Dark, Handsome Hitchhiker

Dark, Handsome Hitchhiker

Tuesday October 27, 2020

He picked us out and we decided to take him along.  It’s hard to refuse such a handsome guy.  At first he was pretty subdued, but after a while he inspected nearly every portion of the boat.  He ate quite a bit, drank a little.  Then he left us without even a thank-you (but not before Mike managed to get a photo).  That’s the way it goes some days.  

We had an early start, hoisting the anchor by 7:30 am (my usual wake-up time).  The morning was gloomy with –you guessed it—FOG. However, the weather forecast told us that the fog would be gone by 9 am, so no worries.  The wind was very light and mostly astern of us leading to an apparent wind of 0 knots most of the day.  Our objective was Norfolk, a pretty long way from Deltaville.  Out first leg of the journey was to the Thimble shoal that can be considered the end of the Chesapeake Bay.  From there you need to cross the shipping lanes and follow along the channel into Norfolk. Don’t forget to keep 500 ft. away from any Naval vessel!  

Everything was going smashingly until we got to the shipping channel.  A gigantic container ship (MSC Athens) was making 18 kts toward us and we weren’t certain that we could get across before it bore down on us.  So we stayed on the north side of the channel until it had passed our location.  Then we made haste to cross its wake and the channel before the next somewhat less gigantic container ship approached.  We made it to the south side of the channel to be greeted by a speeding powerboat—more wake.  Then came the wake of the second container ship.  After a few moments, the engine died.  Mike did his thing with switching the fuel separator—no restart. Then he tried replacing the engine fuel filter.  A restart lasted only a minute or two.  Then he was disconnected the fuel hose and attempted to blow gunk out of the line—not a fix. Then he tried a second aspiration of the fuel hose and a switch to the forward fuel tank. Finally the engine started and stayed running.  We began to motor along.  Our route now approached the Navy docks, where stopping is frowned upon to say the least and an aircraft carrier was leaving the dock! All the while we were sweating, thinking that the engine might conk out again.  Finally, we got to hospital point and threw down the hook.  Strange how a day that started out with so many peaceful hours became quite stressful in a hurry. 

We don’t know exactly what caused the engine problems but suspect a tar-like lump blocking the fuel lines. This was a common problem on our 2017-8 trip but we thought we had solved it by cleaning the  tanks and repeatedly “polishing” the fuel. We’ll investigate tomorrow and get back to you.

Gloria

36 50.660 N, 76 17.960 W

Our "dark, handsome hitchhiker" - a very tired red wing blackbird

He stayed with us for about two hours, gradually gaining more strength. Eventually he flew up to the mast, appeared to catch site of land through the mist and took off. He came back 10 minutes later but didn't stay long on his second visit

The MSC Athens, close to 1000 ft long and doing 18 knots on the channel into Norfolk. If you look at the photo carefully you will see a sailing yacht, a similar size to us, off the bow. maybe that gives you a sense of how humungous these ships are.

We crossed the channel behind MSC Athens and about 3 miles (10 minutes) ahead of a second similar sized ship. Note the foam from wake of MSC Athens and the hideous billowing smog on the downwind side. 

The Norfolk skyline from our anchorage off Hospital Point.