Journey Home

6/12/12 Tuesday     As always happens when you're trying to leave one item pops up that you want to get done before heading out. In our case it was cleaning the AC filters. Not a big job, but still a delay.

We finally slipped away around 10 a.m. and headed up I-64. As we approached the Hampton Roads tunnel we could see the tall ships leaving Norfolk. They had been in town for Op Sail 2012 and made quite a display leaving port. Unfortunately just as Pam was ready to take a picture we entered the tunnel.

A short time later we were approaching Williamsburg and made the decision to swing off the interstate for lunch. Pam picked out a restaurant in the historic district and plugged it into the GPS. We got close. If you've been to Williamsburg before you know that the streets are closed to automobile traffic in the historic area. After circling listening to the GPS voice say recalculating we found a spot on a side street only a couple of blocks from our destination. We took a few pictures while walking around.

Our brief stop didn't allow us enough time to even scratch the surface of all the sights to see in Colonial Williamsburg. Maybe on the way back?

Once back on I-64 the traffic was light and we passed by Richmond without delay. Just down the road another historic place went untouched by us. Monticello. Thomas Jefferson's home which sits a few miles south of Charlottesville, Va. By now we were getting into the Appalachian's and the scenery just kept getting better.

Hills of Virginia.

Before long Pam spotted a sign for a Pilot Truck Stop. Home of her favorite road trip coffee. We just had to make a stop! (Actually I think she likes all the help she gets from the truckers!)

Good coffee!

A little while later we crossed into West Virginia near White Sulphur Springs.

Almost Heaven.

Runaway Truck Ramp

After a brief stop at the welcome center we pushed on through the Allegheny Mtns. to Beckley, WVa. where we found a room for the night.
Interestingly, right next to the hotel was a Head Shop that reportedly sold synthetic marijuana. Unfortunately Pam wouldn't let me out of her sights during our entire stay.

Head Shop. (Sign in the front window said "Hippies must use side entrance")

6/13/12 Wednesday     Back on the road I-64 joined I-77 and became the West Virginia Turnpike.  In my bus driving days this was a 2 lane toll road with an occasional passing lane. Not fast but scenic.

At the separation of the two interstates is Charleston, the capital of the state which lies on the banks of the Kanawha River. Again not much traffic as we passed through.

WVa capital building in Charleston.

On to Huntington where we made the decision to leave the interstate system and follow the Ohio River on U.S. 52 into Cincinnati. A quick spurt across the tip of Kentucky and over a bridge and we were in Ohio.

A quick trip. Just long enough to take this picture.

Hwy. 52 winds along the Ohio reminding us of the roads back home along the Mississippi. Small farms. Old barns. Towns that time has forgotten, and beautiful vistas of the river.

We stopped in Manchester for a closer look at the river.

Down bound tow pushing 15 barges on the Ohio.

We made another stop near Chilo at the Meldahl Lock & Dam.

North bound tow leaving Meldahl Lock.

A few miles beyond the lock is the town of Pointe Pleasant, Ohio. The birthplace of General Grant. Of course we had to stop. Particularly since we come from Galena, Il. where Grant lived before the Civil War and where a house was built for him to return to after the war.
His birth house was a 1 room house not far from the banks of the Ohio that his parents rented for 50 cents a month.

Grants birth place and wanna be tour guide.

On to Cincinnati where our destination was Pirates' Cove (www.piratescovecincy.com). A great waterside bar/restaurant owned by our friends Rick and Sarah from M/V Private Affair. We spent the evening visiting and enjoying the live music which they have 7 days a week. The place was hopping which kept Rick & Sarah hopping as well. We closed the place up before retiring to their condo for the night.
Thanks for the hospitality!

Inside Pirate's Cove.

Rick & Sarah at work.

6/14/12 Thursday     Our last travel day and a good one it was! After saying good bye to Rick & Sarah we made our way through Cincinnati passing the stadiums before leaving town.

Cincinnati stadiums.

Not finding a Pilot for coffee we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts just outside of town. The coffee was good but I thought I lost Pam when a rather large man showing more crack than the Grand Canyon bent over in front of her nearly sending her into the shelves full of snacks. Crisis averted we escaped with our lives and continued heading west.
Not far beyond our stop we entered Indiana and on to Indianapolis. Once again I threw a curve to the GPS and had to listen to her recalculate. Our stop for lunch came between Indy and Danville, Il. at a White Castle! Fine dining for sure.

 10 sliders please!

Our White castle stop enabled us to slide into Illinois. Only 280 miles to go.

Welcome to Illinois. Home of more incarcerated Governors than any other state!

An easy drive across the state checking on the corn and soybean fields beside the interstate as we traveled. Just as we hit the Mississippi River we turned north on 84 headed to Savanna, Il., where we were meeting family at Manny's Pizza. We arrived early so what else to do but sit by the river for awhile.

 Mississippi River @ Savanna, Il.

Manny's Pizza

A happy GramPam with Ellie and Franklin (aka. Oscar)

Needless to say I've lost Pam for the month we'll be home!

Week-end @ Atlantic Yacht Basin

6/9/12 Saturday     Work day. Oil & filter changes on both Cummins and the Onan Generator are on the work order for today. That is, my work order since it's something that I am still capable of doing. I'm up at 5:30 a.m. and ready to go however I'm guessing the folks on the Grand Banks behind us wouldn't appreciate me firing the engines and letting them run till they get up to temperature while they're still sleeping. And I know Pam would have my hide also.
One of the nice things about AYB is it's location to the things we need. We called and picked up a rental car yesterday after we arrived which enabled us to head over to Sam's Club where I picked up 15 gallons of oil to go with what I had on-board. Pam got to scope out the hair salon and nail place that Liz from AYB had suggested. And we stumbled across a Carrabba's Restaurant that we couldn't get past.

Our week-end rental complete with Illinois plates!

Anyway back to Saturday. When things started stirring around here I got going on the work order. The first engine went well and I was able to get the old oil out and the new back in without spilling. Engine number two didn't go quite so well. While I was draining the oil I had to transfer the drain hose from one waste oil jug to another. Not a complicated task. Shut the pump off. Let the remaining oil drain out. Pull it out of the full jug and transfer it to the empty jug sitting 6 inches away all while covering the end of the hose with a rag to catch any drips. You guessed it. Somehow the hose took on a life of it's own and slipped out of my hand covering the floor and my left shoe with warm black oil. X&@*"X@! I'm sure they heard me in downtown Norfolk. Clean up time.

Oil drained it was now time to fill the empty engine. Once again while transferring the hose I spilled! WTF! I haven't done this in a long time. Clean up again. Let me tell you this is the easy part of an oil change on Tourist. I still had the filters to change which are in a much more precarious position. At this point I thought about quitting for the day. But stubborn as I am I kept going and completed the filter change without a drop spilled. On to the generator.

Oil out. New in. Now the filter. But first! It's been awhile since I replaced the sea water impeller on the gen set so I thought I'd check it out since any worn fins that come off of it collect in the heat exchanger which requires the oil filter to be removed before you can get to it. Great design huh? I pulled the cover off the pump and found that I was only missing 2 fins. Pretty good for the number of hours on it. But of course that meant taking the cover off of the heat exchanger and digging the 2 fins out of there so they don't restrict the water flow. Once  the fins were found and retrieved the exchanger cover went back on. The oil filter went on. A new impeller went in complete with O ring and the hoses were reconnected.

Oh yeah. I also changed all of the pencil zincs on the engines and generator before the engines were started.

Pencil Zincs.

I'm happy to report that everything is back together and working with only my pride and a mysterious scrape on my ankle as casualties of the day. Rum time!

Havana Club Rum. The drink is in my hand!

That evening just before dusk a Euro styled boat named Karlou went past. I thought it looked familiar and then I remembered seeing it on Drift Away's blog just a couple days before as it passed through Isle of Hope below Savannah, Ga. Is that possible to cover that much water in that short of time? We're at mile 12 and Isle of Hope is at mile 590. I was trying to do the math and forgot to take a picture so I had to borrow one from Drift Away. Thank's Dave!

Fast Mover.

We finished the day with Pam's Asian Salmon on the grill for dinner. Fantastic!  Fed, fat, and happy, I passed out on the couch!

6/10/12 Sunday     Another bright day with temps forecasted to be around 90. More boat projects to get Tourist ready for sitting idle for a month. On tap today flush out the cooling system on the dinghy motor. Wash the boat. Defrost the bridge refrigerator. Clean the A/C filters. Find the shop vac and clean out the sump. But first a picture.

Sunday morning view of the draw bridge at Chesapeake, Va.

Other than the transients staying here and the dockmaster AYB is pretty quiet on a Sunday. Probably because it's more of a working boatyard than the typical marina which would be jumping on a week-end. This works out for us since there is a place to dispose of our old oil. All 17 gallons of it! And if you need anything they have a fairly well stocked ships store. Combined with friendly people AYB is a good place to spend a few days, or a month.

Associated with AYB is Virginia Yacht Brokers, a used boat sales outlet. After looking at their inventory we strolled over to the sheds and checked out a 2003 53' Selene named "Prime Time". Nice! Interestingly I have a history with this boat. The previous owner did a blog that I stumbled on a few years ago and started following. Unfortunately for him his wife wasn't into cruising like he was and apparently not into him either. They ended up selling the boat and parting company. Maybe not a good omen? Anyway it never hurts to look.

Prime Time can be seen on Yachtworld.

6/11/12 Monday     Just a few more details to take care of once we're under cover and then we're headed home. With that in mind I walked over to the office to find out where they're going to put us and at what time. I started talking to Liz who I've been dealing with and she had to find someone else. Hearing our conversation another gentleman standing nearby said that it wouldn't be going under cover for 2 to 3 days. I started telling him that that wouldn't work and why when another gentleman named Jack came around the corner. I suspicioned right away that he had a lot more clout than the first guy and I guess he does. He owns AYB. Anyway I explained the situation to him and what we had hoped the time frame would be. He had Liz make a call. Asked if we were going to be on the boat and said he would come down to the boat in a few minutes with a plan.
True to his word Jack showed up at Tourist not long after I did and told me where we would be going and that the dockmaster would assist us when we were ready. Now that's service! First we got the holding tank emptied and then headed around the corner to our appointed slip in building 5.

Looking for building 5 and the dockmaster.

Found him!

I backed in and and got tied off without taking down any supports. Just then Pam looks at the clock and tells me almost it's 11 a.m. and time to pick up our rental car that we'll be driving home. Not people to do things in a simple fashion our car rental situation is typical for us.
When we came in on Friday we decided to see if we could get the car from Hertz early. Of course we could but for a price that I thought was a little steep. On a whim I called Enterprise which of course we went with as I stated previously. Now it was time to switch vehicles so off we went. Needless to say our timing was perfect. Every hour we've been here we've heard the whistle of the bridge as it prepares to open for boat traffic. We heard it again only this time from the perspective of a motorist.

Great Bridge Draw Bridge.

Our vehicle transfer including a stop for lunch only took us 3 hours. And we were hoping to get out of here today. Ain't happening! Guess we'll hit the road tomorrow.

Tucked in under cover.

Spooner Creek to Great Bridge, Va.

6/5/12 Tuesday     What a peaceful night. After the storm blew through the winds died down, the sun came out and Tourist was cleansed of all the salt from the driving rain. A clean boat is a happy boat and knowing that I'm sure made both of us sleep much better.

The forecast today called for rain and it didn't let us down. Before we traveled the 5 miles to Morehead City it started and kept on intermittently for most of the morning. Of course when it rains our vision through the isinglass enclosure is like looking through or around a bunch of little dots. Enough to give you a headache. I remedy this somewhat by putting a coat of Collinite Insulator Wax on the glass which works like Rain X helping to make the water run off. Not fool proof but a help.

  Passing through Morehead City in the rain.

Not a lot of traffic out today however we did hear the Coast Guard announce that they were towing a disabled sailboat in from sea. We were way ahead of them fortunately and decided not to wait around and offer advice.
A few miles beyond Morehead City we pulled into Jarret Bay Boat Yard to take on some fuel. I was hoping to make it all the way to Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake, Va. before fueling but decided to play it safe and take on 100 gallons. You never know what lies ahead and I didn't want to get caught with my pants down. (Not a pretty sight I might add!)
Back underway we took advantage of the incoming tide and slid through Adams Creek only meeting 1 commercial tow before popping out into the Neuse River. At that point we could feel the effects of the East wind hitting us beam on causing us to roll back and forth with the waves and of course taking spray over the rails. A short distance across to Oriental, NC. and Whittaker Pointe Marina (www.whittakerpointe.com) where we had planned on stopping anyway.
Getting from the boat to shore was like figuring out a maze. First you walk in the opposite direction you want to go and then a few turns later you're heading in the right direction. This layout must have been drawn up after 1 too many bottles of rum!

The dock maze at Whittaker Pointe.

The marina was very clean and laid back with almost everything on the honor system. Laundry $1.00 per load, leave your money in the Tupperware container on the shelf. Loaner car, the keys are in the drawer of the table in the lobby of the office. Just sign the sheet.
I washed off Tourist while Pam did laundry. Later we took the courtesy car to town. Not much going on in town so we backtracked to the Silos Restaurant to have dinner. A rather unique place as the picture below shows. The special was pizza tonight. Buy one and get another cheese pizza free! Guess what we had?

The Silos Restaurant

6/6/12 Wednesday     Somewhat overcast but no rain greeted us this morning as we departed the marina. No sooner had we cleared the protection of the harbor when we were hit again with the rocking from the waves driven by the East wind. Just a short distance though and we could turn into them. Not bad at first but as we proceeded along they became more jarring with the spray going over the flybridge. So much for my cleaning job! When we took one over the bow I decided it was time to pick up the speed a little so that our nose would ride higher and avoid future incidents like that. It worked and all was well as we travelled along the Neuse River. We passed a few sail boats and got passed by a couple of sportfishermen along the way.

Being passed by 2 sportfishermen. I learned later that the 2nd boat pictured blew an engine shortly after passing us and limped into Belhaven.

A course change and we were headed towards Belhaven, NC.

The view through our isinglass after taking spray over the bow.

 Still early we kept going to an anchorage that both of us thought looked good last year when we came through here on the "Loop". Tourist pulled off the ICW just before entering the Alligator-Pungo River Canal and found the spot that we had remembered. With several options to choose from we scouted around and found our spot and Pam went forward to take the safety cable off of the anchor.
For the longest time we were alone and then just before dusk another boat pulled in. Plenty of room for both of us.

Pungo River Anchorage.

6/7/12 Thursday     25 miles of the Alligator-Pungo River Canal started our day before we broke out into the Alligator River.

Alligator-Pungo Canal

 One thing about traveling up the ICW is that you cross more rivers, sounds, cuts, and divides that you can keep track of. Today was no exception. Our last big body of water was the Albermarle Sound which at times can get ugly. Fortunately today was a good day and we crossed without a problem.

Sea Gull whitewashing at it's best!

Our destination for the day was Coinjock Marina supposed to have a great prime rib dinner as well as dockage.

Coinjock Marina.

Tourist was docked between a 74' Offshore and a 65' Hatteras. All of a sudden our 48' Tourist looked small. After cleaning the salt off the boat and sprucing up ourselves we headed for the restaurant to check out the prime. Now I have to admit that because of where we live I'm always suspect of a restaurants claim to have good beef. Happily we weren't disappointed and I ate myself into a stupor! Thankfully it was a short walk back to the boat.

6/8/12 Friday     After the boats in front of us pulled out we got underway. Our paths crossed with this ferry crossing Currituck Sound.

Currituck Ferry

Our progress was slowed when we came to the North Landing Bridge which only opens every half hour. I've never seen a bridge open like this one does. It has two sections that both swing.

North Landing Swing Bridge.

One more bridge that opens every half hour stood between us and our destination for this leg of the trip and our timing was perfect. We barely broke stride and we passed right through. A couple more miles and we pulled into Atlantic Yacht Basin in Great Bridge, Va. (www.atlanticyachtbasin.com) where we will be leaving Tourist in a covered slip for a month while we make a home visit.
Before heading home we'll be doing oil changes and some other routine maintenance items like nails and hair!

Once tied up we were welcomed by this armada of geese.