Let me take you on a sea cruise... The story of high seas adventure...

Date:   4/16/2007 3:48:38 PM ( 17 y ago)

A short over night sea cruise??

  This is a view of us under way in the Atlantic ocean!!

 A sail boat passed going north on ICW...

Well I had said we picked up a motor sailer in N.C. to ferry down to St Simon's Island GA...  It was to be an expected two day approx 300 Nautical Mile trip...    As stated all went well on the first half of the trip... Nothing unusual except one rotating bridges on the ICW in N.C. did open for us even though we were there for the on hour opening; so we wasted an hour making donut holes in the ICW...  Do not know if a $20 tip, would have helped the bridge attendant to wake up or maybe is was just that we did not look important enough!! HUH!!

  Note the sunset on the Cape Fear river inlet below!!  Got down to the Cape fear channel at sunset...  Had to maneuver around an operating Dredge and work barge on the way out past #1 sea buoy, but we were set for a night cruise about twenty miles off shore; with a heading of 210 degrees and a SOG of seven knots, in a two foot chop off the port quarter...   

   A Ferry we passed on the way out to sea...

But some time things will and can happen, and so it did!!    We came  approx 35 Nautical Miles down the ICW; then out to open sea at the Cape Fear Inlet... 

Then about twenty miles off shore heading south... The sea was choppy, but bearable... Everything went well with some usual roll from the sea off the port bow...  This craft was built and used by the Coast Guard as an expedition away boat from one of the USCG Ice Breakers... It supposedly had a crew of six; which meant, hot bunk and close quarters...  We had a crew of three which was fine...

Chow had gone down as we headed out from Cape Fear; I took the first bunk time; which the other two on the bridge watch... I got up at 03:00 to relieve the Wheel watch...  We were steering  210 degrees almost due south... One of the watch went below to sleep, while the other stayed in the wheel house... 

It was a fairly mild sea, with 2 to 3 Ft waves off the port bow, which gave some roll...  I opened the side window and enjoyed the cool breeze, the moon reflection was perfect for me to steer on and maintain the southerly course...  Having spent several years on the open sea,  with the help of some Dramamine, I did not get sea sick...  Can't say the same for the rest of the crew...  Hey that is OK;  because sooner or later we all head for the leeward railing...  Been there done that!!

 This is one of a pair of Sunfish we saw near the Charleston SC Sea  harbor approach bouy...

These funny looking fish eat Jellyfish... and can grow to several thousand lbs...  The reason they are called Sunfish is because at times; you will see them laying on their sides on the surface enjoying the SUN... A rather odd triangle shaped fish ( some call a three fin); they serve a purpose,  who else is going to eat all those jellyfish??

   Then about Noon things went South as we headed South... 

I started to notice the prop sounded like it was cavitating then would settle down; this happened about every fifteen minutes or so..   what we could not see was that the transmission had started leaking oil...  Well we were about five miles south of Number 1 sea buoy off the channel to Charleston SC, at a depth of 50 feet... Our position was about eight miles SSW of Folly Beach SC...  We heaved too, shut down the diesel, and filled the Transmission again...  But now we had a problem with the back flow of cooling water on the diesel: had sucked back into the head and we now had sea water in the manifold...  No diesel until the head was cleared... This would require some disassembly work... 

We had some decisions to make;  after anchoring in 50 ft of water...  The weather was good, sunny 77 degrees F, and a slight chop with eight knot wind from the SW... No a bad day to be stranded off shore...  

It was decided to call for a tow; rather than put up the sail... Which would had required getting it out of stowage, mounting the boom and rigging it for operation...  It was 15:30 hours so we called for a tow... 

 Another thing that a sailor never really wants to admit, but  it happens to the best of us...  We were able to get a tow boat out and hooked up before dark, which is very good at sea, a night time hookup is not a desired way to do busisness...   The tow in required some time, plus the navigation was tedious coming into the City Marina, as there are rocks and shoals which are easy on a clear day but not so in the dark...  Our tow Captain; she was good and had us tied up to the pier in Charleston about 23:00... 

We got on to the dock head to catch land transportation to a hotel, near by...  Then since we missed supper at sea, we now had to get a Taxi over to eat then back, from the Scrumptious Waffle House the only thing available midnight Sunday...

Got up and went over to the Marina; I stood on board watch as one of the crew went out to the airport to pick up a rental car...  The repair crew came and surveyed the transmission; and set a time later in the week...  This would end part one of this cruise; to be continued the next week...

The repair was done and tested the next week; of course the what would and could stuck with this cruise...  While out testing the transmission; the Charleston Harbor Police stopped and boarded the boat...  They were concerned over the name not being on the hull...  Of course since the name was changed due to new owners; and the Georgia registration was not completed yet they wrote us a citation...  How nice!! 

  The view of the City Marina in Charleston SC...

The next morning got with a repair crew to get the boat ready for our next leg...

Part two the rest of the cruise down the coast!!  The boat finally got to St Simon's Island, GA the next weekend..  

Well the boat  got under way on a southward course once more...  This time thought with a twenty some hour; trip planned they were short one crew member... This make the watch standing longer...   Plus there was no cook on board to ensure the crew was fed properly, but that was the least of problems...

At approx 03:00 the Generator went out and the ship went dark; that in itself was bad enough but since modern day electronics use the depth finder and GSP to know where you are it caused a stir...  Since the vessel was not in a heavy traffic area, and the Captain was familiar with the arrival port; not to worry... Never the less through the experience and diligence of the Capt and crew they were able to use LOS and navigation aids to steer a course to port!!     So the Good old " What if the Electronics quit well just use your head and navigate manually" mode kicked in, just like Granddad did!!

So though tried and some what weary; the vessel pulled into the Marina in Georgia and is now safe in port...

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