Orphaned boats, rotting deck blot scenery at Pungo marina

Amazing what a few years sitting empty has done to the property that housed Captain George's Seafood Restaurant in Pungo.

It could use some paint, but the restaurant building itself looks much the same. You'd almost think the doors to the ultra-long seafood buffet would swing open at 4:30 p.m., as they did prior to the restaurant's closure in 2005.

The same tables and chairs are inside. Wine glasses hang upside-down above the bar.

The marina that adjoins the restaurant is in need of help, though. The decking slopes dramatically; boards are missing. And about half a dozen boats, seemingly abandoned for years, still are moored there.

There's a "No Trespassing" sign posted outside the property. But the lure of the sandy beach - an anomaly in this part of Virginia Beach - is too much for boaters and locals to resist. Hang around for an hour or so, as I did last week, and you'll get my point.

"It's a shame," said Denny Densmore, a boater and retired Beach firefighter. "This used to be a nice place."

Nicole Perkins, vice president of Captain George's - and namesake George Pitsilides' daughter - said boaters were told to leave when the marina closed early this year.

"It's not as easy as if you have an abandoned car," she said. "We tried to have whatever is left towed, but the towing companies don't want to."

Wayne DeFord, with the Beach's Public Works Department, said the city can take action only if the boat is not leaking oil or gasoline and if it's "refloated" and tied up. "Refloating" a sinking boat, by the way, is a most temporary of remedies.

For the boating community, Densmore said, it's about more than the upkeep.

"It's a key location where boats are concerned," Densmore said. "It was the last great marina where one could get fuel before heading south, and the first thing one sees in Virginia going north on the Intracoastal Waterway."

He'd like to see it turned back into a marina - perhaps even a city-owned one. He and Perkins, of Captain George's, agree on that.

"Boaters love it and love that stop," she said. "I definitely think a marina would fit well there."

The property is for sale. Perkins said two deals have fallen through involving a proposed condominium development the city nixed.

Meanwhile, DeFord said the Beach is going to figure out who owns the vessels, determine what that oily sheen on the water is and how to proceed. He said his research will take a couple weeks.

I'll get back to you then, and let you know what action the city is taking.