We entered the "cart" and after a few seconds Kay had the gasoline engine fired up and off we sped. I could not help but notice: no seat belts, no air bags, no ejection seat. Yikes.
Bay Creek Marina
Cape Charles VA
Friday, May 21
Latitude: 37 16.73' N
Longitude: 076 00.57' W
All that worry about the Air Conditioner and until earlier today all we used was the heat. The only reason we used the A/C today was we planned on going into Old Town Cape Charles for lunch. This meant shutting the junior crew into the closed boat for the protection of all fellow boaters who do nor favor being pestered and/or licked to death.
Going into Cape Charles means renting what is euphemistically called a golf cart, but, to my eyes, appears to be a rocket propelled rolling coffin. Kay,however, is the driver and not at all worried about this transportation of choice. When we picked up the keys I expected an operational debriefing. Nope. Was Kay concerned? Nope. "I will figure it out."
We entered the "cart" and after a few seconds Kay had the gasoline engine fired up and off we sped. I could not help but notice: no seat belts, no air bags, no ejection seat. Yikes.
We arrived in good shape in downtown Cape Charles 15 or 20 minutes later. We had lunch at the Cape Charles Coffee House and enjoyed its "gourmet style" sandwiches as we did last year. However, its most memorable feature is the warning sign on the wall.
| Unattended children will be given an expresso and a puppy |
Double Yikes.
They also sell wine and I picked up two bottles of Malbec, my latest favorite, which I held tight to my chest as we sped back to the marina.
The marina is still relatively vacant of transient boaters and we look forward to the arrival tomorrow of the Honeycutts and their crew of Yorkies. Meanwhile, I resist worrying about what the weather will be like when we have to leave. After all that is several days yet into the future. What could go wrong?
To be successful in cruising you eventually have to learn not to worry about the future. It may take thirty years to learn that and it takes only one or two to forget. So, "What, me worry."
Bay Creek Marina
Cape Charles VA
SATURDAY, May 22
Latitude: 37 16.73' N
Longitude: 076 00.57' W
Two things happened today at about the same time. Around 1:00 our good friends and long time cruising companions arrived on KaiLani their Hunter 43. It was good to be back with them again.
Just before they arrived Kay and I made what can be described as an unfortunate discovery. I was puzzled when we tied up in the slip on Wednesday and discovered that we used almost 5 gallons of diesel. In the past it would have been closer to two gallons. So earlier today I got 5 gallons of diesel and added it to the tank while Kay monitored the tank mounted fuel gauge. I "filled" our 20 gallon tank. THEN:
Carl "How are we now?"
Kay "Still at the same reading"
Carl "Can't be. Let me take a look"
Seeing that it still showed the tank 5 gallons low, I did what every man would do.
I tapped it
AND
It disintegrated!
OK, now that raises some questions.
How long has it been bad?
A day?
A month?
A year?
Did we really start out with a full tank?
3/4 tank?
1/2 tank?
1/4 tank?
And, most important, how much do we really have now?
The only thing we can be sure of is we now have somewhere between 5 and 20 gallons in the tank. If it is full adding more fuel and causing an overflow will make us about as popular as BP is now. Not a good idea. On the other hand Murphy's Law certainly still applies: "If something is going to go wrong it will happen at the worst possible time." So conversely we don't want to run out of fuel under conditions, which will surely happen, when, it will be exceedingly exciting to try to refuel and restart a fuel starved Diesel Engine.
I will have to think about this.
Bay Creek Marina
Cape Charles VA
Sunday, ay 23
Latitude: 37 16.73' N
Longitude: 076 00.57' W
It turns out that the presumed full tank we thought we had when we left Salt Ponds for the Eastern Shore was actually closer to a half tank. How much fun we would have had if we had chosen to head for the (much further) Tides Inn? Lucky us.
We have a whistler on our fuel tank vent line which supposedly whistles when air is forced through it while fueling. It stops when the fuel reaches its opening. Then You stop the fueling. Foolproof unless you are somewhat deaf like me or, despite otherwise perfect hearing, you can't hear that particular frequency. Kay falls in the latter category, but, despite my hearing problem I THINK I can just hear the whistle.
Yesterday without misadventure, and with more fuel to add, we established that, first, I do indeed hear the whistle, and, second, our tank is now full.
This morning with Dennis driving the death cart, Karen as copilot and Kay and I facing backwards in the jump seats, we all headed to town. Riding backwards gives you an excellent view of the cars that are waiting to run over you if you don't keep a death grip on every near support. Again no problem there or back with stops in between for a Sunday Brunch and numerous excursions by most of us into a plethora of many interesting little shops. (While I stayed outside smoking my pipe.)
Bay Creek Marina
Cape Charles VA
Tuesday, ay 25
Latitude: 37 16.73' N
Longitude: 076 00.57' W
Last night we cooked out with the Honeycutts. The central pier is two stories with the upper story ending in a palatial outside lounge and cookout area. It is furnished with a large multiple burner propane grill for the use os guests. Unfortunately it was down for its 50,000 mile service. No problem, we had one of those SURFIRE, instant light, disposal grills to go. The only thing about its name that turned out accurate was the "disposal". No problem, we would bring up the Honeycutt's portable propane grill which will mount to any horizontal pipe, railing or tube. Problem, there were no horizontal structures of the above types. We put our eleven heads (including Yorks) together and came up with a solution which included a rescueded beach chair, two large cast iron pipes and a tilted over fiberglass chairs. Actually we had to keep adding counter weights as we added steaks to the grill. I can only hope one of the pictures I took of the resulting contraption turns out.
Tomorrow we will probably take advantage of what the weather report purports to be peaceful and move up the eastern shore to Onancock. Results to come.
Onancock Wharf
Slip 7
Onancock VA
Thursday, May 27
Latitude: 37 42.68' N
Longitude: 075 45.29' W
The trip to Onancock was indeed peaceful, if a little cold to start and then a little hot. Actually at the end, it was really hot both literally and metaphorically. Most creeks on the Eastern Shore are shallow. That shore of the Bay is part of a peninsula so narrow it would be hard for any flowing water to build up much "steam." Onancock creek is an exception as a gravel barge regularly clears a channel along the creek as it wanders to its entrance into the Bay. I am not sure of the barges beam , but the channel is not wide. There are 39 navigation markers (including 9A and 34A) running from "1" to "37" and we made it through 35 of them when I asked Kay what was the depth reading. She barely said 7 feet when suddenly, we both knew it had just become 4.5' and we were aground. Very puzzling since we were on the correct side of, and less than 25 feet from, "34A". For awhile we seemed blocked in all direction, but eventually Spindrift found its way though, over, or around whatever was blocking its progress and made its way to Onancock wharf. That wasn't the end of it. The slips are short and many of the boats much longer than the slips. That coupled with the need to approach the slips from the side and our inability to see the Dock Master led to a less than peaceful entrance into our slip.
The slips at Onancock are "30-year-old" slips. In this case that is not the age of the slips, but to my last age when their design did not faze me. Though not at all unusual in design, that is, narrow in width with a short finger pier tapering from narrow to ridiculous. To add to the fun, the bow rope runs from the deck cleat to a piling on the other side of the finger pier. This means when getting off the boat and treading the finger pier to shore, upon reaching the dock line you have to figure out whether to "hop, skip or jump." The " trick is made more interesting because the tidal range here is 2.5 feet, meaning, that the height of the dock line above the finger pier changes with the tide. Now imagine taking three Yorkies off the boat. They reach the dock line and they with leashes attached sensibly go under the line. You are on the other side holding the leashes. What do you do? The only reasonable solution is you do the Limbo. Of course, that was much easier to do at 30, at 60++ you must find a more complicated and less graceful solution.
The high tidal variation also creates a physics problem in how you tie up the boat. What works at low tide (when we arrived) won't work at high tide. So I stayed up to midnight for the next high tide to make sure I, along with help from Dennis off Kailani, had it all right.
We did.
The truth is that we are spoiled by floating docks which were rare when we started cruising and now quite common at places like Salt Ponds and Bay Creek. With them docking is much like parking your car in a parking lot. You pull into your slip. fasten three lines to deck cock cleats and you are good and done.
While docking at Onancock, Kay had Spindrift in the slip but could not understand why she could not move further forward. The depth meter told her. The front of our boat was in 2.6 feet of water. We were aground in the slip. Not the first time we were assured that "Yes, there is plenty of water for your boat" and there wasn't. Considering the problems encountered, and the very hot Sun, the only other thing that could go wrong was the Air Conditioner, and it did. That is it did NOT work. I tried all the fixes I described earlier. No luck. At this point we were hot, tired and entirely impatient. I proposed taking things apart. Kay for some reason thought this a very bad idea. (Possibly based on past performance with anything more complicated than a pencil sharpener.) Instead she proposed something I knew could not work. Without going into details, in essence she proposed running it off the fresh water tank for awhile. "Nuts", said I. Ten minutes later (after switching back to sea water) while the A/C ran perfectly and continued to do so, "Thanks", said I.
Onancock Wharf
Onancock VA
Friday, May 288
Latitude: 37 42.68' N
Longitude: 075 45.29' W
Today is much cooler and we have turned off the Air Conditioner to appreciate the cool breeze. I am sure that you can imagine what we are imagining for the future operation of said device, next time it is needed? Oh well, we have faith?
Onancock is a beautiful town not much changed from when we were last here 15 or 20 years ago. It is aggressively pet friendly, which is a nice change from the norm and it now has Bus service. As to the latter, Kay is trying it out now. Hopefully she is headed for a grocery store to replenish our seriously depleted supplies.
Dennis and Karen, off the Kailani, originally were scheduled to move North today, have decided to stay at least until tomorrow. After 20 years of cruising together with them, it will be much less fun when we separate again. but they are on a schedule and we are not.
LATER 3:30 PM the same day
Kay just called. She and groceries are off the Bus at the Post Office stop. Mission a complete success. She has a collapsible cart with her and Kay, cart, and food should be here shortly. So now I and the dogs can relax and enjoy Onancock's selection of either two radio stations or two TV stations.
Carl