the boat to see when the boatyard moved it. At 2:30, I called the boatyard and was told that we would be spashed in about an hour. We rode our bikes down to the boatyard and stopped in the office to pay our bill. They had not finished it yet, so we waited for about 30 minutes while they finalized it.

In the end, it came in just under the $10,000 budget we had given them. It’s funny how that works! Actually, they gave us a discount on the storage charges and labor. Given the high quality of the work, we were satisfied with the final pricing.

After settling our bill, we rode our bikes to the boat. They had just moved the boat in front of us, and the travel lift was backing up to us. It was a tight fit! All the boats around us had come in after we were placed, but they got us hooked up and back to the launch bay. Once a boat is in the lift, things always move quickly, and I was more concerned with getting all of the boat’s systems back up and running and checking for the leak. Fortunately, Brenda grabbed a few pictures.

They gently lowered the boat into the water, and Mike jumped on board to check for leaks. There was a small leak, more like a weep, coming from around the rudder shaft. Mike adjusted the rudder slightly, and we concluded that it was likely due to the boat having been out of the water for a month, and that the new seals needed to expand a bit. Given the small amount of water, we decided to launch.

So, at 4:00, they dropped the slings, and we were back in the water! Brenda had brought our bikes to the fuel dock so that we could load them back onboard (it was too high at the launch bay), so Mike rode from the launch bay to the fuel dock to help tie up, and so that he could watch the rudder seal while we were underway and steering the boat.

Everything looked good, so we topped off the fuel tanks, loaded the bikes back on the boat, and cruised the 1/2 mile back to Hampton Docks Marina. By 5:00, we were all tied up back in our slip. We spent the next two hours putting the boat back together. We had to remove pretty much everything in the Lazzarette for the work to be done, so it took us some time to get it all stowed away again and unpack our suitcases.

At 6:30, we went up to Bull Island for dinner and one last visit (and two last beers). When we got back to the boat after dinner, I checked on the rudder post, and the leak had stopped. The real test will be tomorrow when we are running for a distance. Tonight we hope to get a good night’s sleep in our own bed on the boat!

Tomorrow we are heading 90 miles up the Chesapeake to Solomons, MD. Fingers crossed!

Thanks to Tyler, Mike, and the team at Safewater Bluewater boatyard for fixing the Frog’s broken leg!

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Recap of the week

Another long week of waiting; however, after 30 days out of the water, we finally got the boat back! We held off on publishing the blog until Monday, so that we could share the good news!

Next week, we continue our trip, with our first stop in Solomons, Maryland, to catch up with some friends and pick up the new batteries that we never got to while we were in Hampton.

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Thanks For Visiting! – Tom & Brenda