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| St. Simon lighthouse |
Everything was going
along great. After our traumatic night in St. Augustine we had smooth sails up
the coast on the outside from St. Augustine to St. Simons Island just north of
Jekyll Island for a nice anchorage and dinner with Dave and Nancy on Miss
NanSea. Then outside again from St. Simons Island to Port Royal / Beaufort SC
where we anchored across from Beaufort. A fuel up and pump out at Port Royal then another nice dinner with Miss NanSea.
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Freighter with pilot boat leaving the St. Simon
inlet - probably coming from Savannah |
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| Fueling up at Port Royal - really nice guy |
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| Kermit ferries Nancy and Dave back after dinner |
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| Paris Island Marine Base |
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| beautiful anchorage across from Beaufort SC |
Our goal with the
ocean travel was to avoid Georgia. The ICW twists and turns back on itself so it
seems that you are traveling double the “crows fly” distance. Plus we are in
fly season. We even saw some of those ugly green headed biting flies while in
the ocean. I can only imagine what it would be like on the ICW.
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The men of Good Karma ensure we
are on the right course |
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| The view from Joe and Edie's porch |
We had a beautiful day
from Beaufort to Charleston. Great water, few flies, sunny, not too hot. We
entered Charleston on Thursday May 5 with a reservation at Charleston City
Marina (the only place with two slips available in the whole town it seems) and
plans for dinner with Joe and Edie Rubin. Life is good.
Joe and Edie picked us
up for dinner with their friends, a wonderful group of folks who meet
regularly. This time we ate at Zen Asian Fusion Restaurant – Kermit was over
the moon. This is the first Asian food in a while.
We loved their
friends! It was as if we slid into friends we hadn’t seen in years, picking up
where we left off. I am even Facebook friends with one of them now!!
Ok, here is where the
fun stops. Or changes.
We resumed our travel
on Friday morning with the goal of getting to Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach. It
was going to be a long day. We threw off lines and left the dock at 6:30am. It
was a beautiful sunrise.
We didn’t get far.
As we passed Isle of
Palm we smelled smoke, like burning rubber. At first Kermit thought it was the aft
toilet that had been giving us some trouble. But it wasn’t. He opened the
engine compartment to billowing smoke. That is never good.
We shut down the
starboard engine while he investigated. It appeared that something crapped out
causing a hose to fuse on top of something hot. Ok, I am not very technical.
Turns out the problem
was an idler pulley, a little device that keeps something from happening while
something else happens. Seriously. According to Google, “An idler pulley is
responsible for guiding and maintaining tension with the drive belt. The drive
belt (also called the serpentine belt) connects the engine to various
components of the vehicle...” Our little guy was busted. This is not a hard
fix. Kermit has the belts, which melted when the pulley broke, but he needed
the idler pulley. If he had the part he could fix it himself.
While on the phone
with Charleston City Marina arranging service, he ordered the idler pulley to
arrive the next morning. Only “the next morning” was Monday morning because this happened on Friday. We were
stuck in Charleston for the weekend. Oh darn.
While Kermit was
investigating the smoking disaster below I was trying to keep Good Karma out of
the weeds. It was coming into low tide. It did not seem possible to run the
boat with just the port engine. I turned and turned the wheel but the boat continued
to turn into the port side which, like the starboard side, is bordered by land.
Eventually at this rate the boat would hit land. Not a good situation.
We had no choice. Boat
US dispensed a tow boat. We have the gold plan with unlimited towing. Not a
problem.
Dave tried to find
dockage for the weekend in Charleston but no room at the inn. Anywhere. We
encouraged Dave and Nancy to move on to Georgetown.
The Charleston City
Marina has on-site service so we would be in great shape. We were assured that
the repair could be done as soon as the part arrives on Monday and we would be
on our way. We would join Dave on Monday and we could proceed according to the
plan, only 4 days behind schedule. Not a problem.
The tow boat tied us
up for the 12 mile journey back to Charleston. Do you know that tow boats
prefer to travel at trawler top speed? He started towing us at 8mph. More black
smoke!! STOP!! Something bad was happening with the shafts since the engines were
turned off.
We slowed down to a
crawl, 2 to 3pmh. Kermit turned on the engines (even the bad one) every few
minutes to take the heat off the shafts. But it was clear that the shafts were seizing
up. We learned it was important to lock out the shafts under tow. In the future we will carry two big huge pipe wrenches that will grab the shafts to keep them from turning. But without those wrenches the shafts continued to turn, causing major heat.
Do you know how long a
12 mile tow takes at 2 to 3 mph? A LONG TIME! We started the tow at 11am and
tied up at a tee head along the Ashley River at City Marina at 4pm. It was
exhausting. Not a great way to spend a day. We were calculating the costs in our
head as we calculated how far behind “schedule” we were. We acknowledge that
creating a schedule was just begging the water gods to zap us.
We put our troubles
behind us, confident that by mid-day Monday we would be on our way.
City Boatyard is the
repair branch of the business. They have a mobile outpost at Charleston City
Marina. These guys are wonderful. A young man came on our boat at 4:30pm on
Friday night to look at the damage. Yup, there is that idler pulley. But wait,
there is more!
Here is what I naively
wrote on Facebook that afternoon:
“Let the docktails begin! We just arrived at Charleston City
Marina. The mechanic visited and saw the problem. In addition to the idler arm
pulley we also have 3 broken hoses to the drip less shafts causing our dripless shafts to drip and in this case flap around like 3 broken windmill arms.
All will be fixed on Monday. Then we can rejoin our traveling companions and
continue our journey to Ohio. No schedule just a concept. I think that is
safest!”
The mechanic ordered
the hoses and idler pulleys including the plan to change both items on both
engines, saving the still functional parts from the port engine as back up for
Kermit’s parts box. Not a problem.
It was a lovely weekend
in Charleston. Graduation parties and weddings abounded.
On Saturday we unloaded
the bikes and traveled into town. We took a walking tour of Charleston because
you can’t get too much of this wonderful city. Lunch at Mills House Wyndham
Hotel was delicious. Kermit had a wonderful fried chicken sandwich and I had a
turkey sandwich on cranberry bread. Lunch is less expensive than dinner so we
usually opt for lunch in restaurants if we have the choice.
We stopped at
Kermit’s favorite cigar bar and enjoyed some good red wine and Kermit had a cigar
while we people watched from the sidewalk tables.
We met Joe and Edie on
Sunday morning, Mother’s Day. The day started with a two part pleasure. Bible
study with their rabbi at the most decadent cookie shop ever. Kermit bought a
half dozen cookies including his favorite, an oatmeal cookie chocked full of
nuts and chocolate, and my favorite, a deep dark chocolate cookie with cayenne.
Oh heaven!!
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See the drone sitting at the cross
walk across the street? |
Then we started
walking. King Street was closed for the day turning this busy shopping street
into a mall with restaurant tables and food trucks in the street. We walked for
miles!!!
A mini-van pulled up,
opened the back door to the cutest yellow Lab puppies so I could get my dog
fix.
A guy operated a drone
along the street.
We saw at least three
historic homes that Joe wanted to buy when they moved to town but Edie nixed.
We also saw some of the many beautiful homes that host Spoleto parties. The
weather was perfect and the company devine!!
Joe and Edie dropped us
off at the boat. After a while we got hungry and decided to indulge since this
was our last evening in town. We took the marina shuttle into town for dinner
at Jestine’s Kitchen for the best, most wonderful fried chicken ever produced.
Oh My Gosh!!! It melted in your mouth with a nice spicy kick and juice (ok
grease) dripping down your chin. I could go back every day for a month and not
get tired of it!! And not expensive either. The entire meal including 3
desserts to take back to the boat was the same price as lunch at Mills House.
Such a deal!!
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The bearings on the idler
pulley - totally shot |
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Plastic chunks of the idler
pulley fell out |
Monday morning we sat
at the helm staring at the City Marina mobile repair house waiting for package
delivery or any movement at all. Our mechanic friend and his sidekick, from
Columbus OH of course wearing a Buckeye hat, finally drove up in a golf cart
filled with supplies. Let the games begin!!
Hoses installed.
Check. Idler pulley installed. Check. We were good! We went over to the mobile
service house and paid our bill. By this time it was too late to leave on
Monday afternoon. Believe me we debated it. Leave today, go 2 or 3 hours to
anchor then get to Georgetown tomorrow. Or leave on Tuesday morning, go to
Georgetown. Then Wednesday take the ocean route directly to Bald Head /
Southport. It was a tossup. We waited until Tuesday morning.
Marilyn and Dan Lipka
texted us that their friends the Miller’s were tied up on the megadock in their
sailboat Dolcinea. We were feeling dejected about having spent so much money on
our boat that let us down that we decided we didn’t need the socialization.
Morning broke. We threw
off the lines and we were off.
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| Grace E |
We took photos of the
HUGE super yacht on the megadock in front of us. Grace E is a 239.5 foot
Picchiotti yacht built in 2014 as a charter for the week. That is a weekly
charter if you happen to have 700k hanging around. We don’t.
The big yacht hails
from Capetown South Africa. On Sunday they fueled up with 33,000 gallons of
diesel. Someone sat with the fueling nozzle for 10 hours fueling 60 gallons per
minute. It required 3 fuel trucks. We feel insignificant again. Move on.
But we didn’t get far.
This is what I wrote on Facebook that afternoon:
“We have good news and bad news. The good news is that the guys replaced
the idler pulley on both engines. The bad news is that the shafts seals seized
up again. We have to be towed from Charleston City Marina about 8 miles up the
Wongo River and pulled out of the water tomorrow. The parts arrive on
Wednesday. We might be on our way on Thursday exactly one week after we broke
down. POOP!”
And the adventure
continues.
In preparation for the tow, Towboat US demanded that we tie off the shafts so we could be towed at full towing speed. They didn't want to waste a full day with a slow tow again. The diver went down with two lines to tie off the props so they couldn't move. Kermit warned him about the cutters but instead of doing it Kermits way, the diver tied each line off independently. You can guess what happened.
The same tow boat guy arrived to tow us up the river to the main Charleston City boat yard about 15 miles up the Wongo River from Charleston. As soon as the tow boat picked up any speed at all we felt the boat learch. ZAP! The line cutters did their job. The $100 dive was a complete waste plus we lost two 25' lines. Not good. We proceeded with the tow at 6mph instead of the typical 8mph. The shaft seals were already burned up so what else bad could happen.
They pulled us out of the water soon after arriving on Tuesday.
Charleston City Boatyard ordered parts to be
delivered on Wednesday to repair the seals on those dripless shafts that were
dripping. They think this is related to the shafts seizing up.
This is an extraordinary
boat yard. They put protective material under each boat. They actually use
chains to tie the stands in place so the boat won’t fall down. Everyone is
courteous and friendly. It is so clean! All repair people wear protective gear
appropriate for the work they are doing – masks and breathing equipment for the
sanders and painters. Pillows for mechanics who recline. Everything appears to
be done to protect and support the mechanics who are then more careful and
concerned about the customers. It is awesome!! I think this is how marinas are supposed to work. Let’s send a note about this to Venetian!
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Bottom wash - the bottom paint is in
good shape |
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| The props look good |
We had repair people all
over the boat all day Wednesday. Turns out the problems continue worse than
expected. Here is what I wrote on Facebook on Thursday:
“Good news bad news update. Good news first. We just avoided
catastrophic failure! Yeah! Bad new is the shafts need to be replaced along
with shafts seals. The line cutters placed behind the propellers on each shaft
were cutting a groove around the shafts that would almost certainly have
resulted in the propellers flying off at the most inopportune time causing a
catastrophic failure. The shafts are being removed this morning. We rented a
pick-up truck to drive them to Brunswick GA today. We will pick them up on
Tuesdayish for installation. Then we are done! Bottom line is we are delayed by
almost 2 weeks but we are safe, the boat will be good as new and we can
continue safely back to Ohio. Good Karma standing by in Charleston.”
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| Each boat sits on top of a tarp - we are right across from the office |
See, it keeps getting
worse. But actually it is all for the good.
 |
Removing the cutters
to get at the shaft seals
- this is when
they discovered the grooves in
the shafts |
Shaft seals only last 10
to 15 years. Our boat is a 2001 so it is 15 years old. It is not unreasonable
to replace the shaft seals at this point. The seals come in pairs, one behind
each other. When the first seal starts to leak in about 5 or 6 years, we can
just cut out the leaky seal and push the backup into place without pulling the
boat. Evidently someone had done that already since there was no backup seal on
our shaft seal assembly.
So we were due to
replace the shaft seals. It would have been nice to do it at a scheduled time
instead of on the road but ok. Not a problem.
But since we had to
replace the shaft seals the mechanics had to remove the shaft seal assembly off of the shaft. If
they had not done that we would never have noticed that the line cutters were
carving a groove in the shaft itself. This is a big time problem, not to be taken
lightly. When they removed the cutters and saw they problem, they said, "Oh no, this is not good." Oh boy...
A power boat (or any
boat with an engine) moves when the engine turns a shaft that has a propeller
on the end. No other way for this to work. If the shaft cracks, the propeller
flies away. It could fly down into the water causing the loss of a $6000
propeller. Or it could fly UP into the bottom of the boat ripping out the
bottom of the boat. That would be bad.
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Shafts are not supposed to look
like this |
So this is more of a
good new situation than a bad news situation. We are sad to spend this small
fortune in repairs but we are glad that following the repairs we can continue
to depend on Good Karma.
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| Can you see the grooves? |
On Thursday morning the guys came over to remove the shafts. It took over 5 hours of banging, clanging and hard work to remove these shafts. Everything was frozen on it. Lots of sweat on this messy job. Finally, CLUNK then CLUNK the shafts dropped to the ground.
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| Dominey Machine Shop |
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| There go our shafts into the shop! |
As noted in the Facebook
entry, we rented a shiny new white Dodge pickup truck from Enterprise. We
loaded the shafts into the back of the truck, protecting the shiny new interior
with blankets then headed down to Brunswick GA to Dominey Machine and Propeller
Shop. It was a 3 hour drive backtracking all that distance we make in the
previous two days of boating. You see I am having trouble letting go of this!
We arrived at 5:15pm
just before their scheduled 5:30pm closing. They are not open on Friday so we
got there in the nick of time.
This is the kind of
place Kermit and Paul Bates love to discover. Just a bunch of buildings and
lean-tos connected together tucked into the countryside. They work on loads of
different kinds of metals. They were milling two brand new shafts that were 4”
in diameter! Imagine the boat that fits on.
Dominey will take a
piece of solid stainless steel and mill it into a 2” diameter shaft exactly
like the original shaft – one for the port side and one for the starboard side.
Tyler Dominey, the owner, could not commit to exactly when he would be
finished. We are hoping for Tuesday but it could be Thursday before it is
finished.
We drove home and
collapsed into bed. We will spend the next week sitting atop our stilts on dry
dock. Good Karma standing by on 72.
Our target was Morehead City to spend the night with Martha
and her friend Liz. Everything was on target for a 4pm arrival. We started to
hear radio noise about firing at Camp Lejeune at the last portion of our trip
on the ICW to Morehead City.
