Week 2: Sunshine, Mile 0, Waiting

The weather finally corrected itself with a streak of sunny, cool days. While John negotiated a new consulting gig from the boat, Cindy and I toured Yorktown and lunched at the legendary Yorktown Pub .  With the engine repaired, we left York River Yacht Haven Marina for Portsmouth VA early the next morning.  No wind, but we enjoyed the sunny weather and clear skies.Motoring through Norfolk harbor overwhelmed my sense of place in this world as we were dwarfed by warships being built, decommissioned or readied.  After only a bit of "fancy dancing" backing into a tight slip across from Norfolk in Portsmouth’s Tidewater Marina (Mile 0 on the ICW), our 46' Dolce Vento was a mini boat among a slew of mega motor yachts.  There was a Carnival Cruise ship across the harbor that looked like a star ship overtaking our planet.

Bad news struck again when Cindy found that the engine repair did not stop the weeping fuel leak.  Our two day stop over at Mile 0 has turned into a longer stay as we await arrival of a new injector and Bret, the Yanmar diesel technician from Yorktown, to install it.  Too bad I didn't take Jim up on his offer to gift me his spare injector (You got to have a soft spot in your heart for a guys who is willing to do that!). To keep my stress at bay, I created a new mantra – instead of “oooohhhhhmmmmm” I chant, “One more day o’, day o’, day o”.

The good news is that when we do get going again, we’ll go under the first 65' fixed bridge (at high tide) without having to get up at 5:00 AM to race a rising tide.  Our mast and instruments reach 65’ 3” (with empty water tanks which will be full).  With a 3.5 foot tide,  we will pass under the bridge between high and low tide without knocking off our wind direction instruments (at least 1.5 feet clearance).  The saltwater tide website helps us avoid manual calculations.  Until repairs are completed, we eat pizza, go to the post office and tour Norfolk and Portsmouth.  The sun still shines.