Day 2

We left the anchorage at 7 am after a nice and toasty under the comforters in the anchorage. Sleeping was good, getting up in the cold was another matter. But the day was sunny, calm, glassy waters so we motored our way at a good speed, thinking we would make it past the locks in the ICW, rather than in Portsmouh as we had originally planned.

One pm for the second day in a row proved to be the witching time because, we were happily passing Salt Ponds marina with Norfolk in the distance when Sweet Tides called us, they had run out of diesel. So we turned right back and started to consider options. They called Boat US and it would take an hour at least for them to get there. Juan had seen a cruiser approaching with gallons of diesel tied around deck and asked whether he should call them and offer to buy five gallons. As if they had read our minds they called us and asked if we needed help, and we immediately asked for the diesel, which they graciously agreed to let us have.

We motored over to them and they tied a rope to the top of the bottle threw the rope at us and we fished it. We put the diesel in one of our containers and then returned the bottle with money which we put in a ziplock, we made a hole in the middle of the bag, threaded it through the rope placed it on top and threw the rope. It worked. Thanks Voila!

We then motored over to Sweet Tides and repeated the procedure, Mike not only had to put in the diesel but also bleed the engine so it would start, which it did after a few minutes.

We then motored over to Salt Ponds, filled up, filled up an extra five gallons, and made our way back to Norfolk.

By then it was almost four so we ended up arriving in Portsmouth at night - it was a quarter to six when we made it to Tidewater Marina - where if nothing else we have free wifi provided by the Holiday Inn across the road. Thank you Holiday Inn. I love open networks, never put keys in your networks, it serves no purpose but to increase the revenue of the provider!