Log #36 Beaufort, NC to Charleston, SC

 

Today is actually December 29, 2007 and we are located in George Town, Great Exuma, Bahamas.  I am finally getting around to updating the log, and I can’t believe how long it’s been and how much has happened since Log #35 written in Beaufort, NC.

 

Before I backtrack to bring you up to date, I’d like to discuss karma.  Webster’s second definition says:  Loosely, fate.  Then, there’s luck:  the seemingly chance happening of events.

 

Gina, my friend in Charleston, as well as Jim, both have “parking karma”.  Whenever they go to any place, they always get a parking spot right by the door.  Gina also claims “negative line karma”.  She says as soon as she gets in a line, like at Costco, she turns around and starts apologizing to the people behind her in line because something is going to happen to stop the line – not necessarily to her, but certainly to someone in front of her that will delay the line.

 

So I see karma as a trend – the way things usually happen versus “luck”, a one-time thing.  For instance, when I am on watch and Jim walks out into the cockpit just in time to see one of those yellow buoys that mark the corners of a fishing preserve go by not 10 feet from us.  “Yes, I knew it was there!” (Not!).  Now that’s luck.

 

So our “karma” has not been what you would call “positive”.  I may have mentioned this before, but Jim and I are convinced that our boat experienced a “near miss” of lightening while in Morris Cove, New Haven, CT.  There is no obvious sign of entry (like a big burned spot on the mast) but so many things, mostly electronic, have ceased to function for no apparent reason this year that we suspect lightening. 

 

In our last Log the engine supports had collapsed on Harry in Beaufort and we didn’t know when we would ever get out of there.  Well, Harry showed up Monday morning and went back to work bolstered with pain killers and muscle relaxers.  Jim had Harry remove a pulley from the port engine that had been there to run the compressor for dive tanks which we don’t use.  He finally finished putting everything back together and we got out of Beaufort, NC at 1610 and started for Charleston, SC.  By 1800 we were out of the harbor and went to turn off the starboard engine.  (We habitually run on one engine as we get only one more knot of speed for twice the fuel usage when using two.)  Unfortunately, the cable to turn off the starboard engine came unhooked (Harry??) and Jim had to go down and tear apart the aft bunk on that side to get at it and fix it.  I was in the cockpit on watch when I heard a resounding bang and thumping throughout the cabin.  Neither Jim nor I could figure out what caused it.  I was afraid I had hit one of those unlit fishing buoys, but couldn’t see anything behind us.  We surmised I had hit a log or something.  Shortly after that the Coast Guard announced they had heard a “May Day” call with no location and no repeats and was asking for anyone who also heard it to call in.  Now I’m wondering if I hit some fishing guy who wasn’t using lights!  After I worried about that for some time, I realized that if I had, I would have heard the “May Day” call and since I didn’t, I was in the clear. 

 

The good news was that all the fiddling with the auto pilot seems to be working and it is holding course.  We went to night watches at 2030 and Jim noticed the port engine was not charging the batteries.  He switched to the starboard engine and decided to deal with that in the morning. 

 

On the 20^th after opening the engine compartment (and tearing apart my dressing room yet again) Jim found that rather than the broken fan belt he expected, the pulley was lying in the bottom of the engine compartment.  It seems that Harry had put the same bolts back in the engine after removing the dive compressor pulley and they were too long and vibrated and sheared causing the charging pulley to fly off and careen around the engine compartment which explained the banging (whew – I didn’t run over anyone!!)  I have a new respect for the durability of fiberglass!  Once we got to Charleston, Jim called the yard in Beaufort, NC and much to his surprise, they stood by their work and found us a place to have the engine fixed.  That won’t happen until after Thanksgiving and in Log #37.

 

That same day, Tuesday, Jim caught a little tunny, a very strong, smelly fish.  Though Shadow likes to eat it after it has been cleaned, she wasn’t thrilled with the whole fish on the back deck.  Probably because we pour cheap vodka or gin (whichever we have) in their gills as soon as we get them aboard so they will go into a stupor and not fling blood all over the boat.  (It works!)

 

We finally arrived in Charleston, SC the morning of 11-21-07 and went on the anchor across from City Marina.  Gina and Ed invited us to their family Thanksgiving celebration and football day.  It was wonderful to be included in their family for the weekend.  We hope everyone had as nice of a Thanksgiving as we did.

 

Regards,

Roxanne, Jim, Shadow

Dawn Dancer