2021: Hampton VA -- Another Day Another Problem

 19 October 2021

Depart: Old Point Comfort Anchorage 2:55

Arrive: Blue Water Marina, Hampton, VA 3:30

Distance: 3 nm

Last night Clark said we would have a short trip today and could sleep in this morning. That sounded wonderful and I went to bed with visions of a great night's sleep and an easy, short travel day to follow.

None of that turned out to be our story. I went to bed just before 11:00. Before Clark came to bed, he looked outside and found that a catamaran had dropped anchor right beside us. He put fenders out and pulled in 25 feet of line to move our boat forward. The boats were still too close. 

I woke when I heard the anchor line  but did not think much of it. A short while later I heard 4 blasts on our horn. I wondered what was happening. When Clark came back into the boat, he explained that he was trying to get the attention of the "intruding neighbor" with no success. He tried again with lights and an air horn aimed directly at the other boat. No response. 

Boat docked "on top of us" with no anchor light

Clark decided we had to move our boat and drop anchor somewhere new to get out of the danger zone. When I got dressed to help move the boat, the clock read midnight. After repositioning the boat, when I finally got to climb back into bed, it showed 2:00 a.m. (We struggled to find a suitable place to drop anchor.) It took more than an hour after we climbed back in bed for Clark and I to get to sleep after our adventure. 

This morning we got up around 9:00 to get going. When Clark did his routine engine checks, he found a non-routine situation in the engine room. He found about a pint of water in the port-side Raycor fuel filter, and the diesel fuel for our port engine looked more like tomato juice than diesel fuel -- opaque, not clear. Not good!

Some history .... Late July, when we planned to take our grandkids out on the boat for a day trip, Clark went to add water to our water tank and accidentally added the water to our port fuel tank. We paid almost $1000 to have a professional service come out to remove the water and clean the fuel. We thought everything was good. 

For the first time while cruising since this episode, we had rough seas. Even the Atlantic Ocean was tame. Being knocked around yesterday on the water apparently stirred up some water that was hiding somewhere in the system.  Clark spent the rest of this morning and early afternoon making phone calls, following up with texts, and working to rectify the situation. 

Finally, the decision was made to move to a nearby marina  -- traveling on the starboard engine only. A local representative from the company we used in July will be coming out to work on the boat. His solution will be to remove the fuel from the tank. Sadly we just added fuel in Cape May. All that money will quite literally go down the drain. 

Today's trip was all of 3 miles long. I managed to get a couple of pictures as we passed by a construction site near the spot where we anchored last night. 

After we tied up at the marina, we got some time to relax as we waited for the rep to make it to the boat today. Unfortunately, he did not come. We knew that was a possibility, but we hoped. Now, we are expecting him some time tomorrow.

The gremlin on the boat is getting more malicious every day. Instead of the normal, long-but-relatively-relaxing trip south, this year we have to wonder each and every day -- "What next?!"