We stayed an additional night at the Hartge Marina – rained all day Saturday! We did a little cleaning, but mostly watched videos and talked to friends and family. It is good to have a day like that every now and then.
The storm was pretty vicious and it was really hitting the boat and hitting us into the dock. The strong winds and waves hit the stern of the boat and made loud slamming noises most of the day. Had we been turned with the bow facing out it would have been less noisy.
All day Saturday I tried to do laundry (a very busy marine laundry, it was always in use). Finally Sunday morning it was available so I quickly gather things and took over 2 loads.
Although it was still overcast and a little rainy we decided a change of scenery would be good so as the laundry was finishing we prepped for our departure. Our plan was to head down the coast to the Solomon Island area, about 6-7 hours south. Stew was checking the engine and noticed a belt was loose…
Well, it was more than a belt issue… the alternator arm had snapped! It probably happened on the ride here from Still Pond anchorage or from the violent slams during the storm.. There was some rattling when we crossed the Chesapeake but we did not see anything amiss in the engine.
Unfortunately the part we needed was in Annapolis – about 30 minutes away… so, we figured out where a grocery store was along the way and so that I could provision while he went to purchase the part. We Ubered “round trip” and I was dropped at the Safe Way grocery where I could also do a FedEx return and grocery shop. Stew went on the Annapolis to purchase the part and was also able to find a place to purchase the beverage he likes.
I was really dashing through the grocery. I find foreign grocery stores always take so long to find the items you want… but I was able to purchase most of what we needed before the Uber arrived to pick me up. I could not really price shop – just grabbing the items as quickly as I could. It was our largest grocery store bill.
We did accomplish alot of things but what a costly adventure with the uber cost and the grocery store bill – ugh. The engine part was just $20!!
Back at the boat Stew fixed the engine in just a few minutes, laundry was complete and we were ready to roll. We had very little sunlight left and certainly not the 6-8 hours needed to make a run down the Chesapeake coast… so we decided to anchor in Rhode River, where we had anchored in 2016! It was just around the corner.
We found a beautiful spot with calm waters. Still overcast but it was a comfortable place to have dinner and sleep tonight!
