Cobb Island was a nice juncture, but we had ants in our pants so we continued south at 7am. The sky was menacing,
but the weather report was promising. Wind! There was wind in the forecast! There were also maybe a few showers, but only a 15% chance, and no thunderstorms before 1pm. We decided to go for it.
After we got through the channel, and bypassed all the crab pots, we turned the motor off. FINALLY! For the first time in 4 days. It was so nice. And we sailed.
The current was against us, but considering that I think we did pretty good when we maxed out at 5.8 knots. The river was wide open and we sailed on a close haul with our tacks about an hour on the long, and 15 minutes on the short.
It was great, so beautiful, peaceful and satisfying to sail for hours. And then we saw this
and this
and so we reefed the main again. We kept sailing this time, though. Even when the winds picked up and the rains started to fall. We were only 7 miles away from our destination, Cole’s Point. So in an effort to keep up speed away from the incoming front, we motor sailed. Until the motor failed! Thank you Barney and Lee for showing us how to heave to. That came in real handy today. Right before we left for this trip we replaced the impeller, and not long after we started the motor in the middle of this rain storm we saw smoke coming out of the stern, not water. NOT good. So we cut it off, and hove to. It worked pretty well!
So now what? Its raining, and windy, and we have a 28 foot sail boat with no motor. A part of our reckless natures wanted to keep sailing all the way to Cole’s Point Marina, but the channel going into the marina is about 45 feet wide, and five feet deep. Not ideal for beginner sailors. Well, I guess we could call Tow Boat US, I mean, isn’t this why we got the towing insurance? Adam and I spent about 20 minutes tinkering with the motor, to no avail, all while the temperature gage on the motor rose steadily. Time to call the tow boat.
45 minutes later!
They towed us to Cole’s Point Marina, although I was feeling pretty defeated about it all.
After docking at the marina, I went for a decompression run around Cole’s Point, (tensions were high) and came back to tinker on the motor with Adam. After realizing that the impeller and the water pump were fine, we decide to check every hose to make sure there wasn’t a clog. Starting with the through hull to the impeller, to the motor coolant, to the thermostat, to the manifold, and then to the main exhaust.
Water was flowing through all the lines, BUT the manifold was dry, and not spewing water. As we prepared to take apart our exhaust manifold, we spotted one last line that was hiding beneath the motor, and it was kinked! We shortened the line and re-attached sans kink… Success!!
Water is flowing out the exhaust! I almost cried. We really thought our journey had come to a close here at Cole’s Point Marina. But not so, not yet.
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