Urbanna, VA

Wednesday

View from the town dock

We motored across the Rappahanock to Urbanna on Monday and anchored off the town dock.  The river was smooth enough to water ski on so there was no sailing that day. Urbanna is a great little historic town with just about everything a cruiser could want within easy walking distance of the harbor.  We did a walk about town, stopping by the grocery store for a few items.  Found a couple of thrift stores, several clothing/gift shops, and one really nice art gallery.  Washed our large pile of sweaty laundry at the very nice town dock facilities and got to sit in air conditioning while the clothes washed and dried.

Tuesday morning we went into town for breakfast at the drug store.  Quite a scene there with men sitting at one loop of the 50's-style soda fountain and women at the other.  We were told that all the latest gossip is discussed there every morning by the dozen or so folks who congregate there regularly.  We met the Urbanna mayor who moved one stool over in order to allow the four of us to sit together.  The breakfast special that morning was two biscuits with sausage gravy and two eggs for $3.95.  Such a deal.  We all had the special and discussed town issues and Carolina basketball with the mayor.

We're finally learning how “cruising” mode works from our friends on Polaris. Previously, Tom and I have rarely stayed in one place very long on our sailing trips. Usually a day or two in one place and we've moved on to new sites, thinking we needed to “see it all,” I suppose. Since hooking up with Polaris, we've stayed several days in one place, gaining time to explore the community at a much slower pace and in more detail. I like this much better. It is so much more relaxing.  Today we took a long, leisurely dinghy ride up the creek to explore areas we are unable to reach on the big boats.  Lots of pretty scenery with a mix of new, expensive houses along side older, been-here-forever small homes.

Kentris anchorage

Since we have some commitments at home in the next few weeks, we are planning to leave the boat here and come home on Friday. It has been a bit daunting to find an appropriate place to leave Kentris during this time. We thought we had it worked out one way but that fell through. Then we called around and found quite expensive rates at the marinas close by. We considered leaving her anchored right where we are currently, which has good holding and is well protected, but that was not our favorite option. This morning we found a dock to keep her at back in Irvington. If there is a major storm we'll have to come move her off the dock but hopefully that won't happen and we'll know she is well cared for while we're gone.