The Moses Myers House in Norfolk, Virginia

Dawn on Saturday, July 5, 2025

Our plan was to go to historic Ft. Norfolk. There was a marina barbecue from 1300 – 1500 that Eric went to, so we didn’t head out until 1500. When we entered the fort into the map app, it said it was closed on weekends. We decided to go sightseeing in historic downtown Norfolk, anyways, as there were plenty of other things to see. Even though we hadn’t entered the MacArthur Memorial as our destination, the map app sent us to the Memorial’s parking garage. At first we were confused, but then we realized the garage was for the general downtown area, not only the Memorial. Parking was free for the first two-hours, and it was inexpensive for additional time.

When we walked out of the parking garage, the first thing that caught our eye was a church across the street.

We later found out this church was built in 1850 and was designed by Thomas U. Walter, who designed the US Capitol dome. The original steeple toppled over in 1879 and was replaced in 1897.
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Repairs and Errands in Norfolk, Virginia

Sunrise on Tuesday, July 1

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!

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Welcome to Deltaville, Virginia, USA

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.

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