Chandlery Review: Salty Dog Marine – Norfolk VA

Chandlery Reviews
Expertise:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Selection:4 Stars (4 / 5)
Customer Service:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Value:5 Stars (5 / 5)
Average:4.5 Stars (4.5 / 5)

9557 Shore Drive East Beach Shops, Norfolk,VA 23518    (757) 362-3311

Salty Dog Marine is a small shop within walking distance to the marinas along Little Creek in Norfolk VA.  I just stopped in to see if they had anything that I needed, which is always quite a list and ended up walking out with some nylon line to finish our lifeline netting and a barely used Fortress FX-37 for $200!!

Mike the owner seemed to be very knowledgeable and said that he could get pretty much anything out of the “Evil Empire” (West Marine) catalog in 2 days for much cheaper prices.  I didn’t take him up on his offer, but I have no reason to doubt him.

Stop in and see Mike, I’m sure he has something new or used that is on your list for a good value.  He may be expanding his store now that the nearby West Marine has moved out.

 

Our first passage!

Offshore

Okay, it’s really our 2nd passage with Ryana, but since this time we were without our excellent crew, Jack and Cynthia, I’m counting it as our first! It was the first time our there with just Ryan, me and Stanley. We waited until we had favorable winds from the south and the seas were calm. We set out Wednesday morning planning to get into the Chesapeake Bay sometime on Friday. Since there were no places for a boat our size to come into the coast we knew it would be a straight shot up North.

We started out well with light winds (< 5kts) so we motored along. Stanley got sick once before he found his sea legs. Around mid afternoon the winds got up closer to 8kts so we tried sailing for a while. With the light winds directly behind us we weren’t getting anywhere so we turned the engines back on. Things were uneventful until nightfall and around 10pm we were rounding Cape Hatteras. There was a lot of traffic at that point and we were using radar to dodge boats right and left. Having AIS helped a lot too as it would tell us what the boats were, their course and destination. We even heard the Captain of a tugboat that was towing a large barge about a half mile behind him admonishing another boat for not having AIS. He said in his nice southern drawl that they were basically idiots for being out there without it! Luckily we do so you can breathe easier Mom and Cindy! 🙂

Soon after all this excitement I went to lay down and Ryan was on watch. I woke up a few hours later to find him marveling at (freaking out!) the huge lightening storm farther out to sea. He said it was so intense that there was at least one lightening strike per second! Come morning all this had died down and since we’ve been motoring we’ve made excellent time. The Chesapeake is within our reach today! Given that fact and also that the dog had so far refused to go to the bathroom in 24 hours we decided to throttle up the engines and try to make landfall Thursday, about 15 hours early. By late afternoon Cape Henry was in our sites and we started getting that excited feeling telling us we had made it!! We got a slip in Little Creek and pulled in there about 7pm, almost exactly 36 hours after we left Beaufort. What sa great feeling! We have reached our summer cruising grounds!

Retreat!

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After a sleepless night on anchor watch with gusts over 30 knots we have decided to retreat to Beaufort docks. What really sealed the deal is watching other boats in our anchorage dragged anchor and then come morning they all left! We never dragged, but didn’t feel comfortable going ashore and leaving the boat by itself. Now we are safely tied up to the dock right in downtown Beaufort and can go enjoy the festivities at the Wooden Boat show without worry. Long hot showers with endless water are a plus too! Ryan did an amazing job backing the boat into our slip with boats on all sides! It makes me remember why I keep him around. 🙂 Hopefully the weather will calm down and we can go back to anchor tomorrow night. If it doesn’t then I guess we’ll enjoy this luxury a little longer. Beaufort is such a fun town. It seems like there is some kind of festival or something every weekend. Well we’re off to the Wooden Boat show and happy our boat is safe without our attention.

A lot of firsts and one second

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We just finished our first week on the boat! It was also our first time at anchor and the first time our dog went potty on the boat! Only parents can understand our excitement at the last one. 🙂 It’s been a great first week as we get things settled and start to turn this boat into a home. We also celebrated our second wedding anniversary. I can’t say this is where I thought we’d be at this point when we got married, but it just shows you how unpredictable life can be, and I’m so excited about what we have before us . . . Forget that! I’m excited about what we have started! We will probably be in Beaufort for another week, settling in and getting in a few more visits to our favorite spot, the Backstreet Pub. I’m looking forward to it all! Especially creating more seconds, thirds and so on….

I gain inspiration from Ricky. . .

Philosophy

So I will divulge one of my guilty pleasures, one of the shows I have recently enjoyed watching is “Trailer Park Boys”; a mockumentary (like Reno 911) about some not so intelligent guys trying to scrape by on small time crimes in Nova Scotia. This is a pretty lowbrow show with poor acting and even worse editing that was recommended by one of my most intelligent friends; thanks Cynthia!

Before I get into the quality in Ricky that gives me inspiration let me state, I do not condone; crime, drug use, drug cultivation and lastly not being responsible for your own actions.

So why was I laying in a crappy motel room thinking of Ricky? Ricky never lets his current situation get him bummed; he has the great ability to look on the bright side no matter how bad things are, except if his good track pants get ripped then its a downward spiral. Ricky lives in a car that is missing a door, regularly does stints in jail, has a girlfriend that rarely shows any love or respect and is so broke he regularly scavenges for tobacco in old cigarette butts; all this and he generally maintains a positive outlook on the future.

Going forward, no matter how thorough the planning, there will be situations that will be uncomfortable. I need to be careful and not get caught up on the moment of discomfort and remember the purpose of this trip.

Oh and if you have time you want to completely blow, check out “Trailer Park Boys”, you can stream it on Netflix.

The Goodbyes are Over and We’re on Our Way

Planning

 

I haven’t yet determined when the next chapter actually begins; leaving California, leaving Washington or leaving North Carolina. What I do know is that today marks the first day Diana and I are out on our own in uncharted territory.

The last two weeks have been a blur of packing, preparing and most importantly farewells. Emotions have been swinging back and forth between total excitement and a fair amount of sadness. Diana and I had great send offs from work, cake, gifts and many heart felt discussions; we are truly blessed to work with such great folks and find immense comfort knowing that someday we will return. Dinners with friends have been great and happy occasions for the fact that many will be coming out to visit with us in the not so distant future.

The most difficult goodbye has been our neighbor Tom. Diana and I, well mostly me, have developed a very close relationship with our elderly neighbor that lives alone across the street. I’ve grown accustom to coming home, walking across the street and talking to Tom about work, history, family or any other topic; he frequently joins us for dinner and is just a constant presence in the neighborhood. Since Tom does not have a computer, nor does he know how to use the internet I have committed to send him hand written letters and make the occasional phone call. So let me point out the moral of my life lesson; you know that single elderly man or woman in your neighborhood?. . . reach out, you may make one of the most meaningful connections of your life.

Alright, enough of feeling sad; Diana and I drove up to Seattle on Friday, April 12th. We had the truck packed to the gills and towed my old Nissan which made the well used Budget truck work pretty darn hard , it took us 15.5 hours which normally takes close to 12.

After trying to sleep in after a 15+ hour drive we had to unpack the truck and get ready for the entire family to descend on my mother’s house. It was a great Saturday; grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all came by to wish us good luck. The bizarre thing about this gathering was that everyone got along! I’m not sure what was going on with the stars this past week, but the regular family arguments never developed. I also got to reconnect with my cousin Nathan whom I haven’t seen in probably 15 years, that was a lot of fun and I hope to rekindle that relationship.

Sunday was spent watching McKenna mop up the competition at her dirtbike race. I was hoping to see her soar off of jumps, but the race we watched went through the woods and did not have the motocross type jumps I was hoping for. After the award ceremony where she got her 1st place trophy we were able to enjoy special Washington style Mexican food with Shannon, Blake and Amber. . . Sooo good! Where else can you get enchilada sauce and cheddar cheese??

We waited out a few extra days due to crappy weather east of Seattle that allowed us to spend a bit more time with friends and family as well as deal with bank and insurance tasks.

Today’s drive was fairly uneventful. We left my mother’s house in Maple Valley at about 6:20am and got into Bozeman MT at about 6:00pm MDT. The truck ran great, we saw some amazing scenery and just powered through. I think Diana took some cool pictures that I’ll post along with some others from the past few days when I get some more time and energy.

We’re both super excited to be on our way!

It’s not a matter of if, but when

Practices

. . . you’ll run aground. We’ve run aground a few times in very low risk situations. Taking a sailboat up the California Delta it’s pretty much inevitable, the bottom is very soft silty mud that has little probability of damaging your keel except for premature bottom paint wear. You may have also noted that we touched bottom in the Beaufort area due to not reading detailed charts. . . this is my point of concern.

As we make our way along our itinerary we’ll eventually find ourselves in areas where the consequences of running aground are much more than a bit of bottom paint. Recently a Lagoon 450, Ryana’s bigger sister, ran aground in the Bahamas and became a total loss. The captain’s reasoning for his mistake is the electronic charts he had loaded on his chartplotter indicated a potential route through two islands, in reality it’s a reef strewn area that folks find difficult passing in a dingy. This particular vessel and crew have significant sea miles between them and it’s likely they just got complacent in their route planning. I truly feel for these folks as it must be a horrible feeling seeing your vessel awash up to the coach top. . . everyone makes mistakes and I’ll learn from both mine and those I’m made aware of.

Diana and I have set a standard practice when sailing in new locations. . .

  • Consult cruising guides focused on the area
  • Compare various chart sources if area is known for having chart discrepancies
  • Create route by reviewing paper charts
  • Validate proposed route with each other
  • Enter route waypoints on ship’s chartplotter
  • Have crew member on bow to spot coral heads if needed

Boat aground near Port Ludlow. . . Click for more info

 

There is potential for our practice to get old and tired but maybe this picture will remind us why we go to this trouble.

Ryana???

Philosophy,

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Wow you named your boat after yourselves?  How vain, self-absorbed or narcissistic are you people?

Well vain, self-absorbed? Maybe a bit.  Narcissistic? Definitely not.

A little history. . . Diana and I have been together for quite some time; even before we were officially dating most of our friends knew we came as a pair.  In various circles we soon became known as Ryana (Ryan + Diana = Ryana).  Since we wouldn’t deny enjoying each other’s company or deny the fact we spent significant time together, we didn’t have any specific reasons to push back on the moniker.

A history of a nickname may still not be a valid reason to name the boat after ourselves.  Why not name the boat something like “Adventurer”, “Horizon”, “Wind Dancer”, “Solace”, “Escape”, “Sabbatical”, “Salish Spirit” or anything else?  The simple reason is. . .

This journey is not a search for place, emotion or time; it is a search to cultivate our individual and mutual priorities in life

We hope to have at least 50 good years left in us and want to ensure we spend every one of them in a meaningful way.  We’ve let life lead us to the point where we are today and definitely cannot complain (great friends & family, good jobs, comfortable house, extra spending money), this is the first real decision in both our lives where we are leading life, not life leading us. The trip is about us so why not be open about it?

RyanaShirt

Oh; and we already had the shirt. . .

 

Cat’s out of the bag!

Planning

Today we told our team’s at work we are going on a 2 year leave of absence.  All day leading up to it I was nervous and shaking, not because I was scared of what they were going to say but because now it’s even more real.  No turning back anymore!  But that’s okay…  I think it’s good to be scared about it because it’s going to be a challenge.  I’m excited and terrified at the same time, but that’s how I know we’re doing the right thing!  Everyone at work was happy for us and I appreciate the support they showed.  We’re leaving a great group of people and I hope they will let us return when our voyage is over in 2 years.  For the next 3 months we will be working hard to turn over assignments at work and complete our extensive list of todo items.  Then we’re off to places unknown.  I guess we’ll figure that part out when we get there…

It’s Official – We Told work!!!

Planning

We have executed a “Go/No Go” decision over the holidays with a clear vote for “Go”.  Now we need to tell our managers that we are leaving for a 2 year sailing trip in less than 90 days!

We have done a lot of thinking on making sure we don’t burn any bridges so we are both welcome to come back to our current company when our voyage is over.  It was quite a relief to the both of us that our managers were supportive of our dreams; not only did they say a 2 year sabbatical was okay, but they want to ensure we stay in contact so we can be placed in good positions upon our return.

So no, we didn’t state the words sung by the late Johnny Paycheck; my woman hasn’t left and my boss ain’t no fool.  Though no matter how great of place you work, I think we all fantasize about bursting out those words every once in a while. . .