This morning, Eric went to a hydraulic service center near downtown Norfolk, which was southeast of where we were in Little Creek, to buy the proper size fittings for the new transfer pump. Eric wasn’t happy with the selection, so he went to another store in Portsmouth with better selection. Little Creek was surprisingly far from downtown Norfolk, and downtown Portsmouth was surprisingly close to Downtown Norfolk, though to get there, he had to take a toll tunnel under the Elizabeth River. When he got back to Kosmos, he went to work on replacing the transfer pump. Much to his chagrin, the fittings were the right size, but were the wrong configuration for the space it needed to go into. Since he had to go back to Portsmouth to exchange the fittings anyways, we made plans to meet some people over there.
We have another friend who moved to Virginia, Ed. Ed lived a couple of hours away from Norfolk, so Portsmouth was a tad bit shorter of a drive for him. He met us for lunch in Portsmouth, at a Thai restaurant in the Town Square, which was the heart of historic Portsmouth.
Sunday, June 29 — View of the channel from the bridge taken during a morning walk. Kosmos is in the marina to the right, in the first row long the channel.
Statue near the bridge
This morning, Eric was feeling motivated to tackle some boat projects. But first, he transferred fuel into the day tank. Eric normally kept the day tank full. But because the fuel transfer pump wasn’t working, he’d let the day tank get low. The reason was that he normally used the transfer pump to balance boat. This means that if one fuel tank had more fuel than the other, the boat would tip sideways, so he used the transfer pump to move the fuel between the tanks to ensure the boat was level. Since the transfer pump wasn’t working, he was using the day tank to help with balancing. He’d let the day tank empty out, then he’d move appropriate amounts of fuel from each of the tanks into the day tank as needed for proper balancing.
Saturday, June 28, 2025 — We moved Kosmos to her assigned slip first thing in the morning, when the current was less strong. Eric was able to back in with no problem. Then went through the whole process of situating Kosmos all over again. Since it was a smaller slip, we were able to tie her up much more securely than we had in the other slip.
In the afternoon, Karen and Mark picked us up and gave us a tour of Virginia Beach. Morningstar Marina was on Shore Drive, and we stayed on the same road all the way to the eastern end of Virginia Beach (though the road changed names a few times along the way). The road paralleled the Chesapeake west to Cape Henry (the southern mouth of the bay), then turned south and ran along the ocean.
Along the way, we passed a huge military base (3 miles long!), a large state park that appeared to be undeveloped land, several quaint neighborhoods that looked to be higher-end, and eventually got to the touristy area, called Oceanfront. In the neighborhoods, we could see glimpses of beach between the homes; in Ocean Front, there was what seemed like a giant wall of relatively new, tightly packed condos and hotels blocking the view of the beach from the road (for the most part. There were glimpses here and there). On the other side of the road, it was one shopping center after another with assorted shops and restaurants. We were able to snap some photos of Oceanfront at the red lights.
This week has been fun. Saturday and Sunday were both boring passage days. On Monday, we arrived in Deltaville. The marina we were at was nice enough. A boat with kids was having a potluck, so we went for a while, but then the marina said we had to move the boat to a different slip. On Tuesday, we went to a restaurant called The Galley, which had good food. I tried Old Bay for the first time, and it was really good. Unfortunately, mom couldn’t get much to eat because Old Bay has pepper in it. When we got back, we went to the pool with the two kid boats.
Keith entertaining himself on passage
Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi et Dimanche étaient des jours de voyage ennuyant. Lundi, on est arrivé à Deltaville. Le marina était plutot simpa. Des bateaux avec des enfants faisaient un potluck, donc on y est allé, mais après la marina a dit qu’on devait déplacer le bateau. Mardi, nous sommes allés à un restaurant qui s’appelle Le Galley, qui avait de bon nouriture. J’ai essayé Old Bay pour la première fois, et c’était très bon. Malheureusement, maman pouvait ne pas manger beaucoup parce que Old Bay est cuisiné avec du poivre. Quant on est rentré, j’ai joué à la piscine avec les enfants des autres bateaux.
The Galley, where almost everything had Old Bay Seasoning in it
On Wednesday, dad went to the local boat store, and after that we said goodbye to one of the kid boats, who was leaving. After that we played a card game with the other kid boat, which was fun. On Thursday, we went to lunch at a restaurant called The Table. We happened to find the other kid boat there. We ate lunch with them, then went back to The Table with them for dinner. On Friday we took Kosmos to a city called Norfolk. It was an eight hour passage, and it was kind of rough for the first part. We had dinner at the marina and later had dessert with one of mom’s friends that lives nearby.
Mercredi, papa est allé à la boutique locale pour les bateaux, puis on a dit au revoir à un des bateau avec enfants qui partait. Apres ça nous avons joué à un jeux de cartes avec l’autre bateau avec des enfants, qui était amusant. Jeudi, nous avons mangé le déjeuner à un restaurant qui s’appelle La Table. On y a vu les autres enfants du bateau. On a mangé le déjeuner avec eux, puis on y est retourné ensemble pour le dîner. Vendredi, nous sommes allés en bateau à une ville qui s’appelle Norfolk. C’était un voyage de huit heures, et la mer était plutôt agitée pour la première partie. Nous avons dîné à la marina et plus tard nous avons pris un dessert avec l’un des amis de maman qui vit à proximité.
Friday June 27 — As we’d learned the hard way, we needed to leave at a higher tide or else we’d be grounded. We untied at 0550. The day was grey and overcast, and the sun was not visible behind the cloud cover. At first, the sea conditions were surprisingly uncomfortable, with sea spray regularly coming over the bow. It calmed down within an hour or so, though.
For the majority of the trip, we had 2-foot swells and 3-foot wind chop and light wind. There was a fair amount of traffic, and all kinds of boats, including sailboats, trawlers, tiny fishing boats, etc. There were several small craft that AIS identified as “MC experimental” that appeared to be military vessels doing circles. There was a small ship that particularly caught our attention. AIS identified as “High Speed Vessel” that looked like a small research vessel. Later, we found out it was a service vessel for a near-by off-shore wind farm.
Crossing the shipping lane was a little scary. At different points in time, we were on a collision course with 2 different vessels, so we needed to alter course each time to avoid them.
It was hot and humid outside, so Eric ran the generator and the salon and downstairs A/C units the entire 7.5-hour trip.
