Portsmouth and Propane

Portsmouth and Propane

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Just as breakfast was nearly cooked, we ran out of propane.  When Mike changed over to another tank, he discovered that one of the “spare tanks” was also empty.  We have no idea how this came to be.  Mike thinks we may have left it empty but I feel confident that we have refilled each one that we emptied along the way.  Who knows how this happened.  I hate to think that an entire tank of propane leaked out...

Once again Mike was cycling to the propane re-fill place.  It must be about 6 miles away.  When he got there with the two tanks in a big duffel bag on his back, they refused to fill them at that time since the tanks had been lying on their sides during transportation.  Mike would have to wait an hour before they would start the fill process.  He went to find some lunch.  When the hour had elapsed, there was a problem getting one of tanks to make an adequate seal with the propane hose.  Mike worked on cleaning the threads of our tank while the man filled the other.  Finally both tanks were filled and he was allowed to leave but only if he transported the newly filled tanks in an upright orientation.  He strapped the duffel bag sideways on his back and the poor guy was pretty worn out by the time he got back.

Then we set off on the cycle trip to the grocery store.  It wasn’t the biggest re-provision that we’ve ever done but the food plus some beer and fizzy water made for a heavy load.  The cycle ride back was significantly more difficult! Groceries were tucked away, the bikes folded up and stored.  A quick shower made us presentable for dinner with Jeff and Vicki who have the motor vessel behind us. We had a delicious meal and fun conversation.  

One of the people who showed up had had a very bad day.  After a rough few days sailing down the Chesapeake, he stopped at the marina for diesel.  It’s strange here but no member of staff comes down to the dock to supervise the fueling.  He was told to use the outermost pump.  As both hoses on the pump were green he didn’t realize that he was pumping gasoline into his diesel tank.  He departed and headed south, but at the first bridge his engine started to sound bizarre and he figured something was wrong.  One sniff of the fuel tank and he knew what the problem was.  Even though he’s pretty inexperienced, he managed to tie his dingy to the side of his boat and hip tow it back to the marina.  To rectify the problem, he will need to drain all the fuel out of his tank (~20 gallons) then drain all the lines and change the fuel filters.  After refilling his tank with diesel he can then try to restart the engine.  It could be a bit of a bear as getting all the air out of the lines can be pretty challenging.  He seemed a bit bummed out but not as frantic as you might expect.  There’s a problem to try your best to avoid!

We filled up with diesel this morning and did the rest of the laundry.  The last remaining job is to top up the water tanks.  We would be in a position to get going in the morning but the forecast is for strong winds from the north subsiding in the afternoon – so we think we are just going to hang out one more day and take it easy!

Gloria

36 49.867 N, 76 17.760 W

The following shots were all taken yesterday ... been a bit busy today!

Navy man training on the river front in Portsmouth. We noticed him immediately because we were bundled up in foul weather gear and he was only wearing shorts!

"Frosty" - Jeff and Vicki's cat on the boat behind us at the dock

B&W portrait of "Frosty"

The Norfolk Portsmouth Ferry on the Elizabeth River. Based on the positive feedback on the overlay image that I created in Wrightsville Beach I have been looking for other opportunities. This picture was created by overlaying a sharp image of the ferry (docked in Portsmouth) with a blurry image of it taken out on the river.