Sunday – Monday, June 2-3, 2019

As we left Portsmouth, VA, on a quiet Sunday morning, we saw more cargo terminals plus even more US Navy ships. There were a couple of areas that had patrol boats guarding them. One was at the section that included the US Naval Ship Comfort hospital ship, plus a couple of nuclear powered aircraft carriers. The security suddenly all made sense!

In our photos, you will see CNV-69, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, originally commissioned in 1977 with a planned crew size of over 6,000. She carries 90 fixed-wing fighter jets and helicopters and is the 2nd of 10 Nimitz-class air craft carriers currently in service. After a long overhaul, she recently underwent sea trials off the Virginia coast and may be ready to deploy again this fall.

We also saw NNV-74, the USS John C. Stennis, which is the 7th Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier commissioned in 1995. More than 3000 men & women live and work on this ship. She also carries 90 fixed-wing fighter jets and helicopters and just came in to Norfolk in mid-May after having its homeport on the west coast for 21 years. The families are now moving from Bremerton, WA (near Seattle) to Norfolk, VA. She will undergo a refueling and overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding, just up the Elizabeth River.

So, on we go to the Deltaville Marina on Jackson Creek in Deltaville, VA. The dockmaster was very friendly and helpful, yet he could not get our power connection to stabilize on the wonderful new floating transient dock.  Hummmm… This was surprising because we had passed the Marathon (Florida Keys) power test to hook up to the power on their transient dock – supposedly one of the toughest tests! (That is where they hook your power up to their “analyzer machine” to verify that your shore power hook-up is “OKAY” and wouldn’t trip-off the power supply for the entire dock.) No problem, we were able to move to a fixed dock which worked with our power connection, and everyone was happy!

We were especially pleased that this marina had a courtesy car, though we were limited to using it for only one hour. So, we had a plan! We started with West Marine for some boat supplies, then the liquor store (also for essential supplies), and finally groceries – being the last store, due to cold items. We did a quick refill at a gas station (marinas with courtesy cars usually ask you to refill the fuel you used), made it back to the marina, and all provisions moved to the boat with minutes to spare! Whew! Too much excitement for a Monday morning! The afternoon was spent with the typical prep for tomorrow’s travel and a bit of laundry thrown in for fun. 

Around 7pm, Bo began to act strangely. He started shaking like he does when he’s nervous about the wave action when we are underway, yet we were safely tied up to the dock. Then he lost everything in his stomach, and didn’t stop shaking.

So the situation was …

- sick dog with unusually strange symptoms

- marina crew is gone until tomorrow

- no car available

- no taxi in this tiny town

- no uber either

- no vet that we know of… ugh!

So, what else but the Internet to our rescue! We found suggestions indicating the possibility of poisoning, or kidney failure, or even imminent death – really!?  The nearest 24 hour emergency vet, (half-hour away, IF we had a car), was willing to chat with us considering we had no transportation and we were from out of town. Of course they would not commit to anything without seeing the patient, but they suggested to bring him in (somehow?) if he did not improve, otherwise monitor him overnight then get him to a local vet ASAP. We’d planned to move on the next day, but if Bo was still ill, we’d stay and go to a local vet.

We couldn’t take Bo’s temperature, but we could determine his respiration rate, take his pulse (inside upper thigh) and observe his shaking and comfort. Thankfully, his shaking subsided within a couple of hours, and he seemed to calm down, though he was still breathing fast. By 10pm, he was resting comfortably, so we decided to keep our usual nighttime routine. By the next morning he was acting completely normal, so we decided to make a run for the next stop. We’d already found a vet clinic within walking distance of that marina, so we could have Bo checked out. We weren't sure of our arrival time so we had to wait to make an appointment. He was acting normal so we thought that would be OK.  

A tense few hours for us, and some uncomfortable time for Bo, but it turned out OK. The vet we found at our next stop in Solomons, MD, was wonderful!