November 26, 2017
Someone told me that my blog was musings of a cruiser, rather than what, I forgot to ask. I don't really know what my blog is, but don't confuse musings with amusing because I know the difference.
You know when times are tough you tell yourself that someday I will laugh about this or in a cruiser's life that someday a certain event will be a great tale to tell. I am working on the last part.
While in Charleston I was really sick after 9 days of waiting for the "what ails me" to go away. I took an Uber to a clinic, leaving with a diagnosis of bronchitis and a handful of remedies. I felt miserable. Patty was in Texas with her mom, I was in bed and the boys were doing a good job fending for themselves.
On one of my up days Patty, Jack, Rob and I took the rented car for a day out. We went to the Boone Hall Plantation, one of America's oldest working plantations continually growing crops for over 320 years.
My favorite for that day was the Festival of Lights on James Island County Park, three miles of funny, beautiful and amazing lights bringing in the Holiday Season.
While in Charleston, Darcy’s sister, Valerie and husband Rick pulled in just in time for Jack’s soup. Valerie and Rick were headed south for Fort Pierce to leave their boat for the winter.
On Tuesday we were still waiting to hear about the engine gasket fix. Jack and Patty headed off to Jekyll on Wednesday the 15th. We found out the gasket couldn't be replaced without major work, time and money, so the screws were torqued and after seeing very little oil drip at 1400 RPMs we decided to head out on the 16th and treat the engine leak as a nuisance to be reckoned with as we go along.
Come along for the ride.
November 16th
We were ecstatic to be on our way. Although missed Jack and Patty we had plans to catch up when we could.
G185
We found a missing marker, was my text to Susan. Her humorous response was, "Did you return it".
Answer; "Not without a struggle between our props and an arrogant green marker"
Response: "Oh no are you telling me you hit the missing marker"?
Answer: "It was underwater. Did you know that it is a telephone pole? We left teeth marks."
We put the port engine to work, the starboard engine vibrated too much. Sometimes it feels that the disclaimer section of the chart is missing. The missing marker was under the water, so we didn’t see it.
In the meantime I am still recovering from being sick and my voice was cracking and barely understandable as I called the Coast Guard to report the accident. I panicked that someone else might be coming along and have the same thing happen to them. I tried to reach the CG on the radio without luck finally they responded but they couldn't understand what I was saying. A note here is that the CG had been trying to reach me but something was wrong and we didn’t hear their response. They called on the phone and that didn't help a whole lot because my voice wasn't any better on the phone than on the radio, Rob had to finish telling them the story.
Gosh it was hard to make them understand where the marker was, I was surprised that they couldn’t find it by the number, but needed to know the location finding that on BlueChart while trying to do the other tasks was stressful too.
Onward to anchor passed the mooring field at the Beaufort City marina. While anchored I received a call from the Game Warden, now what did we do wrong? Did you know that the CG reports the situation to the GW and it is treated like a car accident, the damage is accessed and available to insurance. A glimmer of hope that the insurance will cover some of the expenses to fix the boat, poor Linda Jean.
Robs note to friends:
We read every Active Captain caution. We follow the magenta line, unless told to do otherwise. We dodge crab traps and always one or two sets of eyes ahead.
Yesterday, the caution said, "missing marker," so we carefully stayed on the magenta line. BANG! Boat slowed, starboard buzzer came on and we both assumed we had gone aground. There was plenty of water, so that made no sense. I shut down the buzzing engine and Tricia looked aft to see G185 rise up behind us. It was not there before, but it was clearly there afterward.
Still ample water, so kept same route. Marked spot. Tricia called the Coast Guard and I attempted a restart. STBD started fine, no buzzer or light, but awful vibration above idle. Prop? Shaft?
Port engine also vibrated above 1400 RPM. Prop?
Since we have reservations at Thunderbolt Marina in Savannah starting tomorrow for the w/e, I called there and spoke with the boat yard people the best they could do was see the boat on Monday. I also called Marsh Harbor Boat Works in Beaufort they could haul the boat the next day.
While in the engine room checking oil, I looked at the stuffing boxes. Starboard is wet as it should be, port is dripping very fast as it should not be.
Diagnosis-Both props bent and on their way to Florida for straightening. Both shafts are fine but stuffing box needs to be re-stuffed.
The rest of the story
We rented a car and tried to make the most of the change in our plans. Rob gets sick and is in bed for a day. Rob is not as sick as I was but since he didn't want to get as sick as I was we went to the local walk-in clinic. I wasn't getting better. Both of us walked out with prescriptions and hopes that we were both going to put this behind us. My medication was a very high dose of prednisone and a different antibiotic by Monday I was feeling a whole lot better.
I took advantage of Rob’s sick day and went off to see some sites. I followed one of the roads to Saint Helena Island. At the end of the road I found the Fort Fremont Preserve.
The Fort played a vital role in protecting the US Naval Station at Parris Island which had a strategic dry dock and coaling station critical to the Atlantic Naval Fleet during the Spanish American War.
Rob and I both went to Hunting Island State Park. We enjoyed visiting the park information center.
Living on our boat while it is in a travel lift is NOT fun for me and significantly worse than living on the "hard" which means the boat is on stilts/blocks. I will show you pictures of the boat on the travel lift and one of the boat on stilts. The travel lift is like a big monster from a Steven Spielberg movie, so once it was dark I was in for the night which doesn't make it easy using the facilities, living on the hard I can manage.
We were very lucky to have had three invitations to Thanksgiving Dinner. We opted for the three hour drive to Fernandina Beach to have dinner and an overnight with Jack and Patty on their boat. We had to drive back to our boat on Thursday night to prepare Linda Jean to be launched on Friday. I never will drive three hours in the dark through Georgia and South Carolina coast again. By the time I had driven over three hours over bridges or Georgia marsh land I was a wreck! There is blackness on both sides of the road, behind the car and up ahead.
November 24th we anchored at Bull Creek and that was so nice after such a long time at marinas.
This brings me to today anchored in Wahoo River one of our favorite places.
Darcy's sister is taking the picture of the crew getting ready to have soup for dinner.
Valerie and Rick's boat Whitt's End leaving for Fort Pierce
Doesn't it look like they are having fun!?
I was told to move away from the fence so I wouldn't be the 16th attendee at the wedding, I thought one more wouldn't be noticed.
Flowers of the Boone Hall Plantation
Festival of Lights
The name of my uncles potato farm all those years ago and the name of the place we had lunch
The Red Rooster Restaurant
The orange pumpkin
Beautiful fountain in Duck Grass at the visitors center
Hunting Island State Park on St. Helena Island
The sign said...
Linda Jean is pampered after her run in with the missing marker
This is the Steven Spielberg monster
View out our galley window
View from the Fort Fremont Preserve
Beach Fairy Houses
Fort Fremont
Only the owner knows if this is a real dog
Thanksgiving Eve
Thanksgiving with Jack and Patty
Thank you both for a delightful time
Somethings never change
The street light on shore at Wahoo River Anchorage
I am sending this blog to you from this peaceful anchorage at Wahoo River.
I feel blessed to have so many of you keeping in touch and being family.
Tricia
Addendum:
The first link in your email did not bring you to the completed blog hopefully I have figured out the problem and you will get the right link let me know if you get the pictures and completed text with your link.
Today is the 27th and we are anchored at Jekyll Island last night. Today we are going to Cumberland Island to anchor with Patty and Jack.
As the saying goes you can't live without the computer and sometimes it would be nice to live without them.
