By the time we entered the Chesapeake Bay at Norfolk poor John was running on fumes from the lack of sleep dealing with the storm the night before. It's a busy area so John needed to be at the helm to guide us through the heavy boat traffic with all the freighters coming and going at Cape Henry.

Once we were through the Cape Henry area John put the sails up taking us over the tunnel cruising at about 7 knots. Just was we cleared the tunnel he noticed that the main fuel tank was reading empty and within seconds the engine started to sputter and stalled! John looked at me and said, "we have a real problem" and at the time I was on the phone talking to John's Mum and calmly said, "can I call you back we have a little emergency to deal with".

John couldn't understand what happen to the engine because we still had fuel in one of the tanks but suspected there was air in the fuel line. The boat has two fuel tanks that should maintain a consistent balance of fuel between the two tanks but for some reason that didn't happen. Maybe because the boat was keeled over on its side while sailing and the tanks were unable to equalize who knows but now the engine won't start and we're in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay!

We couldn't stop talking about how bizarre it was for this to happen now that we were back in the States after cruising in the Bahamas for the past six months without a hitch! John and the guys tried everything they could to get the air out of the fuel line. They pumped and primed the fuel line for hours. Finally John placed a call to BoatUS for a tow but put that on hold after getting an estimate for how much it would cost to tow us to the nearest marina that could work on a Perkins engine. The guys continued to use the internet to look up suggestions for fixing air in the fuel line while John searched for a nearby marina.

He found a marina off Back Creek in Hampton, VA called, Bell Island Marina and was told by the owner, Marty, that he could work on the engine but because it was Sunday won't be able to get us a tow until Monday. Rather than lose another day waiting for a tow John got creative. He and the guys put the outboard motor back on the dinghy and tied the dinghy portside at the stern of the boat then used the dinghy as a tug boat of sorts to power the boat forward for about six miles to the marina. It was a funny sight to see a 50' sailboat powered by an unmanned dinghy.



Russell, who works for Marty, even gave us an escort to the marina using a Sea Doo. He would let other boaters along the way know that we were without an engine and needed space to get the boat through the channel. How sweet was that!

After getting the boat docked and shore power hooked up we were all sitting around talking to Marty and Russell when John decided to try to start the engine again. It took two tries before the engine fired up! (I think she was exhausted from the Atlantic Ocean trip and needed a rest). Shouts of joy rang from the cockpit and John got a big smile on his face.

We celebrated by going out to dinner with Marty, Russell and his girlfriend Amanda. We had a great time with our new friends and had lots of laughs over dinner!