Category Archives: Self-Guided Tourist Activities

Boat Repairs, Tidewater Comicon, and Dinner with Cruiser Friends

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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. 

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Touring Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA

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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.

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Keith’s Perspective on Palm Beach, Florida/Le point de vue de Keith sur Palm Beach, en Floride

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This week has been fun. On Saturday we ate at a pizza restaurant called Nico’s, then we got Gelato. 

Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi nous avons mangé à une pizzeria qui s’appele Nico’s, puis on a mangé une glace. 

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The Loggerhead Marine Life Center, Juno Beach, Florida, USA

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Dawn on Friday, May 23

Yesterday, Eric realized that the blackwater tank needed to be fuller in order to get the suction going, so he added some water to the tank. In good news, it worked and he was able to pump out the blackwater tank, although he was concerned that it may not have fully emptied out. 

After morning chores and school, Eric and Keith went to the water park. It was empty, just as it had been on Wednesday. The park had a lot of rides. They went on almost all of them, and the longest wait was 2-minutes. They had a blast. We later found out that the local schools finish the year on Friday, so they were glad they didn’t wait to go. It’s probably crowded when school is out!

In the evening, Johnny and Joanne had us over for dinner again. They also invited another couple they’d been friends with for many years. Joanne made a great dinner and we had a lovely evening with them.

Today, it was rainy. After morning chores and school, we went to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center, which we were told was a turtle sanctuary. We took the road that ran along Singer Island north. While there were plenty of houses and small condo complexes, one hallmark of the island was what felt like a never-ending line of high-rise towers.

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The Manatee Discovery Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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On Wednesday, May 21, it was a hazy morning, obscuring the colors of dawn.

In preparation for the haul out, Eric spent the morning stowing away gear that normally lives on the deck. Moving it all was quite a project. 

Once school and morning chores were done, we drove over to the Manatee Discovery Center. While the center itself looked like it was relatively new, it was located next to an electricity plant in an older, lower socioeconomic area.

We were pleased to find out that there was no admission fee, though donations were accepted. The upstairs was closed today for a private event, but the upstairs had traveling art exhibits and beautiful views, so we didn’t miss any important information about manatees.

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