November 27, 2008.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. First a little recap of what’s been happening on the Veranda. The new ring gear is installed on the flywheel and the flywheel assembly is back in the boat.

That was the good news. When they went to attach the transmission to the V drive the mechanic found that an adapter plate was loosely installed. This pre assembly had been done at the transmission place in Florida. In order to access the bolts to properly tighten this adapter he had to remove a special magical Nylock nut and take the back half of the transmission apart. Unfortunately Nylock nuts can only be used once. So now the magic nut was junk. This nut is evidently very special, rare and maybe even endangered and there are none to be found in the area. So they called the transmission place in Florida, told him about the loose adapter and had him send us a new magic nut.

The nut was shipped on Friday and was supposed to come overnight but somebody dropped the ball. I’m not sure what happened but the damned nut didn’t show up until noon on Tuesday. By the time a mechanic was freed up we didn’t have someone on the boat until 1500 hours but he was able to get the bell housing and the 2 rear motor mounts back in place. Progress.

On Wednesday things went pretty well and he had the transmission back in place in record time. The V drive unfortunately was a different story. The V drive we had is no longer being made, the one we received was called “a drop in replacement”. It supposed to be exactly the same, you know, except for the differences.

The new V drive is about an inch and a half longer than the old one. The old unit fit into its allotted space like a glove. There was no room to spare. Fortunately the bulkhead directly behind the V drive can be modified. That’s right, get out the Sawsall. After some liberal obstruction removal the new V drive easily slipped into place. We will have to add some aluminum angle stock to reinforce the area where the bulkhead was modified but that shouldn’t present a problem. Oh, but there is a problem.

It turns out that the extra length of the new V drive isn’t at the back of the unit but it seems to be built into the main body. Now the coupling that is supposed to mate up with our propeller shaft coupling is 3/8 of an inch too far forward. The propeller shaft cannot be pulled far enough forward to bolt them together because the front of the propeller hub will be up against the skegs trailing edge.

We formulated a plan to overcome this new problem just as the noon hour arrived. The mechanic went to lunch never to return. He planned to be back immediately after lunch but unfortunately for us he wears two hats here in Oriental. He’s also the local Tow Boat captain. While he was at lunch I heard someone hail Tow Boat US on the radio and my heart sank. He had to drop everything and go out and pull them off a shoal. The really ironic thing was that the stranded sailors were locals and they ran into some shoaling right near their slip. By the time the mechanic got back it was time to clean up his tools and leave for the four day holiday weekend. Shit.

On the bright side Jay & Di whose picture in the snow made our last update have arrived. They were only here for one day so we spent the evening on their boat having dinner and a real good time. They had a great weather window present itself and opted to head south for warmer climes.

Our friends Ken & Carol have a big family reunion scheduled up in Washington, DC this weekend. They let us use their house to have Thanksgiving dinner in. Linda & Rick from the Makeitso joined us and then Joe & Paula stopped in for dessert and a little domino action.

So Thanksgiving dinner was great as always. Oriental really is a great place but I’m really itching to get out of here. We’ll see what Monday brings.

November 20, 2008.

There are two words to basically sum up the past few days. The first word is frigid. To say that it has been unseasonably cold here is an understatement. Last night and the night before the temperature dropped to about 30 degrees. We had snow flurries on Tuesday! As if that’s not bad enough yesterday we had 20 knots of wind from the north for the better part of the day. The wind chill was down into the teens. Frigid.

The second word is WooHooo ! Today the last of our parts arrived so we are ready to start re assembly. The used ring gear that was located has finally arrived and looks to be in great shape. It has already been installed on the flywheel and is ready to go. The V drive got here a few days ago and the transmission is also ready to go. We’ll find out later today where we fit into the service schedule, dare I dream tomorrow? WooHooo !

Last night Christy went to a wine tasting that is held here in Oriental once a month. The event is a “blind” taste testing. Each person brought 2 wine glasses and there were templates for placing your glasses, glass A & B. The camouflaged bottles of wine were poured and they had to identify the type, was it a merlot? a cabernet? or a pinot noir? Then they had to choose the one they preferred and rate the glasses as to price, under or over $10? There were about 100 tastees there and only 2 people scored perfect marks on their taste testing exams. Christy, and our friend Carol. I knew the training schedule they had established would pay dividends.


Our friends Jay & Di "enjoying" the snow in the Dismal Swamp.

November 17, 2008.

Since last we left you we’ve made a bit of progress. A ring gear has been located and is now on the way to us here in Oriental. So the pieces should all be here this week so there’s a decent chance we’ll be doing some assembly soon.

Inamorata with Jeff & Tessa showed up on Friday afternoon. They had stopped for the night about 20 miles away and woke to a blinding fog.
It was a complete whiteout but they got underway and arrived here just after noon.

It was great to see them and we had a great time with them as always. We shared a couple of meals, hit West Marine, the supermarket and they did a little laundry. The wind came hard from the southwest and then veered from the northwest while they were here. It made for a bit of tension as one of the other boats in the anchorage couldn’t seem to get his anchor to stick. All went well enough and they left unscathed, but I’m pretty sure Jeff was looking forward to finding a less crowded anchorage to get some quality sleep when they left here on Sunday morning.

Christy spent yesterday running around with Carol while I did a few boat chores. Since we’re using the forward head I decided to clean the hoses of the aft head out with a diluted solution of muriatic acid. Then I took apart the fittings for the raw water strainer and cleaned them with the acid as well. Finally, I did a little routine maintenance on the auto pilot.

The auto pilot was a little low on hydraulic fluid. You can’t just open the lid to the reservoir and add fluid because the system is pressurized. After we had originally filled and bled the system we had to hook our bicycle pump to the system and pressurize the system. It had been a giant pain in the ass and took both of us working together to get the job done. Since then the bike pump broke and we threw it away. The only pump we have onboard is one of those tiny mini pumps we use to top off the bike tires. I figured I’d try it with that and if it didn’t work I’d find a pump to borrow while here in town. So after letting the air out of the system I topped off the fluid and hooked up the micro pump. It worked fabulously, it was perfect and I was done in 30 seconds. I guess even though the old pump was a full sized pump it must have just been a piece of crap. Good riddance.

As soon as I was done cleaning up my various messes it was time to take the dogs ashore. When I got up to the marina I found over a dozen people milling about. It seemed that the power had gone out all over town. All the people that are living here on their boats were freaking out because most of them are very dependent on shore power for heat.

Since it was so pleasant I didn’t have the heat on, but the night time temps are supposed to plummet to the high 20’s this week. My first thought was “no biggie, I’ll just run the generator” until I remembered that it’s still sitting in the middle of the salon. Fortunately, the power was back on in about an hour so everything was fine.

November 13, 2008.

Yep, we’re still here. This is definitely the most frustrating part of our lives. Waiting for someone else, being dependent on someone else. Waiting for parts is enough to make your head explode. Can you imagine our frustration as we wait to find out if a part even exists? The irony of the situation is overwhelming as I was involved in the manufacture of splines and gears for the military for 20 years.

We’re waiting for a new V-drive to be shipped in and while its not late its still frustrating to be waiting. The biggest issue that we have is that our ring gear is pretty beat up. The ring gear is mounted to the flywheel and when you turn the key the starter engages the ring gear momentarily and lets the starter spin the engine. Once the engine starts the starter disengages and the ring gear spins as part of the flywheel without touching anything. Its job is done until the next time you start the engine.

The ring gear was doing its job just fine but since we’re so far into the disassembly of the engine the marina doesn’t want to assemble everything with the shabby ring gear. Deaton’s Yacht Service does have the reputation of doing things right. The problem is locating a ring gear. They were once made by Westerbeke until that division was sold to another company. Then the manufacture of these gears was sold to company in Mexico and finally sold one last time to a company here in the states. As the business moved from one company to another throughout the years each company has changed the part number. So the part number we have in our 25 year old service manual doesn’t mean anything anymore. So finding the trail to the correct part is about as difficult as finding the second gunman on the grassy knoll. The marina does have a line on another marina that supposedly has a few of these engines lying around. They’re supposed to be checking these used engines to see if any have a flywheel assembly in good enough condition for us to use. We should know something tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow……I’m starting to feel like Annie.

Yesterday we had Bill & Bess from the S/v Alibi stop in Oriental for the night. We had met them in Washington while we were there. Bess worked for a high power law firm in DC and lived on a large power boat at the Capital Yacht Club. If you took the most energetic, frenetic person you know and fed them some amphetamines and washed them down with espresso they’d almost have as much energy as Bess. I was really looking forward to seeing how she adapted to the slower relaxed pace of Bill’s sailboat. I have to say that I was quite surprised at how well she’s adapted. We had lunch with them and like everyone else beside us, they were gone the next day.

We did hear from Jeff & Tessa on Inamorata, some more of our southbound people. Tessa sent us a picture of herself sticking her tongue out at Atlantic Yacht Basin as they went by. That’ll teach them to do a half assed repair on someone’s boat. She did make us laugh so that was good. They should be here in a day or two depending on the weather.

The weather here went to hell today and is supposed remain crappy for 2 more days. Also the wind is now out of the south which should slow Inamorata down a bit.

November 9, 2008

So were just sitting here waiting for parts to arrive. We got the bikes out and we’ve been doing a little cycling in an effort to keep from climbing the walls. Town is small enough to walk everywhere but having the bikes out adds a new dimension to what we can accomplish.

Yesterday we were taking a ride when we realized that it was Saturday and that the fish market was open. We picked up a pound of grouper and a pound of great looking shrimp at a fair price. When we got back to the boat to stow the fish we received a phone call from our friend Bill on Puddlejumper.

We met Bill while we were up in Washington, DC. He was the fellow that had built his 40 foot catamaran from scratch. He never worked with fiberglass before he started building his boat. I think he might be out of his mind but learning as he went the boat came out wonderfully. Anyway, he was calling to say that he was 20 miles away and that he’d be stopping in on Sunday.

On Sunday morning Bill called to say that he was just about here so we launched the dinghy to head over to Oriental Harbor. Once clear of Whittaker Creek we opened the dinghy up and roared down to Oriental Harbor. We got there just as they were dropping the hook outside the harbors breakwater.

Once tied to their side we were welcomed aboard with open arms. It was really great to see Bill again. He just another example of the fine people that we’ve met on our journey. He’s about to make his first crossing to the Bahamas so we went over some of our favorite places to anchor and some of the routes we had taken while there. Bill’s usually solo but for this long trip from DC to the Bahamas he’s got a companion, Darilynn aboard. She and Christy hit it off and sat and gabbed for a bit before we got up to leave.

There’s a weather window that is opening tomorrow so Bill wants to make it to Beaufort tonight. This will enable them to ride the ebbing tide out Beaufort Inlet in the morning and start their sail south. So after spending 2 hours catching up with us we said our goodbyes and then they once again pulled their hook and headed out for Beaufort, 20 miles away. They should have anywhere from 5 to 15 knots of breeze from the north for at least 48 hours. I can’t believe they stopped in just to say “hey”.

We blasted back to the boat, had lunch and decided to go for a bike ride since the weather is so beautiful. After touring as many streets as we could, we stopped off at Ken & Carol’s for a bit before heading back to the boat.

We got back to the boat after our ride and as Christy climbed into the cockpit she announced “I smell smoke”. She quickly opened up the boat and went below to see what was burning. She immediately popped back up and said that there was no smell of smoke below, it was only in the cockpit. We looked around and nothing that might have been burning was apparent. After a while we were starting to think we were going crazy, I even asked the dogs if they’d been playing with matches. And then I saw it, Son of a Bitch.

You know how as you start to get older your eyes start to go. Well sometimes I have trouble seeing some of the detailed information on the charts. Instead of having to deal with reading glasses in the cockpit I keep a magnifying glass at the helm. I had hung the towel that I use to dry the dogs feet on the wheel to dry. As luck, bad luck, would have it everything lined up just perfectly. The sun beating in through the windscreen on the boat was hitting the magnifying glass and the focal distance was exactly the distance to the towel.


That magnifying glass has been there for over a year. I’ve hung that towel there a hundred times and today, finally everything lined up perfectly and the magnifying glass burned a hole right through the towel. Fortunately the towel was damp enough that it didn’t flare up. The magnifier just burned a hole as it walked across the towel.

So that only goes to further cement my theory. Things are definitely looking up. We didn’t set the boat on fire and burn the dogs to death; yup, things are definitely looking up.

November 6, 2008.

Since we’re waiting for parts to come in we’ll be sitting here for several days with no work being performed on the boat. We’ll use the opportunity to replace some wiring in the engine room and give the bilge a good scrubbing.

The engine and transmission were supported by six mounts. As part of the disassembly four of those mounts were removed. That meant that the engine had to be supported by a hoist hung from an old propeller shaft. We would have been able to live with the shaft in the middle of our living space if it was going to be a day or two. Since we’re looking at a week minimum, we decided we had to get the Limbo Bar out of the way. Christy and I cut a few pieces of wood and using wedges and blocks we created enough support for the engine enabling us to get rid of the bar.

We took a walk down to the waterfront in the center of town. We came across the mother of all root systems. Sometimes you’ll see a root that goes under the sidewalk and forces a section of the sidewalk up. This root enveloped the sidewalk and created a foot tall obstruction.
The property owner decided to go with the flow and formed two cement benches in the roots of this big tree. It was actually pretty cool and is now a neighborhood landmark.

Orientals town mascot is the dragon. There are dragons of every type in yards all over the community. The dragon is even a protected species here in town. While walking down the town docks we came across a sailboat that definitely needs a new anchor.
I was glad he was tied to a dock and not anchored up wind of us. In the past we’ve anchored just outside the breakwater as there’s only room for a few boats to anchor inside the jetty.

We’ve been talking to friends on the phone and through E-mail about our tales of woe. We locked through the Great Bridge Lock with Solitaire and they’re already in Vero Beach, FL. Then we heard from Sapphire; we had dinner with them when we arrived in Oriental and they’re already in Florida. I can’t believe how long we’ve been practically sitting still. We have several more boatloads of friends that are behind us and it’ll be great to see them as they come through but it’s gonna suck watching them continue on their way while we stay put.

A couple of blog entries ago I mentioned that a boat had been dismasted by the Alligator River Bridge. The boat, Cat’s Cradle, had claimed that the swing bridge had started to swing closed before they were clear. The bridge operator said that the boat came through with his sails up and had hooked the bridge with his sail and sucked him into the bridge thus dismasting himself.

Cat’s Cradle is here waiting for a new mast to be shipped in. I was talking to the skipper and he said that the cop who responded to the scene was pretty sharp and after listening to both sides he had the bridge operator open and close the bridge for him so he could see how things worked. Then he had the skipper lay his genoa out to examine it to see where it was damaged. With the physical evidence and the fact that the bridge is surrounded by a huge protective fender system it was apparent to him that the bridge had indeed closed to soon. There was no damage to the boats hull so the boat couldn’t have gotten close enough to the bridge while the bridge was open because of the fender system. So the bridge had to be closing.

It was kind of sobering to see the damage the mast took by being wacked by the bridge. The mast was broken into 3 pieces with the uppermost section striking a glancing blow and crushing part of the bimini frame over the cockpit. This is an Island Packet with a pretty beefy mast. One of their spreaders was left impaled in the bridge. They could have been killed. Fortunately the other boat that was transiting the bridge just ahead of them stopped and confirmed the skipper’s version of the events. Now he’s just got to deal with his insurance company.

November 5, 2008.

We’ve gotten our repair estimate and the figure is a lot more than we were hoping to hear. A lot more. But it is what it is. We really don’t have a choice but it’s gonna sting. It’s also going to take a bit more time than we had hoped but we’ll just have to make the best of it. If you see me selling pencils at a stop light; buy several and don’t hesitate to tip.

Carol & Ken had lent us their Jeep to make it easier for us to get around town. Last night we were invited to the home of some friends for dinner. So we left the boat just after dark on our way to the car. Just before we got off the boat Christy handed me the car keys. I considered not taking them because I didn’t want to be borrowing the car in the first place. I started to stuff them into my pocket and settled for sticking them in the pouch of my sweatshirt as I was going to make Christy drive anyway. As I jumped down onto the finger pier I watched with resignation as the keys very neatly slipped from my pouch and fell into the cold dark water.

It wasn’t just any bunch of keys either. Besides the keys to the car and house there was the fancy electronic car unlocking fob. Great, just great. Christy got our crab net from the stern rail. The handle was only 6 feet long and since the water was 9 feet deep and I’m standing on the dock 3 feet above the water there was no way it’s going to help. So I ended up using some duct tape to tape the net to one of our boat hooks. That’s when we realized just how strong the suns rays are. I dipped the net into the water and we were amazed when I pulled the net from the water. It had almost completely dissolved. The sun had degraded the nets material to the point that it actually disappeared when it got wet. Unbelievable. We called Carol and she arrived with the spare set of keys and we headed off to dinner.

Dinner was fantastic and the company was great and we had a great time in spite of the fact that I had the specter of the lost keys hanging over my head.

This morning I got up and found our big ass magnet and did a little fishing. In the space of ten minutes up came the keys. YES. I figured that the electronic opener was crap but at least we could return the keys. I gave them to Christy to rinse in freshwater. When she was done she opened the battery door on the opener and IT WAS DRY INSIDE. It was waterproof, YES.

Then I came in and promptly spilled an entire glass of soda on the keyboard of my laptop. I dried it off as best I could and Christy went to work on it with a can of compressed air in an effort to dry it out. In the end there was no hope and the patient died. Crap. Christy had one more trick up her sleeve though. She called IBM and found out that the laptop was still under warranty. So it will involve sending the unit back to them, but it should work out for us.

So our last couple of days have been like a ride on a roller coaster. Lost the keys, found the keys. Killed the laptop, found out all is not lost. Broke the boat, found someone who can fix it………no wonder roller coasters make me want to vomit.

November 4, 2008.

It’s been 2 full years since we cut the dock lines and sailed south. Currently we’re at Deaton’s Marina in Oriental, NC. The repair we had done in Virginia seems to have failed and we’re hoping for a better result here. In a couple of days we’ll have the answer.

We’ve been tied to Ken and Carols dock while waiting for the weekend to pass so we could head over to the repair yard. We passed the weekend enjoying the company of many friends. We had dinner with Fine Lion & Sapphire before they headed south. Then we spent a good bit of time with friends of Ken & Carol, Sandy & Paul who are from the same marina in NJ where we once kept our boat. On Saturday, Carol took Christy and a couple of other girls to New Bern for a day of shopping while I joined Ken’s crew for a day of racing out on the Neuse River. Oriental really would be a kick ass place to live. There's just so much to do……..and eat. Seriously, if we lived here I’d weigh about 300 pounds and be exhausted from the social schedule.

I was looking through our records and found a few interesting facts that we’ve compiled over the course of the two years that we’ve been out and about.

We’ve spent 4960 dollars on fuel for the dinghy and the big boat. So it seems that we’re averaging about 48 dollars a week for fuel. It’s more than I expected but pretty cheap compared to what we had been spending per week for gasoline for the car, truck and motorcycles.

We’ve also traveled about 9000 nautical miles which would translate into 10260 statute miles. That means we move about 87 nautical miles a week. So even though we seem to always be trying to go about 50 miles a day we must spend a lot of time sitting at anchor (or as in this case awaiting repairs).

Time spent at anchor, tied to a dock or on a mooring breaks down to these numbers. Out of 730 nights, we’ve spent 66 nights tied to a dock. Those are nights mainly divided between Vero Beach, Saint Augustine, Ken and Carols house and some time in Charleston. We’ve spent 62 nights on a mooring ball and 44 nights on the hard (boat out of the water, on land). Most of those nights on a mooring were this year in Marathon and Vero Beach with some time in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. The 44 nights on the hard were spent doing yearly maintenance at either Silver Cloud in NJ last year or at Herrington Harbor North in Deale MD this year. That’s 172 nights out of 730 which means that we’ve spent 558 nights lying to our anchor.

Internet is another expense that was interesting to finally dissect. We have a Wifi amplifier and fixed external antenna onboard so we can usually “borrow” a free internet connection from the boat. I’d say that we have an internet signal available to us about 75 percent of the time. The few times that we’ve had to pay for internet total up to about $170 over the 2 years. So with the right equipment we’ve been able to do pretty well with free internet.

While compiling all these fun facts I began to consider a chore that I’ve been doing pretty much every day since we left. That’s right, walking the dogs. I would guesstimate the average dog walking at about a quarter of a mile. Sometimes it’s less, but it’s often longer so a quarter of a mile is a fair estimation. That means that most every morning for the past 720 mornings I’ve walked a total of 180 MILES. Then of course we do it again in the evening so it comes out to about 360 miles of dog walking over the course of the past 2 years. Throw in the distance of the dinghy ride which is usually several hundred feet each way and a conservative guess would be that we spent about 500 miles in the dinghy in search of suitable puppy pooping grounds. See, and you thought we might get bored.

While I’m on the subject of the dogs bowelular behavior. Molly has finally learned to poop on the bow of the boat. Since both dogs have now finally mastered this new behavior there was great joy. When we left AYB our first nights anchorage left us with no suitable place to walk the dogs. Christy and I took the dogs in the dink and ventured up a nearby shallow river for several miles in search of anyplace that we could get the dogs ashore. The shoreline was uninterrupted marsh grass for mile after mile with no solid ground in sight.

We took the dogs back to the boat and they sat with their legs crossed. The next evening we made it to the south end of the Alligator River and pretty much had the same experience. No place to go, literally. That’s where we had that brutal front come through so while we were trapped for 2 days I started walking the dogs on the bow of the boat. I’d clip their leashes on and walk them to the front and finally Molly took care of business like it was no big deal. Phew! After that it was like the floodgates had opened and they started making regular twice a day trips to the bow by themselves. Things are definitely looking up…..

October 30, 2008.

We ended up sitting in the south end of the Alligator River on Tuesday. The wind was still very strong and blowing straight out of the west. We were fine and the anchorage was okay, it’s just that we were apprehensive about taking the boat through the Alligator-Pungo Canal with 20 to 30 knots of wind dead on the nose. Its narrow, full of snags and probably the birthplace of the Bogeyman. Nobody else in our little group left either so I felt a little bit better about sitting.

On Wednesday morning we awoke to the sound of anchors being raised. I poked my head upstairs to find the wind was still from the west but considerably lighter. We decided to go for it. As I was raising the 2nd anchor I signaled to Christy to put the boat into gear, and guess what? We didn’t have “forward”. Crap. I went below to check the transmission fluid level, and guess what? No fluid. Double crap. This is definitely not good news, the professional “repair” that we just had done, had failed. I refilled the transmission and off we went. This meant that we would have to motor for at least 4 hours with a damper plate that is breaking up and a leaking transmission.

Due to the tenderness of our damper plate we opted to turn just enough RPM’s to make 5 knots over the ground. We actually even passed a few boats including a catamaran, Don’t Look Back, which stopped to take another sailboat in tow. The poor guy pulled up a huge snag that he couldn't free from his anchor and then had his propeller fall off just as he was entering the canal. They came by and took his line and towed him the entire 22 mile length of the canal.

We set a schedule and I checked the transmission fluid level every 30 minutes and added as needed until we shut the engine down. The wind did once again build to about 20 knots on the nose for the rest of the day so it was slow going.

About 1300 hours we reached the south end of the canal and had had enough. There’s a nice anchorage there that we’ve used before so we turned in and dropped the hook.

An hour later the Don’t Look Back pulled in still towing the sailboat. They’re just another example of the type of extraordinary people that we’ve come across in our travels. As the afternoon went on another half dozen boats tucked in to share our anchorage.

The winds for Thursday were supposed to be lighter than we’ve had lately, but out of the north, so we were up early to take a shot at sailing the 48 miles to Oriental. We raised the mainsail and sailed off the anchor in the predawn darkness. The wind was light but we made about 4 knots as we headed south.

After a few miles we turned due west and our boat speed picked up to 5 ½ knots. After another 6 miles we once again turned due south and went wing and wing for the length of the Pungo River. When we reached the Pamlico River we were able to turn to a more advantageous point of sail and were soon picking off the few boats that had passed us while they were motor sailing.

Once across the Pamlico we entered Goose Creek. Fortunately, the wind had once again built enabling us to continue sailing even through the confines of the creek. I had a timeline in my head of where I wanted to be at a certain time and we seemed to be about an hour ahead of schedule.

There's an expression that people use when a boat is underway with fenders still hanging over the side. They say "his fly is down". Fly down?; evidently this guy wasn't even wearing pants. Once free of the wind blocking trees of the creek it was off to the races. The winds were between 15 and 20 knots and we flew along between 7 and 8 knots for most of the remaining 20 miles.

We were able to sail right up to the number 1 channel marker at Whitaker Creek where we would have to start the engine for the very first time all day. Which brought us to challenge number 2 for the day, the engine wouldn’t start. I’m pretty sure that the problem is with the preheat switch. So close, yet still so far. We called Towboat US and requested a tow, but fortunately I was able to start the boat and cancel the tow within a couple of minutes. Once the engine was running we were pleased to discover that the creek had a few more inches of water than we usually find when we’re here.

We have never been so happy to arrive anywhere as we were to land in Oriental. We are safely tied to the dock of our good friends, Ken & Carol and boy does it feel good. We were not here for 1 hour when we got a call from our friends on Sapphire & Fine Lion offering to come and pick us up and take us away. We had a great evening with old friends and even made some new friends. We love Oriental!

October 28, 2008.

We got underway on Sunday morning and headed back through the Centerville and North Landing bridges. We were enjoying being underway again and even got to see a deer swimming across the waterway. As we once again passed through Pungo Ferry we heard an unwelcome noise from below. I had been periodically checking the oil level in the transmission and all seemed well with the new seal.

Unfortunately I recognized this new noise. It sounded like the damper plate was coming apart. Maybe it had been a little early to be thanking God for AYB. When the transmission was reinstalled if it wasn’t lined up properly or not supported well enough the weight of the transmission would be entirely on the plate. The plate is a thin piece of sheet steel with some springs that act as a vibration damper when the engine is engaged. Anyway, while it’s robust when driving the transmission it would be pretty fragile when side loaded improperly. Once the tranny was all bolted up the damage would be invisible.

So we were at a crossroads, I thought I had the problem diagnosed but the noise was fairly faint and I could be wrong. We opted to kill the engine and keep going. We had just made it to a section of the Virginia Cut that would enable us to sail the rest of the day. We sailed on doable points of sail all the way to the bottom of the North River. We started the engine just to set the hook and after dinner I removed the starter to see what was going on inside the bell housing. Damn. A small piece of the damper plate was sitting in the starter cup. Shit.

A thing like this is hit or miss. In this condition it could last for 100 hours or it could fail immediately. If it fails we’ll be without our engine. We’re supposed to have good wind from the west in the morning so we’ll leave at first light in an effort to get across the Albemarle Sound and down the Alligator River to the Pungo Canal.

When morning came we were disappointed to see that while the wind was up it was dead out of the south, our intended direction of travel. So we raised the mainsail and sailed off the anchor just before dawn.

We got out into the Albemarle Sound and began to tack our way across the sound. It was frustrating for both of us as we watched group after group of boats as they headed straight down the rhumb line to the mouth of the Alligator River. Once into the river we made it to green marker #3 before we were forced to furl the genoa and start the engine. We motored for about 3 miles until we were through the Alligator Swing Bridge.

Within the last week a sailboat had been dismasted at the bridge while attempting to sail through with a favorable breeze. I was surprised that the bridge tender didn’t raise a fuss about us coming through with the main sail up. Especially with a brisk wind on the nose.

Once through the bridge the river is once again wide enough to sail. We cut the engine and pulled out the genoa. It was a series of long tacks running from shoreline to shoreline as we made our way south.

At the head waters of the river we had a choice to make. There have been severe weather warnings on the radio for the last couple of hours. We’re going to have sustained winds from the northwest in the 30 to 35 knot range with gusts expected to 45 knots. Crap. We can see it coming behind us from the north.

The Alligator River runs north – south and is shaped like a giant funnel. At the tiny south end of the funnel the river narrows and turns due west. This section would offer better protection from the wind but because of the narrowness, putting out enough scope becomes an issue. Because the channel is a main thoroughfare for barge traffic and you sure as hell don’t want to encroach on the channel.

Our other option was a small cove straight ahead, if we skipped the turn to westward. There were already 3 boats there but room for a hundred more. It’s all 7 or 8 feet deep and we’d be able to lay out as much chain as we want. We figured it would probably be a little rougher during the early part of the blow but at least we could drop enough chain to keep from dragging. So that was our choice.

We pulled in under power and dropped and set the hook. The only problem was that there was still 15 knots of wind from the south, so we set the hook facing south. I dropped 120 feet of chain and then my conscience started to nag at me. When the wind hits from the north its going to spin the boat around and force the anchor to reset. Resetting could be an issue if the wind comes on strong enough right from the get go which is entirely possible.

We have 4 big anchors onboard and I’d really feel like a horse’s ass if we dragged and still had 3 anchors on the boat, so I decide to drop a second hook. The bottom is good sand so I opted for a Fortress FX-23, it’s a fairly light weight anchor with a huge surface area which is what you want for superior holding in sand. I walked it to the stern and threw it overboard. Then I went back to the bow and hand set the anchor as best I could. Then I coiled up another 110 feet of line and set it on the bow and cleated the tail off.

Then I went about securing everything on deck that might try to take flight. Christy was cooking dinner while I was getting ready and as we sat to eat, an eerie calmness set in over the anchorage. Before we were done with dinner the wind had started to build from the north. As the boat swung around to face the stiffening breeze the line from the second anchor paid itself out over the bow.

Within 2 minutes we were facing northwest and hanging to the second anchor with a minimum of 30 knots coming over the bow. The anchor rode on the second anchor was as tight as a piano wire. Here’s where dumb luck showed up. Since the Alligator is funnel shaped when the huge north winds started to blow all the water was compressed into the tiny southern end. This left only one escape for the water; through the narrow channel to the west. All the boats that had opted to crowd together in the narrow section for protection were having huge spacing problems. Some were facing the wind while others were turning and facing the 6 knots of current that was ripping through the anchorage. A couple of them dragged and a few others had to go out into the storm to try and adjust the amount of scope they had out to avoid contact with other boats.

It was kind of poetic justice as we had heard 2 boats that came in after us wonder aloud (on the VHF) why anyone would want to anchor where we were, when the narrow section still had some room. They were arrogant as the one woman suggested that we might just be dummies to her buddy boat. Now I had to stop what I was doing to get on the radio just to let her know that we were bright enough to work the radio and that we opted to anchor with room to swing instead of following the rest of the “sheeple” into a tight spot. Instead of apologizing the woman said “I had no idea you’d be listening to the radio”. Stupid bitch. I have to admit it was with smug satisfaction that I listened to them as the winds gusted to 45 knots and the rain was driving down while they were on the bow adjusting rodes in an effort to keep from hitting each other. I went to bed at 2100 and slept like a baby while they were setting up an anchor watch schedule.

So it’s now Tuesday morning and we still have 17 to 25 knots of wind directly out of the west. Since we’ll be unable to sail the canal we’ve opted to spend another day here before moving on.

October 25, 2008.

Late Thursday afternoon we had another mechanic, Justin, show up to start the reinstallation of the transmission. Once again with Christy and I doing the winching we were able to get the transmission in place. It went in a lot easier than it had come out. Gravity is your friend.

By the time it was bolted into place it was time for Justin to punch out and go home. After he was gone I used the opportunity to bolt the support brackets for the V-drive back where they belong.

On Friday morning Justin was back to do the alignment of the shaft, transmission and engine. It went really well as the alignment was spot on to begin with.

Once he was gone we started in earnest with the re assembly of the boats systems. I replaced several aging hoses and a couple of suspect hose clamps as we worked our way through the muddle of wires and hoses. I also cleaned every electrical connection as I reconnected everything. I cleaned both raw water strainers as well.

I refilled the transmission and Christy started the engine and everything seems to work as it should. Once I was satisfied that things were okay we used the halyard to maneuver the generator back to its spot above the transmission.

During the day we took the time to go up to the office and settle up our bill. It actually wasn’t that painful, especially when compared to the beating absorbed for pretty much the same job up in Connecticut. In Connecticut the marina staff did all the work as per their rules. Here at Atlantic Yacht Basin we were allowed to do as much of the work as we could handle ourselves. We did spend a lot more on parts in Connecticut as there were several parts we had to replace while here there were only a few pieces to be replaced. The big difference was the labor. In Connecticut we paid for 60 hours of labor while here it was only 11 hours. Huge difference; especially when labor rates are upwards of 70 dollars an hour. Thank God for do it yourself yards like AYB.

So we’re sitting here with everything done by 1800 hours on Friday evening. We would be able to leave on Saturday as planned but there’s just one problem. The weather.

Its supposed to blow a hoolie from the south. The weather forecast is for 25 knots straight out of the south with gusts into the 30’s with torrential rains. Christy talked to Nancy from Solitaire and they’re currently in the middle of this weather system down in Georgetown, SC. Nancy said they went food shopping in their foulies and still got soaked to the bone. Of course we’re headed south so traveling into this mess isn’t something we want to do. The forecast calls for it to blow through here during Saturday and the winds are supposed to clock and be from the northwest by Sunday, so it looks like we’ll be outta here on Sunday.

October 21, 2008.

The ceramic heater turned out to be a timely purchase. The outside temps dropped to 43 degrees last night but the interior of the boat hovered just above 60 so it wasn’t too bad.

This morning I spent some time cleaning the newly exposed recesses of the bilge. Shortly thereafter Ken stopped in to say that they had been able to round up a coupling that would fit our application. It should be here just after lunch tomorrow. So there’s an outside chance they’ll be on the boat tomorrow afternoon to reinstall the transmission.

So much for outside chances. Dawn broke today revealing another crisp morning complete with an early fog upon the water. It’s now Wednesday and Kens been given some other duties to perform at the marina this afternoon. So we have another day to sit and wait, but he did tell us that he installed the seal in the pump and the correct coupling did arrive. So we’ll be expecting him first thing in the morning to put the transmission back into place.

After that it’ll be up to Christy and me to put the myriad of hoses, wires and whatchmacallits back where they belong before we even start reinstalling the generator. There’s an outside chance that we’ll be ready by tomorrow evening but after all this time we’re not really willing to chance rushing through just to get done. So a Friday departure may be possible but I think Saturday morning might be more realistic.

So we decided do a little walking around to pick up a few odds and ends that we’ve needed. Another interesting thing we came across when we got to the more rural parts of the country were the motor vehicles. A guy at the local service station drives this customized pick up
truck while one of the marina workers has a hot rodded Yugo out in the lot. I can’t even remember the last Yugo I saw on the road let alone one with a 4 inch exhaust.

October 20, 2008.

Evidently Ken drew the short straw as he was the mechanic assigned to remove our transmission. I had pretty much everything out of the way and he dove right in. He made great progress but the actual lifting of the tranny was still a pain in the ass. Ken enlisted another of the yard guys to help twist and pry the transmission out of its tiny cocoon. Meanwhile I lifted with the main halyard while Christy tailed the line. It took all four of us working in complete cooperation to finally get the tranny to “pop” out of its resting place.

We left Ken working below and headed in to town. The other day I said that the temperature had “dipped” to the low sixties. Well last night it went crashing down to the forties. Its supposed to be even colder tonight. We’ve been happy with the “candle of warmth” but it was time to visit the hardware store in search of the “ceramic heater of happiness / survival”.

Once the transmission was removed Ken took out the pump with the leaking seal. He also removed the shaft coupling as we’ve decided that having those coupling bolts break every few months isn’t really as much fun as we thought it would be. It might even be construed as dangerous.

Once the coupling was removed it became obvious that the situation with the coupling was much worse than I had ever imagined it to be. I couldn’t see into the coupling when it was below the transmission but holding it in my hand and looking at it was another matter. The 4 threaded holes that I could feel as being bellmouthed were more than just worn. They were a mess; it’s a miracle that they were able to be used at all. They were so worn that they were practically useless. So in my usual “cups half full” mantra I guess this leaking seal could be construed as being a blessing. It was only a matter of time before the coupling would have had a catastrophic failure and the leaking seal revealed this to us.

The transmission was out and the leaking pump removed shortly after lunch. Ken said it would take the rest of the day to locate the needed seal and a new coupling. He said he’d get back to us at the end of the day so we knew what was going on.

True to his word Ken showed up at 1600 hours with the good news and the bad news. The good news is that they’ll have the correct seal in the morning. The bad news is that their having trouble locating an appropriate coupling. It seems my shaft is larger than most but they think they can get one from a place in Jersey.

So we’ll play it by ear for now as we really don’t have any other choice at the moment. There’s no use in installing the seal without the coupling so we’re stuck until one can be rounded up. At least we’ll be warmer.

October 19, 2008.

We’ve been exposed to a bit of a phenomenon that I had never really considered before. You see, we’re docked just south of the only lock on the Virginia Cut. The locks purpose is to raise you up or lower you down to the proper level depending on which direction you’re traveling. Without the lock the Cut would be ravaged by tidal flow and would not be navigable.

For the last few days there have been very strong winds from the north. The winds have been between 15 and 25 knots with frequent gusts up to 35 knots. That has meant that the waterway north of the lock was very high with a windblown tide. While meanwhile the water on the south side of the lock has been blown away and the tide is down much further than normal. This greater than usual disparity of water height on either side of the lock is causing a problem.

The lock has a computer controlled safety that won’t allow the lock to operate if the water depths are too divergent. So the lock was closed for a good portion of the day today. Once it did open, several of the south bound boats that came through decided to stop here for a few days as now the river in front of them is dangerously shallow in spots. Today is also the first day since we’ve been here that we haven’t seen tugs & barges passing by. They must all be sitting somewhere waiting for the water to come back. When we got here we had to step down to the dock from the boat, now we need a ladder to get up to the dock.

Other than this observation, we spent the day doing laundry and watching a little football. Speaking of which, after the laundry was done we walked down to the local “sports pub” which we had seen the other day while we were walking around. This is a pretty rural area so I was surprised at the scope of this place. It was huge inside and they had projection screens with a half dozen different games on. There were tables set up so fans of any particular game could root their team on in their own little areas. It was actually kind of bizarre how many fans were there representing each team that was playing.

Back in Jersey a place like that would be ninety percent fans of the New York teams. Maybe with a few Eagles fans, perhaps a Steelers fan and maybe the random loser Cowboy fan. Here it was completely different, every group of tables had at least a half dozen team jersey wearing fans rooting for every team playing. It was definitely a good people watching place but we only had a quick drink while we watched the Giants finish off the Niners. Then we had to leave because in the state of Virginia’s infinite wisdom they still allow smoking in bars and the place just smelled like ass. It’s funny how spoiled we are after having been in state after state that doesn’t allow smoking in restaurants.

After we got back to the boat I disconnected the rest of the hoses, wires and crapola that inhibits access to the transmission. We’re ready for tomorrow….

October 18, 2008.

Since we’re here for a couple of days we decided to make the best of it. The temperature has dipped to about 60 degrees. So while it was cold as a meat locker in the boat we decided to empty out the fridge and spend a few hours replacing the refrigeration system.

Christy emptied everything out of the refrigerator and set the Engel up as our full time freezer. In the mean time, I sat and read everything about the installation of the new system.

Once the fridge was empty I ripped out the faulty Alder Barber system and started the new installation. The biggest difference between the old system and the new system is the fact that the box that had once served as both freezer and refrigerator would now be dedicated to being a refrigerator only. So by getting rid of the old internal freezer we would be effectively adding 30% to the size of our refrigerator. Cool. (<~ pun)

Also different about this system was the fact that we’d be installing a flat evaporator. The old evaporator was box shaped and served as the freezer with the excess cooling acting as the refrigerator. This flat evaporator had to be heated with a hair dryer and bent around a round tube of a specific diameter to provide the correct radius in the corners of the box. We didn’t have any PVC tubing laying about so we had to improvise a bit and it worked out perfectly.


So I screwed the flawlessly bent evaporator into place. The installation of the new compressor was straight forward and went well. I figured the worst of it was behind me now, but I was wrong. After that I had to deal with the temperature sensing probe and the variable speed motor controller.

The temperature sensor is standard equipment but the variable speed control is a custom addition we chose to add in an effort to save amps. Integrating the 2 extra components into the system took a little more effort than I figured it would. The directions that came with both devices didn’t really earn any awards as the worlds best directions.

Finally, I was able to figure it all out and had the system up and running in a bit over 4 hours. So now we have more freezer space than we’ve ever had and the fridge is markedly bigger as well.

Since we’re still tied to the dock and plugged in to shore power it’ll be a while before I can really see how the new system will be impacting our power supply.

While I’m talking about the docks……..a little about the marina. We’re tied to a face dock right on the ICW so we have to sit and watch all the south bound boats as they head south. It is a no wake zone and since everyone is coming out of the Great Bridge lock they all seem to honor it. The marina facilities are a little past their prime but any cosmetic deficiencies are more than made up by the personnel that work here. No, I didn’t mean that they were really good looking; I meant that they were really nice. We’re also only a short walk from a couple of bigger strip malls with a grocery store, bank, fast food and tons of other stuff available as well.

While things could be better, they could definitely be far worse. So we sit by our “candle of warmth” and wait for our mechanic to come on Monday morning. Things could be worse, the drinks could be warm.

October 17, 2008.

Today dawned with us tied to the wall at the Atlantic Yacht Basin marina. The service manager came down and confirmed that it is indeed a transmission seal. I’m kinda pissed because we just had them replaced a year ago.

The marina doesn’t have any mechanics free today but we will be scheduled to have a guy on Monday. Most of the incurred cost is going to be labor in a thing like this. There’s just so much crap in the way. We’ll do all of the preliminary disassembly ourselves in an effort to save some time and money.

The biggest part of the job was removing the generator. The generator lives directly over the transmission and definitely had to come out. I disconnected everything while Christy labeled it all so we would be able to reinstall it later with as few headaches as possible. She even took a slew of pictures in case there was any question later as to where things went.

Once we had everything ready I laid out a thick piece of cardboard to set the generator on before shoving it out of the way and into the salon. The most difficult part of the process was the need to lift the generator about a foot off the ground and over a small partition and onto the cardboard. The first time I tried to pick it up I had to recheck to make sure that it wasn’t still bolted to the floor. Holy shit! It barely moved.

While I was lamenting the fact that I must be getting old, we decided to rig our boom vang as a block and tackle to do the lifting. Christy went topside and dropped the end of the vang down the companionway so I could attach it to the generators lifting ring. With her doing the raising I was able to force the generator over the wall and onto the cardboard. Once out of the way the transmission seems almost accessible.


I’ll wait until Sunday afternoon before I get the rest of the crap out of the way. Some of it is our fresh water system so it makes sense to do it at the last possible moment.

When we were all done and cleaned up I went to the generators manual to check and see how much the little bitch actually weighs. It turns out that it weighs 277 pounds! No wonder it felt like it was still bolted down.

October 16, 2008.

Today we set out at 0800 and did a forty five mile day and ended up 100 feet from where we started. But oh boy, was there some fun in between.

We hit the Centerville Bridge right on time to catch their 0830 opening. About 2 miles further along we heard a short-lived squeal from below. At first I thought perhaps we wrapped something in the prop but there was no difference in performance. I went below and was confronted by the slightest wisp of smoke when I opened the engine room door.

I had Christy turn the boat around while I checked into it a little further. Once the door had been opened there was no trace of where the smoke had originated. There was no smell of smoke either. I thought maybe it was the oily residue burning off the recently installed starter. There is however a clear section of tubing leading to our new transmission cooler and there didn’t appear to be any water flowing through it. The transmission was barely warm to the touch though, so we babied the boat back to the marina.

I had the service manager come out and look at the transmission cooler with me. I thought the cooling water ran consecutively through the transmission cooler and then the engines heat exchanger and I know we have good water flow out the exhaust. I’ve had so many problems in the last few weeks that I’m a bit shell shocked and really needed another set of eyes to look over the situation.

He suggested I switch the location of the oil cooler lines as it would help in the cooling process but otherwise everything appeared to him as it should. I moved the lines and checked the transmission fluid level. All was fine and at 1100 off we went….again.

We got about 200 yards when we momentarily heard the slight squeal again and more smoke. This time I recognized the sound as being the alternator belt being loose and slipping. Once again I had Christy turn the boat around but this time we just tied up at a spot on the free public dock across the river from the marina. After the adjustment and 10 minutes we were again on our way.

Things finally looked brighter for us and we made good progress and caught up to several boats as they bobbed about waiting for scheduled bridge openings. We even saw a few American Bald Eagles along the way. This section of the ICW is heavily traveled by both pleasure and barge traffic. It’s also very narrow and winding. There’s very little chance for sailing on this section. We were traveling along like ducks following the leader when the transmission slipped out of gear. Damn.

Fortunately it happened in Pungo Ferry. Last year we’d actually done a little exploring in this area to look for someplace to anchor in this section of the ICW. We were in a twenty mile section where there is no safe place to anchor. There’s a very good chance of being run down by a barge at night, you just can’t get out of the channel, except in Pungo Ferry. There’s a high rise bridge with an area of 7 foot deep water immediately adjacent and just outside the channel.

We had just passed the bridge when the transmission slipped out of gear. We immediately spun the boat around while we still had some speed. We had been motoring into a ten knot headwind and now used the wind to sail back to the bridge under bare poles. It was only about 300 yards but seemed to take forever until we could turn out of the channel and into the relative safety of the tiny anchorage.

Yet again, I went below to check out the situation. The transmission was empty, no fluid at all. The lines to the cooler were tight and in good shape. The bottom of the tranny was wet with fluid. It’s probably a bad seal. Damn.

There are big winds from the north predicted for the next 2 days and we had a lot of open water in front of us. This would let us sail the lions share and if I refilled the transmission and used the engine sparingly in the “to tight to sail” spots we could make it to Oriental. Or we could just bite the bullet and use our towing insurance.

Christy called Towboat US to make arrangements for a tow. Where to though? Oriental has the best services in the area but it’s about 150 miles away. So with heavy hearts we decided to go back to the Atlantic Yacht Basin. I know they will be able to help us there, it’s just hard to be going the wrong way. We were only backtracking 17 miles or so but it’s pretty difficult to swallow. We were securely anchored and gave the tow boat guy the choice of whether he wanted to come get us in the morning or if he wanted to do it then. He said “I’ve got to do it tonight, it’s not safe to stay on that stretch at night”.

The area is so remote that it took him well over an hour to reach us. We had the anchor up and were under tow by 1700 hours. We got back to the marina well after dark at 1930. It was pitch black out and there were some anxious moments as we looked for a vacant spot along the dock to tie the boat up. But in the end it all went well and along the way we got to see another great sunset, just from a different perspective.

October 14, 2008.

We left Mill Creek at around 0900. We waited a bit this morning as there are 5 bridges to negotiate in Norfolk. They all stay closed from 0630 til 0830 on weekdays so we planned to arrive at the first bridge at 0930. I know everyone is probably sick of it; just one more picture of the value of AIS. Its crowded as hell here with huge ships. We even saw a submarine underway.

We decided while underway to once again transit the Dismal Swamp. I know that the last time we went through the swamp I swore I’d never do it again. We just ran into so much crap in the water it really made for a nerve racking trip. But we’re doin’ the dismal….

The Dismal Swamp locks are only opening twice a day; once at 0900 and once again at 1500 hours. I figured we’d get in at the 1500 opening and let ourselves be trapped inside the swamp for the night. It’s not as dramatic as it sounds though; there’s a really nice rest stop two thirds of the way through so we could tie up there for the night.

We arrived at the first lock at 1300 and dropped the hook and shut the boat down. While we were waiting I was checking things out and discovered that the starter solenoid that I had repaired and installed in DC had severely cracked. The plastic cap was actually disintegrating so there would be no repairing it again. So since I had the time I installed the new solenoid that we had gotten at NAPA while we were in Annapolis.

Once the lock keeper opened up the lock to let us in I was suicidal when I found out that the boat wouldn’t start. I couldn’t even jump start the engine by arcing the starter. Shit. The new solenoid from NAPA looked the same and bolted into place as it should but the internal depth was different by close to three eights of an inch so it was not engaging the starter. Shit. I've actually got a bruise on my chest from laying on top of the generator so often while working on the starter.

I worked like a madman trying different mishmash of parts from our 2 starters and 2 solenoids but couldn’t come up with a winning combination. The lock closed and we had to abandon hope of making it into the lock tonight. Shit. Finally well after dark I remembered that we had a used solenoid cap on board. I got it out and found that while it physically fit in place of the broken cap none of the hardware would fit upon it. So it was close but basically useless…….unless. I got out my drill, my micrometer and every drill bit on the boat. I was able to turn real slow revolutions with my drill and open up all the holes in the hard plastic cap to enable all the through bolts to be pressed firmly into place.

I was so emotionally exhausted that I didn’t even install it until morning. I got up in time to give it a try and eureka, crank crank….vrooom. Okay, the boat was running and the lock was about to open, but we decided not to chance it. Instead we turned around and headed towards the other route south, the Virginia Cut.

We chose the Virginia Cut route after a quick phone call to our friend Jay. He’s more familiar with the area and services available. He recommended the Atlantic Yacht Basin which is located on the Virginia Cut. While on the way to the Virginia Cut we had a pleasant surprise when we found ourselves in the company of our friends Jim & Nancy on Solitaire. It was a chance meeting and we actually locked through at the Great Bridge lock right behind them.

We pulled into the marina just before noon and went up to see the service manager about our situation. I wanted the solenoids on both of our starters replaced but I wanted the 2 old ones back. The one I “created” I’ll keep as a spare and the new one from NAPA will be returned. The service manager, James said to bring em’ up to the marinas store and they’d take care of us.

When we were in DC we ran into a group of eco-nuts that were handing out nature friendly bags for you to bring to the food store with you instead of using the stores bags, thereby saving a few trees. They'd probably be disappointed to find that I ended up using them for our pair of starters.

I handed both starters over to Rich at the ships store with fairly involved instructions. He walked them out to the van to take them to the rebuild shop and then loaded us in as well so he could drop us in town. After we hit the grocery store, Radio Shack and pizza parlor, then we walked back to the marina. When we got back to the boat we had an email waiting for us that informed us we had some faxing to do. We printed and filled out the necessary paperwork and walked up to the marina office to see about using their fax machine. They couldn’t have been nicer and seemed actually thrilled to be able to help us with what otherwise would have been a daunting task.

While we were up at the office we ran into Rich who informed us that our starters were back. 2 starters sent out and repaired, vegetables bought and a fax sent all in less than 3 hours. Talk about full service. Atlantic Yacht Basin, full service at its finest.

I got back to the boat with our treasured starters and had one installed and the boat running in 30 minutes. The happy dance lasted much longer. We’ll be off again in the morning.