Southbound Redux

These are the voyages of the starship…..no wait that is 1960s TV program!!!! These are the voyages of Abraxas and the Musto’s. We finally cut the lines on Sunday the 19^th a little later than we had hoped to leave, but leave we did with many things left undone. As some of you may know we acquired a new/old boat this summer, a 1977 Tartan 37. We decided that if we were going to continue this cruising life we needed a boat with more “creature comforts” and that was a trifle larger. So after searching the east coast for most of the early summer we found what we were looking for, a beautiful dark hulled Tartan 37. I spent the rest of the summer getting her ready to travel.

We left the dock around 2 and our first day brought us to Harness creek on the South River just at dark after a easy sail. It was great to just get going after a summer of intense work painting the house, restoring the windows, getting one boat ready to sell (the T34 from last year) and getting one ready for a trip to warmer climes.

Monday 20 Oct 2008

The day started calm as we motored out headed for the Solomon’s, but around 1:00 the stuff hit the fan. The westerbeke started to smoke, which I first attributed to the old fuel in the tank, but then it started to make more noise. His kinda alarmed me so I shut old westy down to check the oil to make sure the known westy leak had not gotten worse. To my surprise we had about a quart and a half more oil on the dip stick. At this point the alarm bells went off when I remembered talking to a chap down in Marathon last year who had the same symptoms. His problem turned out to be a leak in the fuel pump diaphragm that allowed fuel to pass through into the crankcase thus diluting the oil. Crap was my first word then my second was; Terri what is the number for Tow boatsUS. Once again we were saved by purchasing the unlimited towing insurance from BoatUS because we were dead in the water with no engine and no wind and 5 miles from the Solomons. Anyone who does this trip without buying this is insurance must also like playing Russian roulette. It was an hour and a half tow into Zanhingers Marina to late to get any work done.

Tuesday 21 Oct 2008

Early this morning Billy the mechanic came with his bag of tools to look at old westy. Now the hatch leading into the cockpit locker is the access point to get to the engine and it is so narrow that I have to turn sideways to get into it. Most of you know I am not a substantial person in girth. Well Billy can be best described as round and substantial but after “sucking it in” he manage to squeeze himself in, but I was uncertain that he would not be taking the rest of the trip with us trapped in the locker.

To make a long story short Billy extracted himself and the fuel pump and bench tested it proclaiming that it did not leak so back on it went. In the process he had to remove the engine mounted fuel filter spilling diesel fuel into the engine pan when he did this (remember this for later). He proclaimed that our problem could have been due to either a leaky fuel preheater or a leak in the seal between the high pressure fuel and the block. We ran the engine hard at the dock doing our best to pull out the pilings but the problem did not rear its head again.

Wednesday 22 Oct 2008

Out of Dodge in a glorious breeze, blowing 25-35 kts out of the northeast with a scrape of the jib rolled out doing 7+ kts. The boat handles this like a dream. We made it to Deltaville Va just about dark and anchored protected from the wind which blew all night.

Thursday 23 Oct 2008

We left Deltaville early hoping to make it to Norfolk by evening. The wind not as strong, 15-20, but still out of the north. Again we made good time and got to Norfolk around 2 some we decided to press on to the Dismal Swamp canal entrance to anchor for the night a wait for the morning locking. Our timing suggested that we would make it just before dark----wrong. When we got to the Glimmerton Bridge we had to wait for just over ½ an hour for the railroad bridge to open while a huge coal train passed. We negotiated the first part of the Dismal swamp canal in the dark using the chart plotter and depth sounder to keep in the channel but make it we did. Talk about tension.

Friday 24 Oct 2008

Woke up to a beautiful morning at the entrance to the Dismal Swamp lock. Mist on the water not a breeze blowing and just us and another boat ready to lock through into the canal. The canal itself is very magical. High banks lined with trees and not much wider than a country road. It can be raging a gale outside, but in the canal all is quiet. We did, however, have a few surprises in the form of deadheads. Deadheads are submerged stuff (usually logs) that get stirred up from the bottom. We hit one with the keel and skeg hard, bang-bang. A short time later we hit another with the prop which started a vibration suggesting that we bent something. This necessitated that we go slow all the way through the canal and on to Elizabeth City, NC. Getting there later than the closing time for the shipyard we were destine to stay in Elizabeth City for the weekend.

Monday 27 Oct 2008

Up early for a 8:00 AM date with a travel lift to be hauled out of the water to look for damage to the prop. I had been fretting all weekend about whether we would have to ship this fancy propeller out to California to be repaired if it was bent or broken. Shipping it to CA would mean we would be sitting on the hard for a week or two while UPS got rich on express shipping our prop coast to coast and back. As the boat lifted out of the water I could see that my greatest fears were realized, one of the blades was bent. As I muttered profanities about the crap that was about to hit the fan the good old boy shipyard owner said that if it was all right with me he could hammer it back into shape. After he described how he was going to do this I said, what the hell, give it a try. And try he did rendering it back to its former shape. In four hours we were back in the water as good as new and ready to go, but it was too late to leave for the trip across the Albermarle Sound. We will save the Albermarle for tomorrow.