Heidi-Ho Fit for Duty Again
April 14, 2025
A nice calm day this morning with temps reaching the mid 70’; tomorrow it dips down 10 degrees. I’ve done several loads of laundry in our new machine with no problems. Sent a text to Matt, the tech who fixed the issue, letting him know that we were able to do laundry without any problems. Nice not having to to schlep it to a laundry facility.
Bob, the marine tech was able to stop by and he discovered that one of the pins in wiring harness that attaches to the regulator had a broken connecting pin. So, we’ve had to order a new wiring harness. Hopefully, this is the solution to all the issues we’ve been having with our alternator and regulator and we are done ordering parts. We were told the item would be shipped out overnight, but haven’t received any shipping info yet. Took a stroll downtown this afternoon to enjoy the nice weather. Met Mary Ann who is on Hauser which is a replica of a European canal boat. Her husband passed away a few years ago and she is single-handling the boat – so brave of her. Her boat looks exactly like the pictures of the barge boats of Europe, except this one has been meticulously kept. We also met, Fritz who came in on a Kadey Krogen 52. His boat is named Luna after their dog and Fritz laughed when we introduced Heidi and told him our Kadey Krogen was also named after her. Dinner was lamb chops, mashed potatoes and asparagus – yum! We are now sitting on the after deck for the first time enjoying the lights in the marina and the calm, warm weather.
Tomorrow we are thinking about taking the ferry over to Norfolk, have breakfast and walk around a bit. Supposedly, new wiring harness won’t be in until afternoon at the earliest; most likely next day. Before bed, Lauren prepped a marinara with hot Italian sausage for tomorrow as the weather forecast is predicting cooler temps
April 15, 2025
Woke to a beautiful calm sunny day – the temps will be about the same as yesterday, so maybe hold off on the spaghetti for tomorrow as it is suppose to be much cooler. This morning we took the ferry across to Norfolk and had breakfast at the Stock Pot – great breakfast! Then we strolled through the Pagoda & Oriental Garden. The Pagod was gifted to the city by the government of Taiwan in 1989, honoring Taiwan’s trading ties with Virginia. It was originally intended as a marine observation tower, but is now the centerpiece of the Oriental Garden. The pagoda’s concrete foundation was the site of a former 500,00-gallon molasses tank.
We were headed to the MacArthur Museum when we received notice our harness had arrived. Brian contacted Bob and he will be over to the boat as soon as he is out of a meeting. So, we hustled to get the next ferry back across.
Coming back from taking Heidi out, Lauren met up with Mary Ann on Amanda the canal boat. Mary Ann was going grocery shopping this afternoon and invited Lauren along. They went to Kroger’s. It was a huge store very similar to Wegman’s.
Later in the evening we visited with Mary Ann on her boat after giving us the grand tour. So spacious inside!
Bob, the tech was able to stop by about mid-afternoon and replaced the wiring harness for the regulator. Everything appeared to be working, except we couldn’t confirm that the alternator was charging the batteries, as they were already at 100%. So, Brian turned off the shore power overnight to let the batteries run down, so that we could test the alternator in the morning.
Brian reading: The Battle of Midway by Craig Simonds
Lauren: Still slogging thru The Fraud
April 15, 2025
Woke to a blustery cold day. Had oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, walnuts and flax seed. Brian started up the engine and it did not appear that the alternator was charging the batteries. We called Bob and agreed to stop by later in the day.
When Bob stopped by, there were a couple of problems with the rpms not showing up and the alternator not charging. After some testing, Bob turned off the invertor/charger and restarted the engine and found out that the alternator would charge the batteries, but the rmps had to be higher. So, at this point, everything seems to be working – YEAH!!! The plan is to leave Tidewater Yacht Marina first thing in the morning and travel to Yorktown where we may pick up a mooring ball and spend a few days visiting as it is a historic area.
Mike, from Valhalla was interested in our progress in getting our issues straightened. We let him know all is good. He and his wife, Caroline will be stopping by early this evening for a visit.
Hope all is well and stay safe out there.