(Bonnie & Sid on "Fiu")
We help "Fiu" with her lines and wish Sid and Bonnie a safe journey, hoping, and guessing, we'll meet up again along the way. We wait for the mechanic. I meet Adrian and his 4-year-old girl from a small sailboat (wife on board as well, but only waved to her). It's the girl's birthday. We wait for the mechanic. I meet Norman from "True Loev" who alerts Adrian and I to the fact that construction on the Ben Sawyer Bridge near Charleston, SC will be closing the waterway November 11-21 - the busiest period for cruisers moving south. Norman is rightly concerned, as many cruisers will take some chances trying to make it, or may take the 100+ mile outside run from Winyah Bay without adequate preparation or skill. We wait for the mechanic. We calculate that we must average 50 miles a day with just 4 days off to arrive in Charleston before the closure. Probably not a problem, but boats often wait days just to cross the Albemarle Sound...and the Pamlico River...and to transit the Neuse River, etc.... And we wait for the mechanic.
Both Jan & I are feeling better than yesterday, and are itching to get moving again. The marina is nice, and Portsmouth's a short walk to downtown. A $1 ferry runs across the river to downtown Norfolk and its newly redeveloped waterfront. Nonetheless, dude, show up, and let us get out of here. He arrives around 3 pm. He's done after dark.