Cape May, NJ

We have had a productive couple of days here at Utsch’s Marina. First on the list was obviously to get the engine working again. The culprit was the fuel lift pump. Although this is a service marina, they did not know anything about deisels ?? so they gave us a number for someone in town. Well they only worked on BIG engines and had never heard of this one. They could order parts but only if we gave them a 10 digit serial number. Well our Volvo 2003T only has six digits. I suggested Alan call the man who worked on the engine when we purchased Equinox/Voila. He was very knowledgeable and Annapolis is not so far away. When Alan called, Mr Vosbury was out but his office staff were extremely helpful, “oh yes, Mr Hagis had that part replaced in 2004. We have those parts in stock. You will also need this, this and that. Great! A short while later the boss called with some advice on how to go about this and to confirm all of the information. The parts were shipped out that day and arrived by 11:00 the next morning. Shipping cost $9. Once the parts arrived the job only took about 90 minutes. Terrific!

While we waited for parts, we decided it was time for some exercise and headed off on a walk. Eventually we made it to the town of Cape May. Touristy, lots of restored Victorian houses. The day was cool and cloudy so there were not very many people on the beach or the boardwalk. We wandered around the shops for a little while and had a ho-hum supper at an outdoor café. It was then time to walk off the calories with the 2 mile walk back to Voila.

I enjoyed the cooler weather yesterday by puttering around in the galley. Oven baked Mac and Cheese, coleslaw, roast post and a few other things. We are also enjoying the fact that we need blankets at night.

So we have had showers, the laundry is done. We will fill up the water and fuel tanks this morning and it is time to be off again. We plan to be in NY City by early tomorrow morning.