Tuesday 20 August 2013

Our view from Ocean Marine Marina.  

JULI-IV in the picture, behind is the nTELOS Wireless Pavilion



The USS Iwo Jima in Dry Dock
(Amphibious Assault Ship)

 Arose all ready to meet the marina people at the fuel dock to top off fuel.  The starboard engine would not keep running.  (A result of the ethanol fuel we had put in two months ago and not burned all of)
Once at the fuel dock we refueled and I changed the fuel filter on that engine.  It now began running properly but the fuel flow sensor was corrupted and would not read anything at all. Oh, well.  Underway by 0800 we departed the Portsmouth/Norfolk area.  We barely got in front of a Navy ship that was being escorted by 5 tugboats down the river to another location. 

Quite impressive.  As we rounded the Navy base, we encountered a huge containership coming into port making 17 mph.  We stayed as far away from it as we could, but even then its wake when it hit us was huge (8 feet).  Heading up the Chesapeke Bay, conditions were amazing.  The water was like glass, no waves or ripples anywhere and it stayed that was all day. 
We arrived at “Doziers Regatta Point Marina” in Deltaville, Virginia around four o’clock. 

A very nice place, well landscaped and maintained. The marina had a courtesy car, but it had to be returned by close of business, which was 5:00.  However, in their welcome packet there was a list of dining places in the town and luckily the pizza place would deliver, so that was dinner.  Somehow we had generated another load of laundry that needed to be done so off to the laundry we went.  
 This was the date of the famous "Blue Moon" and here was our view of it:

Monday 19 August 2013

Up early to do laundry (our moldy closet stuff) and finalize bills with the marina.  Once laundry was done we walked downtown to eat lunch at Roger Brown’s restaurant.  Since we were so close to the grocery store, we decided to walk to it and have our transportation take us back to the boat. 
(A semi-poor decision)  It was about a mile to the store, would have been a pleasant walk except it was raining.  Someone (Tim) had decided to not bring the umbrella).  We had Helen from the Port Transportation place come pick us up at the Food Lion Grocery Store because we did not want to carry our store purchases back to the boat by foot.  Once we got in the cab, I told Helen that we needed to go to West Marine to pick up a Cruising Guide Book.  It was only 8 miles away.  Traffic was terrible, after 30 minutes, we had not made it 2 miles and the meter on the cab was at $30.00.  Once we got thru the traffic jam all went well until we arrived at West Marine.   They did not have the book we needed so we bought a hundred dollars worth of other stuff.  The return to the marina was uneventful.  (Cab bill: $50.00) After putting our stuff away, we walked about a half mile away to another marina, which of course, had the book we needed.  Then a stop at the Dollar General Store for new hangars and we were set.

Sunday 18 August 2013

Departed Kansas City flying to Norfolk, Virginia.  We will arrive at Norfolk around 9:30 P.M..  We are having Helen, of Port Transportation, pick us up and take us to the marina.  Once we got in the van she told us that the tunnel under the river was closed on weekends and we would need to take a extra 5 mile detour.  Once at the marina, we moved back onto the boat.  All was well, except;;;;;. The entry way into the cabin has a foot well with a drain.  The drain had become clogged with stuff and with all of the rain that had occurred, water had overflowed the entry door into the boat, running down inside our hanging locker (closet) and soaking all of the clothes and other stuff that was in there. Shirts that were on non-vinyl coated hangars had rust stains on them.