We awoke this Good Friday to find our prayers had been answered. Surely the Lord took pity on us this special day and decided we had had enough trouble for awhile.
The AC Condensator line had been cleaned and reinstalled before bedtime last night and seems to be working fine. The engine that died turned out to be a simple fix and we field tested it at the dock for 30 minutes before shoving off. I had spent last night conferring by phone with our good friend and veteran looper Ken Searl on what might have caused the engine to die. We talked through many senarios that would have ultimately required hours and hours of labor but thankfully none were needed. Thanks Ken for being there. Knowledge gained is never wasted. It may help in the future or I can help someone else. I have always been a “monkey see, monkey do” sort of mechanic. If I ever see it done once or read about it or talk it through then I can usually duplicate it the next time. This has served me well from my early efforts at taking my bicycle apart as a child alll the way to working on diesel boat engines.
Before we could leave I had to clear a raft of reeds from under the swim platform. This heavy tidal flow moves marsh reeds in large masses and once they hang on anything they begin to catch more and more debris. By this morning we had, without exaggeration, a mass that was 8×10 feet and one foot deep. It took be 30 minutes with a boat hook to break it up and send it on it’s way to hang on someone else’s boat.
We passed the scene of the great grounding in the Medway River and I must speak on Jan’s behalf. The chartplotter is always laying down a track as we move along. We can trace our path all the way back to GUNTERSVILLE, AL through every twist and turn. Yesterday when we got stuck we immediately turned off all excess devices draining battery power because we could not start the genset since it would suck up sand. Our refrigerators would draw power for hours while we sat and waited on the tide, so we wanted to save as much as we could. Thus when we started back up there was a break in the track right where we hit. This is clearly in mid channel where over 30 feet of water was indicated. Unless someone had told you a sandbar had formed it was just a trap waiting to catch some unwitting tourist and we fit the bill on both counts.
After moving further downriver we knew it was time to test for prop damage and there is only one surefire test. Run her wide open and see if anything shakes or breaks. Up on plane at 23 mph we cruised the full five miles back to the ICW.
Oh, did I mention we were at full high tide this morning and under a severe thunderstorm watch as we traveled today? We only had 25 miles to go today to Ft. McAllister on the Ogeechee River where we plan to spend the weekend. We actually arrived by 1100 and though we ran in rain for a few miles there was no real difficulty. We wish to thank Alex who is the dockmaster here. He not only gave excellent instructions on how to navigate these uncharted waters, he watched us with binoculars and called us when we were off track at one point. Again the charts were totally useless because no-one ever spends the money to chart these waterways little used by tourists.
We had lunch at Fish Tales on the dock. It was really good or else we were really glad to be there or both.
This will be a resting, working and touring weekend. You will read about it as it happens right here. There were no pictures today because I forgot to charge the camera. It was a gloomy day anyway.
The AC Condensator line had been cleaned and reinstalled before bedtime last night and seems to be working fine. The engine that died turned out to be a simple fix and we field tested it at the dock for 30 minutes before shoving off. I had spent last night conferring by phone with our good friend and veteran looper Ken Searl on what might have caused the engine to die. We talked through many senarios that would have ultimately required hours and hours of labor but thankfully none were needed. Thanks Ken for being there. Knowledge gained is never wasted. It may help in the future or I can help someone else. I have always been a “monkey see, monkey do” sort of mechanic. If I ever see it done once or read about it or talk it through then I can usually duplicate it the next time. This has served me well from my early efforts at taking my bicycle apart as a child alll the way to working on diesel boat engines.
Before we could leave I had to clear a raft of reeds from under the swim platform. This heavy tidal flow moves marsh reeds in large masses and once they hang on anything they begin to catch more and more debris. By this morning we had, without exaggeration, a mass that was 8×10 feet and one foot deep. It took be 30 minutes with a boat hook to break it up and send it on it’s way to hang on someone else’s boat.
We passed the scene of the great grounding in the Medway River and I must speak on Jan’s behalf. The chartplotter is always laying down a track as we move along. We can trace our path all the way back to GUNTERSVILLE, AL through every twist and turn. Yesterday when we got stuck we immediately turned off all excess devices draining battery power because we could not start the genset since it would suck up sand. Our refrigerators would draw power for hours while we sat and waited on the tide, so we wanted to save as much as we could. Thus when we started back up there was a break in the track right where we hit. This is clearly in mid channel where over 30 feet of water was indicated. Unless someone had told you a sandbar had formed it was just a trap waiting to catch some unwitting tourist and we fit the bill on both counts.
After moving further downriver we knew it was time to test for prop damage and there is only one surefire test. Run her wide open and see if anything shakes or breaks. Up on plane at 23 mph we cruised the full five miles back to the ICW.
Oh, did I mention we were at full high tide this morning and under a severe thunderstorm watch as we traveled today? We only had 25 miles to go today to Ft. McAllister on the Ogeechee River where we plan to spend the weekend. We actually arrived by 1100 and though we ran in rain for a few miles there was no real difficulty. We wish to thank Alex who is the dockmaster here. He not only gave excellent instructions on how to navigate these uncharted waters, he watched us with binoculars and called us when we were off track at one point. Again the charts were totally useless because no-one ever spends the money to chart these waterways little used by tourists.
We had lunch at Fish Tales on the dock. It was really good or else we were really glad to be there or both.
This will be a resting, working and touring weekend. You will read about it as it happens right here. There were no pictures today because I forgot to charge the camera. It was a gloomy day anyway.