On the passage, Eric had noticed an issue with the newly fixed radio: it was working fine, but it was complaining about low voltage. He spent Wednesday morning on the phone with the company who’d done the repair to troubleshoot the problem. Eric eventually figured out that there was a knob to adjust voltage on the power supply unit (which was behind the panel), and that knob was in a spot where it could have been easily bumped when the converter box was installed. In the course of the troubleshooting, the “expert” gave Eric some incorrect information, which really bothered Eric.
In between phone calls, Eric changed the generator oil and filter, drained the engine oil, and replaced the O ring in the oil drain hose for the main engine. We also went to the boat yard next door to say goodbye to the family that had been hauled out yesterday. They were a really nice family and we hope to see them again when they return.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025 – We felt draggy and off-kilter all day. Even though we had a lot of chores to do, we wound up accomplishing very little.
One of the perks of the marina was that it had a courtesy car that tenants could use between 0900 and 1600. We couldn’t go farther than the grocery store, and we were only supposed to be out for an hour, though they’d allow for more time as long as no one else wanted to use the car. They said they’d call if they needed us to return it right away.
We took the car and had lunch at a restaurant called The Galley. At the Galley, we realized we had no cell coverage, which made us anxious about the marina not being able to contact us should they need the car back right away.
The decor was nautical themed and cheerful. As the name implied, it was primarily a seafood restaurant, serving traditional Chesapeake dishes. However, the menu was big and they had lots of non-seafood choices, as well. Eric ordered a crab and lobster bisque, which was great. Keith ordered a barbecued chicken sandwich, which was served with hush puppies. Hush puppies are deep fried balls of cornmeal. Keith had never tried them before and did not care for them.
Monday, June 23 — By midnight, we could see the lights of Virginia Beach. It was definitely a big city! We’d also exited the Gulf Stream, so our speeds were back to normal — 6-knots at 1650 RPM.
We entered the mouth of the Chesapeake in the wee hours of the morning. Once inside, we hit an adverse current and had to increase RPMs to 1900 to maintain a speed of 6-knots.
We ran on the edge of, but not inside the shipping lane, hoping that would keep us safe from both big ships and fishing traps. One of the scary things about going through an area know for traps at night was that we wouldn’t be able to see the markers on the traps. There was a steady conga line of shipping containers. We also passed a military vessel while it was still dark. Since the vessel looked huge on radar and tiny as we passed it, we believe it was a submarine. Fortunately, with the long days, we weren’t in the dark for long.
Friday, June 20 – Sunday June 22 — On Thursday, we’d mentioned that our speeds inside the Gulf Stream were incredible. Eric had had calculated that if we could maintain a speed of 10.2 knots, we’d get in a full day ahead of schedule, so he’d increased RPMs to 1750 to get us up to 10.2 knots. Then our speed picked up even more, eventually getting to 11.7 knots!
After that peak, our speed slowly crept back down, and by 0800 on Friday, we were doing 10.4 knots. While the extra speed was exciting, we were on track to arrive in the middle of the night, so Eric dropped the RPMs back down to 1650 for a daylight arrival. At 1650 RPM, we were still doing a blazing fast 8.8 knots! The speeds continued to slowly creep down the rest of the day, and by 0800 on Saturday. we were down to 7.1 — which was still a great speed.
On Saturday, the speed slowly crept back up. Eric kept reducing RPMs to keep us on track for a daylight arrival. By midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning, we were doing 9.3 knots at 1500 RPM! On Sunday, our speed was a yo-yo, but we were still averaging a fast enough speed that Eric continued to gradually reduce RPMs to 1425 — and we were still averaging 5.5-knots at 1425!
On Sunday evening at about 2000, Eric changed our course to avoid the shipping lanes in the Chesapeake Bay. The new route added more miles, which was fine as we needed to arrive later, anyways. Once he’d re-routed us, he increased the RPMs to 1650.
On Friday, for most of the day, the sea conditions were the same as they had been on Thursday: 2 -3 foot swells at 5 -6 seconds with 1-2 foot wind chop. But on Friday evening, we were hit with a squall at about 1830. It was ominous on the radar.
The wind went from nearly dead to strong in an instant, and the seas rapidly worsened. We’re pretty sure it rained a little bit. But it passed relatively quickly, and all went back to being calm almost as fast as it had picked up. We could see the silent lightning from the storm for a long time after it had passed.
On Saturday, May 24th we flew to San Diego for three weeks. While we were there, we saw a bunch of friends and family, finished a bunch of science projects that were hard to do on the boat, and I also went to a D&D camp.
Samedi 24 Mai nous avons volé à San Diego pour trois semaines. Pendant que j’y étais, j’ai vu beaucoup d’amis et de familles, j’ai fini beaucoup de projets de sciences qui étaient difficile à faire sur le bateau, et je suis aussi allé à un camp de donjons et dragons.
