Continued… From Adeline’s room, we moved into the part of the slaves quarters that was above the utility room. The signs said that the Myers had dozens of slaves over the decades, but didn’t say how many slaves the household typically had at any given time. The guides did tell us, but we don’t remember now. But we do remember they always had several, not only one or two. There was a big binder full of information that we didn’t read. Some of the displays on the walls were bills of sale for the various people. One display showed a bill of sale for a mother and daughter. In the bankruptcy inventory, they were identified as “washer and daughter.” John Myers did allow at least one of his slaves to purchase his freedom. We didn’t go into the portion of the slaves quarters over the kitchen.
View of the back yard from the slave’s quarters. What is now a parking garage was once a creek.Continue reading →
On Friday, July 4, Eric started the day by doing an inventory of spare parts we had onboard. He created a list of spare parts that we need to stock up on.
Karen had told us that Fort Monroe was having special events today. The events started at 0845 and ended with the biggest fireworks show in Virginia at 2115. We figured it was fitting to spend Independence Day at Fort Monroe since it was one of the most important locations in early American history and a pivotal part of winning the War of Independence. As the bird flies, the fort was on the southern tip of a peninsula just a little bit northeast of Morningstar marina, and to get there by car, we went through a tunnel under the James River.
The tip of the peninsula that Fort Monroe sat on was named Old Point Comfort. The king of England had authorized a colony to be established in Virginia, and Old Point Comfort was the first place the new settlers had stopped upon entering the Chesapeake Bay in 1607. They picked the name Poynt Comfort because it was a deepwater port that was safe for ships, and the local indigenous people were kind to the newcomers. The signs didn’t clarify when the “Old” was added to the name.
The settlers wanted to set up their new colony there, but the charter issued by the king had ordered them to go farther inland, so they set up Jamestown farther northeast. Two years later, the colonists realized that since the mouth of the Chesapeake was visible from Poynt Comfort, it was an important lookout point to watch for any Spaniards or Portuguese invaders, so they built a fort at Poynt Comfort.
As soon as we drove into the fort, we were struck by how it didn’t look at all like a modern military base. The bases we were used to seeing had blocky, utilitarian buildings. We passed dozens of charming old brick buildings. Most appeared to be residential buildings, and they looked occupied.
On Tuesday morning, Eric went back to the hydraulic store in Portsmouth to exchange the fittings. He found fittings with angles that would work better in the space we had. Upon return, he finished installing the transfer pump. Much to his aggravation, one of the fittings was leaking. It was too hot to keep working in the engine room, so he gave up for the day.
On Wednesday morning, Eric took apart, tightened and resealed both fittings on the fuel transfer pump. Since the transfer pump had fuel in it, it was messy. He captured the majority of the fuel in a bucket and used the oil pads (AKA diapers) to suck up the rest. In great news, it wasn’t leaking anymore! He started the transfer pump and it worked! Woo hoo!
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.
