Norfolk - Norfolk Yacht and Country Club

 

Sarah was very pleased to be at the wheel - while attending college, remotely

Well, we thought the autopilot was fixed but we spoke too soon. We ran out of time for a sea trial yesterday so we had one this morning at 7:00 am. During the trial, the hard over symptom appeared again! How disappointing. We returned to shore intending to hand steer going south but the tech had one more thing to try - reversing the red and black wires on one of the control lines. He did so and lo and behold, the autopilot came back to life! We can now head south and have the convenience of the autopilot to keep a straight course. We only use the autopilot to maintain a heading which we change as needed with the + and - buttons by looking at the charts.

You can't always go by the rule "pass dredges on the side with the two diamonds"

The trip down was very calm with winds less than 10 kts all the way. Coming into Norfolk we saw a dredge and as we passed by, he was turning. Once turned, the side to pass on was with the balls, not the diamonds. I guess you have to pay more attention than just using the day shapes for passing a dredge. 

The Norfolk Yacht and County Club is a beautiful facility

We made it into Norfolk Yacht by 4:00 pm and we'll empty the water tanks and take on good water for the rest of the trip south. The water in Deltaville is well water and has an off taste. The bridges south of here are all back on a regular schedule, at least for now and we intend taking advantage of that tomorrow. 

We will have a short day tomorrow, only as far as the free dock by Great Bridge and then it's on to Coinjock the next day.