Past ICW Mile Zero

Today was a milepost, in several ways. We completed the IntraCoastal Waterway when we passed mile zero in Norfolk, Virginia. In the process we have covered 993.6 statute miles and been underway 139 hours and 15 minutes!

Now we have Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, the New Jersey coast, New York City, Long Island Sound, Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts Bay, and the coast north of Cape Anne to transit before reaching Maine and the Bay of Fundy. We're actually about half way to Maine - we just cover a lot of named places before getting there.

The engine is performing well after replacing the transmission oil cooler and the engine oil cooler last week. The fuel seems to be a bit dirty and we're replacing a Racor fuel filter about every six to seven days, but that's not bad. Soon the remaining fuel in the tanks will be scrubbed clean. Fortunately, our fuel filters are set in a housing that lets us switch from one filter to another with a 180 degree rotation of a handle, so when the engine starts to sputter a little, I open one of the engine room hatches and flip the handle to the unused filter; that night I change out the dirty filter for a new one so we can repeat the process a week or so later! Not as good as having clean fuel to begin with, but better than having to shut down the engine on the spot and change the filter in a hot engine room.

Our next destination is Washington, DC, where we'll meet up with friends who'll be aboard for a week while we cruise down the Potomac River to Solomons, Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland.

All is going well.