Day3 - Deltaville to Portsmouth/Norfolk

We woke up this morning to another gorgeous moonset and sunrise. Never gets old. Some pics of our surroundings here.

Moon set

Sunrise

I took Gimel to shore on the dinghy for him to relieve himself. We have gotten him to pee on the pads we bought and use up on the bow, but he still doesn't understand about more serious stuff. In a few days, we're going to have a night where he won't have a choice.

Avi takes Gimel for a ride to use the "bathroom"

The dinghy dock was at the marina pictured below. They normally charge $5, but the said I could take Gimel for free.

Empty Nest was ready to keep going South.

Every morning, I do my regular engine room check - about 10-15 minutes usually. I check the hydraulic fluid level, the coolant systems for the two main engines, oil level for both engines, both transmissions, and both generators. I make sure all the right valves are open, and I hunt for evidence of leaks in the bilges. I exercise the seacocks if I haven't in a while, and generally check that we are ready to go. I do a similar check of my electronics at the helm station.

This morning, I noticed that the transmission oil on the port engine was low. I was about to fill it when I thought of a better solution! The dipstick for the main engine oil is longer than the transmission one. So, I used that one instead and it showed I had plenty of oil in the transmission. In fact too much. So, I drained some oil out of the transmission until the main engine dipstick showed it at the right level. Chalk one up for boating ingenuity. Hope nothing goes wrong. 

We had an uneventful smooth 5.5 hour sail down the Bay. Approaching Norfolk, we saw military vessels and the attractive skyline of the small city.

Norfolk skyline

After two nights at anchor, we chose to stay at a marina tonight before we hit the ICW. When we arrived at our marina, I washed the whole boat down. I was reminded of a quote by one of my favorite comedians.

I don't think I've ever washed Empty Nest this thoroughly before, and after 3 days on the Chesapeake Bay, she really needed it. What a huge job, but I'm not expecting sympathy for having such a big boat. Here we are all tied up at mile zero of the ICW.

We enjoy having a spot in a marina after a couple of nights at anchor. Gimel seems comfortable too.

Tomorrow, we'll have lots of bridges, one lock, and a scenic path down to Coinjock where we'll tie up at the marina again. After that, we'll have several days at anchor until we arrive at Moorhead City and venture out for our first ocean segment to Wilmington, NC.