In this blog I’ll try to summarize our week in Portsmouth. Steve doesn’t join us until a week from now, the day before we sail. Unfortunately, his wife couldn’t make it because she was quite ill. Our to do lists have multiplied like rabbits. The Rally put on several seminars and each one increased our lists tenfold. We ordered from Amazon daily. Still, the boat is coming together nicely, and we have had fun too.
One night we took a couple to dinner at the Café Europa. The food was very expensive, but we paid the entire bill because we owed them that much (they were the couple who owned the boat that we slid into). They brought wine and food quickly but couldn’t seem to keep my water glass full!
Another night we went to an old-time movie theater to see “A Star Is Born”. Our seats were at a table with moonglow dome lamps. There were murals on the walls and everyone could see the screen. I’ve included two pictures of the inside of the theater below. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep my water glass full either. What is it about this town and drinking water?
We Ubered to stores and ordered homemade lasagna from a local yacht club. We dressed up the outside of our boat with signal flags and she looked very festive. Once the catamaran was off the fuel dock, we managed to fill up our tanks and safely get Sirius back into our slip.
The people in the rally were very helpful. Several came aboard to teach Jeff how to do things, like change the engine impeller (thank you, Paul and forgive us Monica for stealing him away from you!). There were families on boats who decided this was the way they should live for a while. There was a beautiful gunboat called Moonwave. Actually, there were many beautiful boats and everyone was excited to be off.
The weather in Portsmouth felt like early fall. Many sailors were wearing shorts and flip flops. I continued to work below decks and Jeff continued to work above. Slowly our lists shrank. And finally it was Sunday morning and we embarked on a whole new adventure.