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.

Nothing But The Facts

A brief summary of the journey:

116 nights spent on the boat;

4282 water miles traveled;

Also check out the new item on the Blog Page, top right, The JULI-IV Journey Map.  It shows all stops and dates thus far of the trip.

See you all later in August.

20 June 2013 – Thursday

Our task for today is to cruise to the Chesapeake Bay.  This is about 15 miles away and we would pass the Norfolk Navy Base.  Many of our proud Navy ships are home ported here. 

A Billets Ship that the crew lives on while their ship is in repair status

The USS New York, Its bow was cast from salvage steel from the World Trade Center

USS Abraham Lincoln in drydock

USS George H W Bush

Once we got to within about 3 miles of the bay itself the water got too rough to continue so we headed back to the marina.  There we washed the boat and made her ready to be abandoned for a month or so.  During our visit downtown, we had noticed a movie theatre that looked interesting.  Beth checked it out and it turned out to be a “Dinner Theatre” which was showing this evening “Man of Steel”.  Now our daughter Jessica had reported that this was a great movie.  Beth and I got on the bikes and headed downtown to purchase our theatre tickets.  It was a fun ride.  Once we had the tickets we rode around for a couple of miles checking out the sights.  There are several museums that we will tour when we return to this area.  We returned to the boat and got Joe ready for his “Dinner Theatre” experience.  We walked to the theatre and dined on fine chicken strips and such.  The interior of the theatre was very well done with a couple of great historical murals on the side walls. 

 
The movie began and for those of you who have seen it, you recall that it is non-stop explosions and other loud noises.  On the walk back to the boat I tried to leap into the air and fly several times.  It did not work well.  Tomorrow, 21 June, we will be picked up by a cab and delivered to the Norfolk airport for our flight home to Kansas.  See you all later.

19 June 2013 – Wednesday

We got up early this morning suspecting that we might be fogged in but it was only cloudy.  The large yacht in front of us was untying its lines ahead of us and the un-official crew member was running up and the dock like a monkey heaving lines on board.  The yacht was being forced away from the dock by the wind and current.  The Captain finally crashed the bow of the yacht into a dock piling (he would not be working for me today) and the monkey man jumped aboard.  That was the last we ever saw of them. Now we are headed to the Norfolk/Portsmouth, VA area today.  We are finally back in civilization and have to deal with bridges that require them to open as we are too tall for them.  Several are on a schedule and will not open on demand.  This requires timing and pacing to arrive at the next one to minimize idling and circling time.  There is also one lock to go through with a low bridge just beyond it. The bridge is timed to open simultaneously with the lock.  By the time we got to the lock, our group consisted of 6 large sailboats and three power boats.  The sail boaters apparently had not much experience with locks as it took them forever to get into place.  The lockmaster was repeatedly urging them to hurry up (reaming them).  Once through, we sped up to get to the next bridge opening.  We were early for the official opening, but it appeared that we could easily get under the bridge with it closed.  But we waited.  Once through, it was determined that the cruising guides were not current and the old low bridge had been replaced with a new tall bridge.  On we headed to Norfolk.  The area we were travelling through was filled with shipyards doing much work on U.S. Navy ships. 

 We arrived at Ocean Marine Marina and checked in.  The people here are super.  We secured the boat in the slip in which she will sit for the next month or so and relaxed.  We all walked to the Portsmouth downtown area, about a mile away.  We had dinner at Roger Browns Restaurant, he is a former NFL player from this area.  He played pro ball during the early 60’s.  Food was great.  We than stopped next door at the dollar store to get some essentials, (cookies).  There we were cashed out by “Wes” who told us he is really a recording artist, just not today.  We walked back to the boat and turned in.

18 June 2013 – Tuesday

Got up early for another long day.  We also have to decide whether to take the Virginia Cut course or go through the Dismal Swamp route. The large yacht was pulling out just ahead of us.  We decided that we would experience the Dismal Swamp route another time. So, we are headed to Coinjock Marina.  It is the only place between Dowry Creek and Virginia on this route.  I called ahead to the marina and was told that they were full for the evening, but they would put us on a waiting list in case someone cancelled.  We had to cross the Albemarle Sound but before we got to the sound we determined that we should top off our fuel supply.  There was a fuel stop located on the Alligator River just short of entering the Sound.  It turns out it was a small marina next to the main highway with fuel pumps near the water.  Gas was only $3.67 per gallon.  We were initially delighted, then read the fine print that the gas had ethanol added.  The first ethanol in JULI-IVs tanks ever.  We shall see what happens.  Hopefully, we will be rid of it pretty quickly.  Pulled out of the marina and were surrounded by a plague of crab pots.  The wind was blowing 25 mph and waves were 3-4 feet.  The autopilot could not keep up and we drifted over a crab pot marker and I put the engines in neutral and asked Joe if the marker had appeared astern.  He said NO!  Now we were drifting abeam to these 3-4 foot waves and unable to use power since we now had a crab pot line wrapped around our props/rudders. Beth quickly provided the answer to drop the anchor to keep our nose into the wind/waves which we did (good thinking).  Joe then slid into the water and determined that indeed we had a line wrapped around the prop shaft.  He took his knife and went under to cut it free.  Now this is under the boat with it crashing up and down 3-4 feet every 10 seconds.  He not only succeeded, but survived with no injuries, other than a knife wound to his chest.  Anchor up and we were under way again.  The weather got much worse in the sound with rain so heavy we could not see 50 feet in front of us, thank goodness for radar. During the crossing, the Coinjock Marina called me and said they could fit us in.  When we arrived at the marina we were amazed at the quantity and size of boats tied up.  We were clearly the smallest.  

This dock was about 1500 feet long with many 100 foot plus mega yachts tied up.  They maximized every inch of space moving us between two mega yachts with inches to spare fore and aft.  This marina also advertised the finest prime rib available anywhere.  I can attest to the fact that is very good.  The Yacht that had been tied up at Dowry Creek with us the night before was magically right in front of us and we visited with the crew of three.  They were delivering it for the owner to Rhode Island, because that’s where he wanted to have cocktails on it next.  They had spent the spring in the Bahamas. (rough life, almost as rough as ours).  One of the crew was not an official member of the crew, just a friend of the Captains from a previous life.