11/9/06
Bicycle, bicycle I want to ride my bicycle
Fully rested we woke late for another day of chores. We were anchored in front of the Deltaville Marina, which had wonderful facilities for transients. They let us use their bikes for the day and we made good use of them. We went to the hardware store, boat supply store and the grocery store. The end result of our escapade was a functional grill and a mounted rod holder on a fully provisioned boat. We also set up our secondary anchor on our stern pulpit. We ventured out on bikes again at dinner time to secure a fuel jug mounting board and to get some dinner. Unfortunately, the hardware store was closed. We did manage to get some steak that turned out fantastic on our now functional boat grill. Beer is always a great purchase, too, but the time spent in the store left us biking home in the dark. I can easily say I was more scared on the pitch black bike ride with no shoulder than I was when I could barely see the bow through the fog.
11/8/06
The fog is upon us
What a crazy day in hindsight. It started normally enough with us rising at 6am to get some much needed ground covered before meeting Dan south of Norfolk in a few days. We pulled up our anchor from the Potomac and headed south down the Chesapeake. Persistent, (our mothers would most likely say stubborn) we tried to get the autopilot working again, although it’s 20 degrees off course at best usually. After adjusting for this deviation it will work for an hour or two and then need some fiddling to hold its course. It is not important enough an instrument to garner much of our attention when we constantly have issues like leaking, etc. The weather was cloudy but warm with no wind until around 12 when the fog fell suddenly. We scrambled to get our radar on and our radar deflectors up. By the time we were getting settled into the fog cruising life the fog had thickened to such an extent that “if you threw a rock you might not see the splash” –Hal. We monitored the VHF hearing chatter from barges and fishermen as they passed each other. Luckily we never were close enough to other vessels for communication to be necessary. Running low on fuel we pulled into a marina around 2:30 to fill up. Upon leaving the marine we noticed a strange sound coming from the engine compartment. We had only made it a mile out when we decided to kill the engine and investigate the rogue sound. One of the belt pulleys was rattling loudly. Brad uncovered that it was most likely our fresh water pump that had warn out bearings. After discussing the options we motored around the point to Jackson creek in Deltaville, Va. We set our anchor and smiled in relief after our engine made it to anchor with out overheating. The rest of the night was spent online ordering parts and on the phone with Linda and Deb for advice. We passed out around 9 exhausted from a disappointing, eventful day.
