Next time, we’ll leave the dock by ourselves.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we left Georgetown to anchor in Minnis Creek to wait out a passing front. The marina we were at in Georgetown is right on the river, parallel to a wicked current. After consulting with SV Infinity, we decided to leave a few hours after the max flood current, figuring we wouldn’t have to fight the current too much when we were in the Canal when he would need to tow us.

Based on the current, SV Infinity (who is single-handing at the moment) decided to get help with his lines from the dockhands when he left, so we asked him to send them over to us when they were finished. Normally we would do this ourselves, but we decided since we were babying the engine, it would be better for Jeff to be on the boat when we cast off the lines.

We should have done it ourselves.

The dockhands came over and we explained that we were having engine trouble, so we wanted some help with our lines so Jeff could stay on the boat. We had one sailboat docked several boat lengths in front of us, and the current was running towards the sailboat – the opposite direction from where we were heading.

Jeff was literally opening his mouth to tell the dockhands what order he wanted the lines released when all of a sudden they were letting lines go (we had four lines – a bow, a stern, and two springs.) Some lines were in the water – if they had tangled in the prop we would have stalled, which is not good. The boat had immediately turned sideways with the current and was swiftly moving towards the sailboat docked ahead of us, our bow pointed into the dock.

We are always VERY nice to dockhands, but this was beyond the pale. Nice was not happening, nor deserved, amidst this chaos which was quickly spinning out of control. Not with our engine situation that they knew about. Let’s just say there was a lot of yelling and swearing on our part. It was basically a clusterfuck.

We were sideways to the dock and rapidly approaching the sailboat so I had no choice but to drastically increase the throttle, listening to the engine hammering away, hoping it wouldn’t stall, to get the hell away from the sailboat in front of us. I will give credit to the younger dockhand who gave our bow a mighty push upon Jeff’s instruction, which allowed us to move away from the dock.

Disaster was averted, and we motored away with four people VERY unhappy, judging by the sourpuss on the dockhand – easily 15 years older than me – that I had been yelling at. I’m sure they were muttering “Damn Yankees!” as we left, still swearing and thoroughly pissed off.

In talking to SV Infinity on the VHF after we left, his experience wasn’t that much better. They dropped his line with the idea that he would pivot and motor away, but he found himself moving VERY quickly towards the bridge that was not too far in front of him.

Trying to give the dockhands the infinitesimally small benefit of the doubt, it does seem to be a marina that caters to large motorboats with very huge engines. Those engines laugh at the current, whereas sailboats with engines the size of Infinity and Pegu Club need to “make friends with the current” (to quote the dockmaster at Delaware City Marina our first year south, when they were warping us around.)

Once the adrenaline dropped off though, we had a very nice sail for most of the trip. We had wind from behind us to start, but it was strong enough to push us along despite the adverse current. As we made our way towards the canal, the current continually eased and the wind angle changed as we rounded the bend in the river, so we trimmed the sails until we were close hauled going over 6 knots.

Based on the wind direction, we radioed Infinity and told him we were going to try sailing down the Estherville-Minim Canal. The wind would be behind us and the trees were definitely going to interfere with the direction and strength, but we wanted to go as long as we could before he needed to tow us.

We hung a right into the canal and began doing everything from wing and wing to switching the main and jib back and forth as the wind direction changed. As predicted, the trees were making the wind squirrely. We went 4+ knots, we went 2.5 knots, and we were having a lot of fun. Jeff and I jokingly call it “fancy sailing.” SV Infinity joked that we might be the first people to sail wing and wing through the bridge area. Just goes to show you can sail more of the ICW than one would think, as long as you aren’t in a hurry to beat feet south.

The whole time, Infinity was patiently coasting along behind us, and although I had fantasies of sailing to the anchorage and anchoring under sail, I figured he had to be going nuts just drifting along (I would have been if the situation was reversed.) Infinity graciously said we could do whatever we wanted, but we knew that a big stand of trees was coming, so rather than make him suffer we decided to call it a day and he towed us for the last 20 minutes.

We thought about what we would have done if we had been alone, deciding we would have dropped anchor on the side of the canal, lighting up the boat so other boats could see us, and then moved to the anchorage today when the wind is gusting 25 knots. Always good to go through the mental exercise!

Now both boats are anchored in a good spot for today (Wednesday’s) blow, and we are going to enjoy a marathon session of Mexican Train Dominoes before we take off tomorrow. We should have pretty good wind to sail the next two days, so we’ll get as close to Charleston as we can before we call TowBoat.

It’s always an adventure!

We interrupt this broadcast…

My last post was covering our trip north. It was part two of three, and my intention was to spend several posts getting caught up to real time. I’m still going to cover the rest of the trip north and the trip south to date, but we’ve had an unexpected interruption so I’m going to “live blog” for the next week or so before going back to playing catch up.

Several days ago I heard a new knocking sound in our engine. It wasn’t very noticeable and I thought I was imagining things, so I didn’t mention it to Jeff. He has since reminded me that he’s getting hard of hearing, so always say something.

On Sunday we were anchored just south of the ICW on Winyah Bay in South Carolina. The plan was to head down the ICW and be in Beaufort, SC eating tomato pie today (Tuesday).

About 15 minutes after we began, we increased the throttle to pass a smaller, slower boat in front of us. As we were passing, I could hear the revs on the engine starting to search. It took a minute or two before Jeff could hear it. We passed the other boat, brought the throttle down, and now the knocking from a few days ago became louder so that Jeff started to hear it too.

We radioed SV Infinity to let them know we were having issues and decided to turn around (he told us later that he could hear our engine through the VHF which wasn’t typical.) Within a minute of turning around, the revs really started hunting, the knocking was really loud (we think – there was a lot going on), and the engine stopped. Uh-oh.

We told SV Infinity what was up and started drifting with the current (there wasn’t any wind) while we talked about our options. Of course the current eventually started to turn us towards the center of the channel, so Infinity came up and within 30 seconds we had a line tied between the boats and he was slowly towing us.

It took awhile to reach TowBoat (they weren’t answering the radio and we didn’t have cell service), but eventually they arrived and towed us to the only marina in Georgetown, SC that had space. SV Infinity arrived about an hour after us.

To make a long story short, we had a mechanic come in yesterday (Monday). He listened to the engine for ten seconds and promptly declared it was a broken wrist pin and we would need a new engine, because the labor to rebuild would approach the cost of a new engine. Keep in mind, in 2018 we had a new Beta 16 HP installed (at great expense) to avoid this very situation. It has almost 2,800 hours on it, and you should easily get 10,000 hours out of one. This was NOT what we expected to hear.

After the shock wore off we decided to get a second opinion. We really didn’t get a good hit off the guy and had the distinct feeling he just didn’t want to do the job, whatever that job might turn out to be. A few people from Facebook had recommended him, but he deals primarily in large, expensive sport fishing boats with standing headroom engine rooms that are larger than the main living area of Pegu Club. Our boat most definitely does not have that kind of an engine room. Boat yoga is involved to work on it. Besides, we would never take just one mechanic’s opinion when we’re talking about something that massive. That would be like having a random car mechanic say your car needs a new engine. You’d go to another mechanic.

There is a Beta dealer in Mt. Pleasant SC, right by Charleston – Zimmerman’s. We figured we’d get a tow there and have them take a look. That’s when we found out that BoatUS’s Gold unlimited towing package isn’t really unlimited away from your home port. It used to be, but now Geico owns it. We can only get a free tow for up to 25 miles, after that they’ll pay 50% up to $3,000. To give you an idea of towing fees, the TowBoat in Georgetown, SC charges $180/hour. We have about 58 miles to go, at approximately 7 miles an hour. Do the math (and don’t forget he needs to go 58 miles back).

Infinity has offered to tow us the entire way, but we don’t want him to do that. Fortunately, it’s a sailboat and today we have a bit of wind. We’re going to ghost to an anchorage not too far away (we’ll need Infinity to tow for about 5 miles where the trees will be blocking the wind.) We’ll wait out the blow tomorrow at the anchorage, then on Thursday and Friday there will be enough wind to sail down the ICW, thereby getting us within 25 miles of the Charleston TowBoat where we can get a free tow.

We’ll have a mechanic look at the boat on Monday morning and see where we go from there. At this point, having received input from various cruising friends, we figure it’s either going to be something simple and we should be quickly on our way, or it will be catastrophic. Keep your fingers crossed! I’ll post daily dispatches to keep readers up to date.

Heading north – part 2. Plugging away at it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, by now it was May 15th, we needed to get up to Connecticut, and we were only as far as Beaufort, SC. But with some cooperative weather we figured we could scoot up to Norfolk and jump outside to at least Cape May (if not all the way to Groton) and be there in about three weeks. Well, you know what they say about cruisers’ plans written in sand at low tide.

Weather kept us in Beaufort for four days. Not a bad thing in and of itself – regular readers know how much we love Beaufort. We hit all of our regular haunts, ate our tomato pie, and attended a nice gathering of current and former cruisers at the home of cruisers who had settled down there upon swallowing the anchor.

It’s not a visit to Beaufort without tomato pie!

From Beaufort we had hoped to jump from Charleston to Cape Fear in a single overnight, but north winds thwarted those plans. Thankfully we still had the ICW as an option, so we put the hammer down and made it to just south of Southport, NC in 3 1/2 travel days. And then we got stuck. Strong north winds of 20-30+ knots kept us at St. James Marina for a week. We needed to go north, going outside wasn’t an option, and inside was also closed to us with very strong wind against the current on the Cape Fear River.

After a week we had a one day break in the weather so we dashed up to Carolina Beach, then had to wait for two more days. We knew from prior experience that the next bridge wouldn’t open in those winds.

All was not lost, however. We were finally at Carolina Beach when Britt’s Donuts were open (they are only open seasonally, and boy, were they worth the wait!). We also found some excellent pizza on the boardwalk, and it was a bright sunshiny day so Jeff did some metal detecting while I read my Kindle on the beach.

Our friends on Twin Sisters have raved about these donuts, and OMG! They were fantastic!

Jeff loves metal detecting on the beach.

You can buy Italian ice right on the beach – such a great idea! And yes, I did!

After we left Carolina Beach, we picked our way up the ICW taking advantage of every weather window we could grab. It was basically travel for one day, wait for two. Travel for two days, wait for one. As we fought the weather, our frustration level started rising.

A typical example was when we were riding out a blow just south of the Alligator-Pungo Canal. The anchorage was well-protected even though a cold wind of 25 knots was blowing from the northeast. We had planned to wait out the day warm in our cabin vs. motoring into the cold wind since we had a two-day window beginning the next day for crossing the Albemarle Sound.

Our scenic anchorage just north of Belhaven.

Checking the weather in mid-afternoon, we saw that the Albemarle Sound window had shut, and now our only chance for at least a week was the next day. Gritting our teeth, we raised the anchor and had a cold ride up the canal, anchoring just before sunset so we could cross the Albemarle the next day.

At least the Albemarle was behind us. But now the forecast was showing nothing but north winds for the next week. Crew morale was starting to dip.

Heading north – part 1.

Now that we were back in the States and anchored, it was time to give the heat in the quarterberth some more thought. Jeff had decided as we were going through Indian River Lagoon that it wasn’t the heat from the engine, and we determined that in reality the batteries were VERY hot. Honestly, this could have been a dangerous situation had they caught fire at any point, but we got lucky.

We consulted our cruising friends on SV Lone Star and SV Minx who are much better at electrical issues than we are, and they both suggested that the regulator in the alternator had failed. The regulator stops the electricity from going into the batteries once they are full. When it fails, the electricity keeps flowing and the batteries get increasingly hot as they overcharge.

Only one travel day away from St. Augustine where we could receive parts, we kicked around various ways to get there without overheating the batteries. Again we consulted Lone Star and Minx, and we decided that we would disconnect the batteries after we started the engine. We could use our iPad for navigation so we didn’t need our instruments. If the batteries were still cool at the end of the day, then it was obviously the regulator.

It was VERY weird traveling without a depth sounder, but we chugged along for the day and 59 nautical miles later we were on a mooring ball with the batteries still cool. It was the regulator.

The herons found a happy spot hanging out on the dock line of this boat at the marina.

We ordered up the needed parts from Beta and had them shipped overnight to the Municipal Marina. Honestly, it had been several years since we had stopped in St. Augustine so it wasn’t exactly a hardship to spend a few days there. We have several friends that live there (some having relocated from the northeast) and while we didn’t have time to see everyone, we enjoyed the company of those we did. Hopefully next season we can get together with everyone!

My friend Nelson suggested that we check out this place called Sarbez (Zebra spelled backwards). They had amazing grilled cheese sandwiches of all varieties, and as you can tell by this blackboard it had a great vibe. We will absolutely go there again. Thanks, Nelson!

Replacing the alternator was easier than we expected (THAT is a rare thing when it comes to a boat project), and a day later we had a weather window to hop outside from St. Augustine and go straight to Beaufort, SC. By now it was May 13th and we REALLY needed to get back to Connecticut, so we were glad to be making some tracks. Little did we know how slow going it would be after that.

The overnight to Beaufort was a mix of sailing and motoring. As we were heading up the river towards the Ladies Island Bridge, a commercial vessel passed us and we couldn’t keep up to catch his bridge opening. No big deal, we figured. It was the weekend so the bridge openings were on request.

When we arrived at the bridge we asked for an opening, and soon the gates were down to stop traffic. Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Apparently the bridge was stuck in the closed position. We asked the bridge tender how long he thought it would be, and he apologized but said he wasn’t sure. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. It had been 165 nautical miles and we were literally less than 2 miles from our anchorage. We were tired and frustrated, but it wasn’t the bridge tender’s fault. Eventually we gave up. Thunderstorms were coming in, so we told him we were going to backtrack and anchor farther down the river. Going backwards wasn’t the greatest way to end an overnight, but 20 minutes later we were securely anchored – and it didn’t rain on us until after we were tucked into our cabin!

Looks like a lot of rain coming our way!

Coming up: part two.

Back to the States via a new inlet!

When we left Green Turtle Cay to head to Great Sale, we thought we had a window to cross in a few days. It closed en route. Little did we know, this would be a frustrating pattern our entire trip north. We were only carrying 33 gallons of diesel and we had to motor the entire way to Great Sale Cay, but we were hoping the next window would have enough wind to get us to Jacksonville or Cumberland Island. Alas, it was not to be.

With our weather window closed, we waited for a few days at Great Sale with more boats than we had ever seen there. Obviously the weather was clogging travel plans for everyone. Great Sale Cay has virtually no internet, so we were VERY happy we had installed the SSB the previous summer so we could get weather forecasts from Chris Parker. Those of us with SSB gave the weather forecasts on the VHF to the boats without SSB or Starlink.

After the blow passed at Great Sale, a short window opened up to cross back to the U.S. Yay for a window! Boo for not having any wind. If we wanted wind, we were going to have to wait for another week and even then there was no guarantee the forecast would hold. Time to regroup.

We knew we didn’t have enough diesel to make it to Jacksonville, but we were hoping that if we could get a bit of wind we could make it to St. Augustine. Our friends on SV Minx and SV Purrfect were heading there, but with bigger boats they carry much more fuel. We said we’d hopefully meet them there, but we were going to have to see how the weather panned out.

Before we left we had routes set for Fort Pierce, Port Canaveral, New Smyrna, and St. Augustine. Where would we end up? Even we didn’t know.

Our Pelagic autopilot was on the fritz so this was going to be a hand-steering motorfest. Not our idea of a great time, but you do what you have to do. Raising the anchor around 1:00 a.m., we waved goodbye to the Bahamas until next season.

Getting ready to leave the Bahama Banks and head out into the Gulf Stream.

Big Red performed like a champ and we motored along, adding diesel from the jerry jugs as the hours went by.

I never get tired of how blue the ocean is when you get into deep water.

We quickly crossed Fort Pierce off the list and hoped we could make New Smyrna or St. Augustine. But by sunset that night we knew we couldn’t risk it with the fuel we had left. The little wind we had was in the wrong direction, so Port Canaveral it would be! This was going to be a new one for us.

Sunset with a cruise ship in the distance. You can tell how little wind there is by the smooth water.

Around 2:00 a.m. I got up for my shift, and as I grabbed my iPhone and AirPods (I listen to podcasts with one ear bud to pass the time), I noticed that the quarterberth that they were lying on felt warm. I lifted the lid off the battery compartment, and that was REALLY warm. It also smelled a bit odd. Uh-oh. I mentioned it to Jeff who said it was probably heat from the engine. I VERY skeptically agreed and we kept motoring along.

Normally we try not to enter new inlets or anchorages at night, but we were going to be at Port Canaveral about an hour before sunrise. We weren’t too concerned, however, because it’s a major port for cruise ships. We knew it would be lit up like an airport runway and at least equally wide.

Going through Port Canaveral ended up being easy-peasy, and we wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. We were accompanied by manatees and dolphins as we went through the lock, enjoyed a pretty ride through the canal out to the Indian River Lagoon, and stopped to get much needed diesel at Titusville Marina.

Jeff keeping Pegu Club away from the lock wall.

We pushed on to our regular anchorage on Callalisa Creek near New Smyrna and finally, 205 nautical miles later, we gladly turned off the engine and let go of the steering wheel. As for the heat in the battery compartment? That’s a story for the next blog.

A new stop – Tahiti Beach

After a solid night’s sleep, it was time to sail up to a new spot for us in the Abacos: Tahiti Beach. For some reason we had never stopped there before, although we had read it was lovely. Even better, we learned the Thirsty Cuda was there most days serving up drinks and food. Figuring better late than never, we decided this was the trip to check it out. It’s safe to say we won’t skip it again.

We had a nice sail from Lynard Cay to Tahiti Beach with our friends from Minx accompanying us part of the way. Tanya even got this great video of Pegu Club under sail:

A beautiful, relaxing sail to Tahiti Beach.

Upon arriving at the anchorage, we knew this was a spot we’d be happy to stay for several days. The beach was beautiful, the water was warm, and it was fun getting food from the Thirsty Cuda. We only bought drinks once when we realized how weak they are, preferring to bring our own after that, but the food was good.

Tahiti Beach is gorgeous, and the water temperature was lovely.

At one point there were several boats that participate in the daily Cruiseheimers SSB net all in the same anchorage, so everyone got together one afternoon to hang out in the water and chat in person. This is our first season with a single side band radio, so it was nice to finally meet the voices we’d been hearing for several months!

Cruiseheimers gathering. We all kept moving the dinghies back as the tide receded.

We ended up spending three relaxing days at Tahiti Beach. All good things must eventually come to an end, however. A lengthy weather system was heading our way, so we reluctantly raised the anchor and headed back to Green Turtle where we had made a reservation at Donny’s for a week on a mooring.

As we approached, we joked about how it would be nice to spend a week in a slip for the mooring rate like we did at the beginning of the season. Wouldn’t you know? That’s exactly what happened. As we approached we called Donny on the VHF, and he said he didn’t want to move boats around so how about if we stay in a slip instead. Ok – if you insist. LOL!

The wind blew for a week, but we didn’t feel anything in Donny’s snug spot. We went back to Island Greens produce for some great fresh veggies, and we walked down to the local beach which had a cute series of signs to let you know you were on the right path:

We had breakfast at the liquor store (yes, the liquor store serves a yummy breakfast) and watched the activities when the mail boat came in:

The local grade school was holding a fundraiser with food vendors and bands, so we went to that and had some excellent conch salad.

We were in Green Turtle for my birthday and we wanted to go to a specific restaurant. Unfortunately their credit card machine was down and we didn’t have enough cash (there aren’t any ATM’s on Green Turtle), so we improvised and went to Sundowners Restaurant for the first time. The drinks were good, the musician was good, and we had pizza for the first time in months so it was a very happy birthday indeed!

The only thing putting a damper on our lengthy stay in Green Turtle was the knowledge that we needed to get back to Connecticut, and we were already departing later than planned because of weather. We were going to have to put the hammer down.

Finally the weather cleared, and we had a possible window to head back to the States. Waving goodbye to Donny’s until next season, we cast off the dock lines and headed towards our jumping-off point, Great Sale Cay.