Still here in Portsmouth
April 5, 2025
This morning Lauren made breakfast sandwiches with the sausage patty left over from Yoolks On Us! along with fresh spinach, an egg and swiss cheese on an English muffin. Bob, the marine electrician came by to look at the new regulator for the alternator. He thinks that the alternator is also fried. He spent about an hour in the hold going over everything again, looking for any other causes of the alternator heating up. So, Monday morning, we will be ordering a new alternator. Bob’s stayed a few minutes afterwards chatting about life in general and also that his dog just had 5 puppies. He showed us pictures.
After Bob left, Brian washed the boat and Lauren went behind him wiping it all down. Once the boat was dried, Brian treated the teak on the side deck that wasn’t done the other day. Earlier in the day when Lauren had Heidi out for a walk, she met Tina and Mark, who live on their boat here in the marina. Mark is a project manager for a large construction company. They invited us back around 5 for a visit. We did stop by for the visit and met Scott, Danni and another couple who all live on their boats here at this marina. Lauren made roasted red pepper hummus for all to enjoy. Once back on board, we played a game of SkipBo – Brian won yet again.
This morning breakfast was oatmeal with walnuts, strawberries, blueberries and flax seed. Since there would be no technicians stopping by today, we decided to take the ferry across the Elizabeth River over to Waterside Park in Portsmouth. It was about a 5-minute ride and cost us only $1 each. Once we arrived, we walked around the city for about an hour and grabbed sweet treat while waiting for the Nauticus Museum to open. The winds were ferocious – we actually held hands, because the winds were making it difficult walking Nauticus is where the battle ship USS Wisconsin is berthed. We toured the ship for about an hour and then joined a guided trip throughout the ship. In the 3 hours that we were on the ship, we only saw a tiny fraction of it.
Before taking the ferry back across, we stopped for a bite to eat at the Stockpot – it was all very good.
On the ferry ride back, we saw an aircraft carrier in dry dock undergoing repairs.
Matt, the Splendide technician texted Brian when he found out our part still hasn’t arrived. Hopefully, it will be here sometime tomorrow morning and Matt will stop later in the day to install it.
April 8, 2025
Yesterday was a rainy and blustery day, though the temps were mild. We stayed on board all day, mostly reading. Matt was able to stop by late afternoon with the washer/dryer part and repaired our machine – yeah!! Now we need to pick specialized laundry soap. Tina, on Idler, offered help to us if needed. Lauren may take her up on a ride to a grocery store soon.
Today, no rain, but high winds and cold. Lauren vacuumed and Brian refinished some of the woodwork around our back door that was looking rather worn. Brian also called and spoke to Bruce Schwab at Ocean Planet Energy regarding a new alternator (he tried several times yesterday, but no one answered). There was one in stock and Bruce agreed to ship it out overnight. It should arrive at the marina mid-morning tomorrow. Brian called Bob, who has been trying to help us with the alternator problem with the good news, but he will be away starting tomorrow through the weekend at boat show. Bob gave us the name and number of Matt, another marine technician. Brian was able to contact Matt and will let him know when the alternator actually arrives, as we haven’t had the best of luck on delivery items. Brian tried to take off the pulley from the old alternator, hopefully saving some time and money, but he didn’t have the correct tools. Brian also called a technician at Garmen support regarding the chart plotter issues and was told that the new charts do not work with the old SD Readers, so they are sending a new one at no charge. It should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully, by tomorrow all current boat issues will be resolved and we will be able to leave the marina and head north to York Town. Tonight for dinner we had pasta with walnuts. The walnuts were pureed along with parmesan cheese, garlic, oregano bread, milk and olive oil served over pasta. Added fresh spinach when blending the pasta with the puree. It was delicious and very g-a-r-l-i-c-y! Next time, Lauren will add sun-dried tomatoes to give more depth and a bit more pasta water to thin it.
April 9, 2025
Cold morning – had the heater going and strong winds again. Even though Lauren was on day 2 of a migraine she still made a wonderful breakfast of homefries, toast with homemade raspberry jam, eggs and bacon. The new alternator was delivered mid-morning – yeah!! Today was another day of waiting around for a marine tech to show up – he was 3 hours late – UGH!! He showed up with a sidekick and a manual for basic marine work – (HELP). They “worked” on the alternator for 3 hours and got absolutely nothing accomplished, other than mounting the new alternator. When Brian started up the engine, the start buzzer would not stop buzzing and couldn’t shut off the engine. The tech didn’t seem to know what to do. So Brian contacted Bob, the previous tech who is now away for the weekend explaining we were getting absolutely nowhere. Bob said he would try to cut his weekend at the boat show short and come out to help us. We also got the Garmin chip reader delivered; Brian installed and it works correctly – yeah!
Tonight, we met slip neighbors from Canada; Karen & Jim on Rowe Boat III. They are traveling the Great Loop and started back in August and gave us invaluable information regarding the Loop. We had a wonderful visit with them. Jim noted that Brian was reading a book by Ken Follett. We do quite a bit of reading.
Tomorrow, we may get off the boat just to be away from the anxt of our frustrating dilemmas.