Onancock Wharf – At a dock



The Onancock Wharf clubhouse

 Well, it was a beautiful day but there was no wind. We motored out of the yacht club but I strayed from the path in the channel I took on the way in and I ran aground. After 8 months of cruising along the ICW, running aground is no longer a big deal. I backed out and altered course to the north and had no further problems. It’s somewhat surprising how you become accustomed to shallow water. Running aground is no big deal anymore. The bottom along the ICW is either sand or soft mud which causes no damage except to your ego.

Dinner with a flower!

With the lack of wind, we reverted to the iron genny and motored our way across the Chesapeake to Onancock and took a town dock. It is a long way in, over 6 miles through a narrow but deep channel. We found an outstanding restaurant, The Mallard. The chef was professionally trained and took great pride in his menu. He was personally present for the serving of every plate. We bought his cookbook which also included music from his band. I’m sure we’ll be trying out several of his creations during our trip north.

The town itself reminds one of the towns in Maine with the layout of the streets and the houses with the green grass lawns. There are many restaurants along with lots of interesting shops but the best restaurant is The Mallard where we ate.

On Sunday it’s off to Solomens on our way north.

Fishing Bay Yacht Club – At a free dock



Fishing Bay Yacht Club docks

 With the genset finally repaired, it was time to move on north. Our goal was the Fishing Bay Yacht Club, about 40 miles up the Chesapeake. First we took on fuel and as we started the engine, we noticed that the autopilot would not turn on. Oh no, not again. The first thing to check are always the connections, especially with Raytheon instruments with Seatalk plugs which are famous for working loose. They do not have a positive latch to keep them in their socket which is a design flaw for a boat given all the motion, bumps, vibration, etc. Sure enough, the plug in the back of the autopilot head mounted on the binnacle was loose. Pushing it back in cured the problem and taping the lead to the nearest post further helped to keep it that way. On a boat you become your own fix-it man or go broke. If the genset ever speeds up again in rpm, I’ll know what to do. I do make a point of carrying spares of all major wearout items so at least I don’t have to pay retail for replacements if they fail. Even if installation requires expert help, it still pays to have the spares on-board which saves both time and money.

Note the construction of the fixed docks, typical of area

With a 15 to 20 kt wind all day long out of the southwest, we sailed almost all the way north, about 6 hours of sailing. The channel into the yacht club is very narrow and at one point it appears to go within 100 feet of shore before a sharp turn to port. As I approached the entrance, the boat next to me suddenly pulled up (I thought he was going through first) and held up the radio. We called and he said, “I’ll follow you in!” Right. So I led the parade down the channel with the warning from the yacht club of “Be sure to stay in the channel, it’s very narrow” still ringing in my ear. Naturally, about mid-way through the channel, another boat was coming out so we passed very close (Why couldn’t he wait??)

The Fishing Bay Yacht Club has two free docks for visitors from other yacht clubs. The docks come with electricity and water along with showers and restrooms ashore which are spotless. Given that the docks are extremely well protected, it’s a perfect stop-over.

We’re off again on Saturday across the bay, hopefully with some wind left over from today.

Sunset Boating Center – The genset gets fixed!

Bass Outdoor World - a fun store to explore

I met our Panda repairman this morning as he came to the boat to re-look at fixing the genset. Now that at least it is pumping water, he can focus on fixing the electrical over-voltage condition. This morning he was convinced it was in the electronics, perhaps a stuck relay. After a couple more hours and calls to his backup expert he couldn’t find the problem. Eventually his expert came to the boat and together they found the problem.

On the Panda genset, the speed of the motor determines the frequency of the output voltage. It ought to be 62 to 63 Hertz under a no-load condition. The genset was producing 64.2 Hertz and 139 volts, much too high. Looking at the engine, they found a worn spot where the rpm adjustment lever rests against the metal of the engine block. After 7 years of use, the lever had rubbed a small depression in the metal of the engine block at that spot. This allowed the lever to depress more than originally set and sped up the engine rpms. When the expert put a screwdriver under the lever to raise it to the level originally set, the genset output the right voltage and Hertz cycles!

Bass Outdoor World in-store aquarium

Armed with that information, they put a set screw through the lever and raised it to the originally set level and brought the genset back to spec on voltage and cycles per second (Hertz). Thinking about it after the fact, it all makes sense. It was basically a wear down issue, metal to metal. The later model Pandas have a set screw to address just such a problem but not mine, an earlier model. Furthermore, Panda technical support never suggested looking at the lever which can be seen external to the engine block. They have since been updated and hopefully will be able to help in solving similar problems in the future, I was the guinea pig.

Meanwhile, I took Ann to the local walk-in clinic and was I ever surprised! The clinic was outstanding. It looked like the future of medical support. You signed in on a computer touch screen so all your information was free of typos and we were spared the constant request to “spell Sherer”. Once inside, Ann was tested for weight, heart rate, blood pressure, O2 content and sent to a waiting room. Not more than 5 minutes later, the doctor appeared and carefully examined Ann, asking pertinent questions followed by a diagnosis and prescriptions which he filled out on the spot after sliding a panel to open a door to a computer where he typed in all the information including the prescriptions. I was very impressed with the efficiency and friendliness of all the staff. Before Ann could leave, she was asked to rate the performance of the staff including the doctor on a scale of 0 to 5 on a computer monitor. So the entire staff got instant feedback on how they did that very day, very impressive. Ann is now fixed up with meds for her trip north and she feels much, much better about that!

Friday we’re off north again, sailing with the Bunches and hopefully a south wind.

Sunset Boat Center – At a dock

37 beers on tap!

We’re here to get our genset repaired. The original reason was to correct an over-voltage condition but just before coming, the genset quit pumping cooling water overboard. So that condition had to be repaired before working on the over-voltage problem. As it turned out, the repairman spent about 6 hours trying to correct the problem. In the process of trying to get cooling water to pump out, he replaced the water pump, re-routed the water supply line, bled the water output – none of which corrected the problem.

Finally I suggested tackling the problems one area at a time instead of the shotgun approach. Step 1 was to see if the pump would output water if it was fed directly from a bucket instead of the water filter and seacock. Answer was no. Step 2, would it pump water if the hose directly aft of the pump was opened. Answer, it did! Therefore, the pump was okay and the problem was downline of the pump, somewhere in the engine cooling system. We back flushed the cooling plumbing in the engine and tried again – it pumped water! There was evidently some obstruction in the cooling system that the back-flush fixed, at least for the moment. However, all this consumed the entire day (and a new water pump!) The genset specialist is due tomorrow to address the over-voltage condition. Hopefully it’s a simple matter of an adjustment? (ha) All this does show the value of separately testing parts of system instead of a shotgun approach.

After all this discouraging work, we retired with Don and Liz Bunch to sample some of the 37 beers on tap at the local restaurant. I found a smooth, light beer that was incredible, very good. The food consisted mostly of sandwiches but they also had fresh seafood if you wanted it.

Properly fortified, I now feel up to facing the genset once again on Thursday – hopefully with better results – and quicker!

Sunset Creek Marina at Hampton, VA – At a dock

View out the back on the Dismal Swamp Canal

In the Dismal Swamp Canal the locks only open at certain times. You can’t just request an opening like you can on some bridges. For our passage, the times of openings were 8:30 am, 11:00 am, 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm. You had to be ready to go when the gates opened. If you were 5 minutes late, too bad, you would have to wait for the next scheduled opening. So we motored along to make the 11:00 opening. As you can see, the canal is straight as an arrow and gets rather narrow in spots. It averages 7 to 8 ft deep but there are many parts with 6 ft depths for short stretches.



One of two aircraft carriers in port

 We made the locks on time and headed to the one bridge that’s not very accommodating to boaters, the Gilmerton Bridge. It’s not open at all from 6:30 – 8:30 am and from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. In-between it’s only open on the half-hour (e.g., 10:30, 11:30, etc.) With so few openings, there’s always a traffic jam in both directions when it does open.

Norfolk is a big naval center and we saw two aircraft carriers along the docks! They had a moveable, floating fence all around each carrier with a little tugboat that would pull the floating fence open and shut for incoming traffic. Going through this stretch of the ICW is like New York Harbor, always busy, lots of wave action from the passing traffic but always interesting.

We’re in Sunset Creek Marina to have the over voltage condition of our genset looked at. That session starts around 9:00 am on Wednesday. We’re also due to get a change of weather that day with rain and thunderstorms followed by Thursday with a high of only 60 as the north winds pump in behind the cold front! Today it was 80, some change coming.

Dismal Swamp Canal Visitors’ Center – At the bulkhead

8 ft to go

The wind finally did die off last night and we had a peaceful evening and calm morning for shoving off. The boats in the flotilla headed off at different times, representing their relative speed they could maintain since the lock into the canal only opened at specific times. In our case we wanted to make the 11:00 lock opening so we left at 8:30. Some of the smaller boats had to leave at 7:30 to arrive in time. Once in the lock, you tie up to the side and watch the water level rise with the opening of the other end of the lock. In this case, the water rose 8 ft.

Counting us, there were four boats at the bulkhead at the visitors’ center. It doubles as a rest stop for the adjacent highway. There is no fee for staying overnight at the bulkhead. There’s water available but no electricity. However, the area is beautiful and calm, nothing more to ask.

Good food, good conversation

With four boats gathered we decided to have a potluck dinner which is part of the fun in traveling in a group. So we had drinks, dinner and related boating stories through the evening. It was helped by the fact that there were no bugs! They say that the water in the canal doesn’t support mosquitoes since the water is always moving – has a current – and the mosquitoes don’t get a chance to hatch. For whatever reason, I’ll take the end results – no bugs. On Tuesday it’s on to Hampton, VA and work required on our genset.

Elizabeth City – At the town free docks

Elizabeth City is a big center for blimps

The boat ahead of us had a 5’ 9” keel but still made it through the channel out of the Alligator River Marina although he came to a halt and had to power forward to plow through the mud to get out. We followed and saw 4.9 ft on the depth sounder and didn’t touch bottom. I figured we had about an inch of water between us and the mud bottom – but it was enough, no problem.

The wind was on the button of course as we headed north but as we cleared the Alligator River entrance, we put up our sails and had an enjoyable ride for almost two hours before the wind died.

Fixed docks - lots of hard things to bang into if you're not careful

Coming into Elizabeth City we expected to see the “Rose Buddies” to help us into the dock but with it being a Sunday I guess everybody was off-duty and we made it in by ourselves. The dock is free, the best part, but it does lack conveniences. First of all, you have to be very careful in docking so as not to ram into the stonewall at the end of the dock (you dock bow in). The docks are fixed, not floating and four piers are at the four corners to be used as tie-off points for the boat. It’s actually a good arrangement in that it keeps the boat from hitting anything (once you have everything tied-off!) We were lucky that when we docked the wind had died off completely so we had a relatively easy time of it.

Don and Liz Bunch and their cruising flotilla arrived a couple of hours later and we helped them find the right slip and offered a hand for lines. The wind started to blow pretty good out of the south which is not a good direction for the Elizabeth City docks which are wide open in that direction. Still, we weren't too bad and we all walked to dinner next door and shared cruising stories. The group is headed north to the visitors’ center in the Dismal Canal on Monday with a pot-luck dinner in store for the evening, should be fun.