Dawn on Wednesday

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.

Once the issue with the radio was resolved, Eric used the courtesy car to go to West Marine, which was close by, to pick up oil, fuel and water filters. He was disappointed to find that they didn’t have the oil or water filters that we needed. When he’d taken the car, he was told that someone had reserved it for 2:00 pm, so Eric rushed back after parts shopping. 

When we were in the Bahamas, we’d met quite a few families who’d told us they were spending hurricane season in the Chesapeake. We’d also been told about lots of wonderful anchorages all throughout the bay and its tributaries. We’d envisioned ourselves meeting up with a group of families and visiting all these wonderful anchorages with them. Our plan was to make a brief stop in Deltaville, then we’d move to wherever the other families were.

Over the last few days, we’ve contacted many of the families and have been dismayed to find that almost all of them had left their boats in the Chesapeake and gone elsewhere for the summer. We also found out that these anchorages weren’t so wonderful when it was hot and buggy out. So, in between all the other activities, we worked out a new plan. We loved the marina, it was inexpensive, and it was relatively close to many historical sites, so we decided to make this marina our home base and we’d focus on local land travel.

Of course, to travel by land, we needed a car. We rented a car online through Enterprise, which would pick us up from the marina. We then called the local Enterprise office to schedule the pick up for 1600 that day. At 1615, Eric called the local office to see where they were. The woman who answered said that she was alone and couldn’t leave to pick him up. When Eric started to complain that they should have told him they weren’t coming, she said that since he was being difficult, they wouldn’t rent to him at all. Argh!

Now we needed to formulate another plan. We decided to stick with our plan to find a home base marina and rent a car to do local land travel, and we decided that Norfolk would be a good home base.

In the evening, we hung out with Lady Rebel at the captain’s lounge. The sunset was blocked by low atmospheric clouds, but it was still pretty.

Sunrise on Thursday

In the morning, Eric finished changing the engine oil: he put on a new filter, then pumped in new oil. Once Kosmos was operational again, he went to work looking for a marina. He found one and booked it for the next day. Not long after, the A/C in the pilot house mysteriously stopped working. Eric cleaned the sea strainers, but it still didn’t work. Argh!

We borrowed the courtesy car to go out to lunch and finish our grocery shopping. We picked a place called The Table, located in a low, blocky commercial center near The Galley.

The Table was a coffee house/ice cream shop/gourmet foods shop, with an adjacent restaurant. Much to our surprise, Lady Rebel was there. They’d just hauled out this morning and no longer had a kitchen, so they were forced to eat out. We all had lunch together.

The Table had a big menu, with some interesting gourmet sandwiches. Christi ordered the cranberry brie panini with turkey, apple slices, brie and cranberry sauce. It was delicious, though rich.

After lunch, we went back to the grocery store and finished up the shopping that we’d started on Tuesday. Once back at the boat, we focused on getting ready to go to sea.

Lady Rebel invited us to go back The Table with them for dinner, and since they had a car, they kindly shuttled us. The dinner menu was different than it was for lunch and the food was great. We had a nice time with our new friends. Sadly, their cruising plans are very different from ours, so it’s unlikely that we’ll cross paths again next season.

Near the marina was a large open field. As we were driving back from the restaurant, we saw at least a dozen deer in the field. They were standing in several small clusters, and most of the clusters had a fawn or two in it.