Continued… When the tour concluded, Eric and Keith announced they were hungry. They went to a nearby restaurant called The Deadrise, which was over at the marina.
The food was good and the portions were huge. Keith, who was not a seafood fan, loved the crab dip (even though it wasn’t as good as Haste Away’s).
It looked like the section of the marina closest to the restaurant was closed, as there weren’t any boats in the slips. We were too far away to get a look at the part of the marina that was occupied. There was an anchorage beyond the marina that was deep enough for Kosmos. Given that it was a holiday weekend, we were surprised there weren’t more boats anchored out there.
Christi stayed at the Visitor’s Center and went on the 1500 tour. It began much the same as the 1400 tour had. But instead of stopping at the entrance casement, the group walked on to the four-acre parade ground.
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.
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.
On Saturday, January 25, we all woke up before 0600 PST, despite going to bed so late. Even though we were in San Diego for a week, our body clocks never fully adjusted to the time change, and we felt off-kilter all week. We mostly focused on taking care of “life chores,” the most exciting of which was getting Keith’s braces removed.
On Friday, January 31, we flew back to Panama via a red-eye through Miami. We had been warned that Panama will not allow people with a one-way plane ticket to fly into the country. Like many countries, they welcome tourists, but they want proof that the visitors don’t intend to overstay their welcome. We were told that we’d likely be forced to purchase a ticket back to the US prior to boarding the plane.
Prior to leaving Panama, we’d gotten a letter from the marina stating that Kosmos was docked there. Eric attached it to our US Coast Guard vessel documentation showing that Eric and Christi owned Kosmos, along with a crew list with Keith on it.
On the morning of Wednesday, February 22, we went for another walk along the loop to the old officer’s housing. As we got closer to the abandoned barracks, we could hear the howler monkeys screaming, which sounded otherworldly. We found them near the entrance to the barracks.
When we first walked up, the monkeys went silent and stopped moving. After a couple minutes of watching us watching them, a few of them resumed moving around through the trees. After a few more minutes, they started screaming again, and many more moved around. At the end of the video, Eric zoomed in on the monkeys, and you can see how small the monkeys are. It’s hard to believe such small creatures can make such loud, scary sounds.
