Back to the Corrotoman River

First thing in the morning of Tuesday 17 July we moved BV onto the fuel dock at Fishing Bay Marina.  The marina has good fuel without added ethanol or methanol and so, knowing that we would be working the engine hard, we wanted to fill the tanks up.  I topped up the fuel whilst Nicky paid the bills and we were all ready to go by 0900hrs. [Ed: The US Government has committed to adding methanol and/or ethanol to most fuels as their ‘bit’ towards reducing the environmental impact of using internal combustion engines.  There are better additives than methanol and ethanol, both of which, being hydroscopic, are pretty bad for engines if they sit around in them for any length of time and, like European ‘biodiesel’, fuel containing them is prone to growing ‘fuel bug’ when it sits in the fuel tank and fuel lines.  However, the added alcohol is made from corn/maize so the corn lobby is big in ensuring that Government continues this Green initiative as is.  What’s more, alcohol is now being added at up to 15% (vice the more usual up to 10%) and this 15% fuel is forbidden by the Federal Government for use in car engines built before 2001 and in marine engines. So, it seems likely that places like Fishing Bay Marina will soon be the only place that US boaters will be able to get non-alcohol fuel (most marinas supply the 10% fuel) though, of course, this comes at some added cost to the provider and, thus, the boater.  But expensive fuel is better than fuel that damages your engine – let’s hope that there are enough Fishing Bay’s around the place as high percentage bio-fuel becomes increasingly prevalent in the US fuel market.  As a further aside, plenty of American homes have standby generators for when the mains power supply is interrupted by snow or strong winds etc.  These home-owners aren’t much keener on having too much alcohol in their fuel than boaters are, mostly, because their fuel, also sits for a long time before being used and is therefore also prone to growing fuel bug.]

BV in Dragon Run’s ‘slip’ (dock mooring)

We had been told by Stan, at Beta Marine in North Carolina, that we needed to run the engine hard to try to burn the coking off the number 3 cylinder (the one with poor compression). Separately, Lydia and Bill had invited us back to their home to join in a gathering of the Moran Creek Yacht Club (boat-owners who live around the Moran Creek and close by on the Eastern Arm of the Corrotoman).  The sensible option was to combine the 2, so we high-tailed it out of Fishing Bay towards the Rappahannock and the Corrotoman.  The engine worked perfectly for the whole motor across to Bill and Lydia’s, which was excellent news, but we were slightly apprehensive about taking them up on their offer to use Dragon Run’s slip (dock mooring) whilst Dragon Runwas up on the hard at Stingray Point Boat Yard.  ‘You must use our slip, it makes perfect sense; all the lines are there ready in place’ Bill had said.  But to do so we needed to reverse into a space, little wider than BV, defined by the dock on one side and 2 piles (one that would end up just ahead of the bow and off to starboard and the other which would end up just ahead of the bow also off to starboard).  In many respects, reversing into the space should not have been a huge issue – after all it is the equivalent of Med mooring, just without the bow being held up into the wind a bit by the anchor.  [Ed: we don’t have a bow thruster which would be useful to hold the bow up].  The real problem was likely to be with attaching either the lines from the remote piles or in getting BV attached to the dock. Happily, and most likely because there was no-one around to watch us, my reverse parking manoeuvre went like clockwork and Nicky easily picked up and attached the lines from the dock.  Then with a bit of engine jiggery-pokery and some long reaching with the boathook by Nicky, we got hold of and attached the lines to the remote piles.  With a little line fettling BV was nicely tucked up in place just as Lydia appeared.

The Moran Creek Yacht Club get together. We are on the left chatting to Georgie and Michael

The Moran Creek Yacht Club get together that evening was great fun.  Many of the club members arrived by dinghy, so it was just as well we had managed to bring BV into Dragon Run’s slip because, when the invitations had been sent out, Lydia had described their dock as recognisable by having a dark blue yacht in the slip!  We met many of Lydia and Bill’s neighbours and had a lovely long chat to Georgie and Michael who own a ‘do it up’ Challenge 72, Windsy.  We had seen Windsy flying a British flag alongside a dock a little further up the Corrotoman a couple of weekends before when we had gone out with Bill and Lydia in their little powerboat and we had wondered then about her owners.  Georgie and Michael had bought her from the authorities in Trinidad (she had been impounded by Customs) and have cruised her up and down the west coast of the USA, primarily two-up, before bringing her to Michael’s parents’ dock where they plan to finish preparing her (and their coffers) for a round-the-world voyage, including some high latitude sailing.  It all sounds very exciting, if rather cold in places, and we certainly hope to meet up with them either when we are back in the Chesapeake or in an anchorage somewhere else around the world.

Bill and Lydia spent the next day in Richmond but very kindly lent us their truck so that we could partake in the American Dream and drive an enormous pick-up…….…..to go provisioning. Happily for BV’s waterline, we didn’t fill the truck with food, but the provisioning success story was somewhat tempered by the discovery a couple of days later that we had left the cheese in Lydia’s fridge!  To complete the American Dream day, we cooked steaks on the charcoal grill (barbecue) for dinner and ate ice-cream, before heading to the dock for a spot of fly fishing and mosquito swatting.  Unfortunately, the fish weren’t biting though the insects were, so we retreated back to the fly-screened, air-conditioned luxury of the house [Ed: so glad not to have been an original colonist of this area – it must have been miserable at this time of year with the heat and all the bugs and no means of escape from either.]

Lydia fly fishing – but no luck that night

So, after another mighty fine bit of support and fun with Bill and Lydia it was time for us to be moving on.  We said our farewells and slipped BV’s lines at 0900hrs on 19 July for the start of our trip up to Canada.

Corrotoman River, VA, USA