Because of the timing with a potential sale of our boat we throttled back on our plans for vacation. This was a big one for us and we had been preparing for a two week trip around the DelMarVa Peninsula. We decided we weren't in a good position to take this on right now so we took a week off (May 4th to the 13th) and made plans for staying on the Wye and Miles Rivers.
The original plan was to take off Saturday morning and stay out until the following weekend. We'd spend some time on the Wye River and then move down to several of the creeks on the Miles, across from St. Michaels. If time permitted we would also head up to the Chester River. As it turned out, time didn't permit.
We goofed around on Friday and had to delay leaving until Sunday so we'd have time to take care of some essential things. Sunday rolled around and Cheri woke up feeling terrible so we decided to take her into her doctor's office Monday morning. By the time we were ready to go it was 1030.
We headed out the channel from Herrington North and before we got to the breakwater we got a "raw water" alarm. Yikes! The channel here is narrow with very shallow water on either side and I felt there wasn't enough room to turn to head back to our slip. I decided to head out past the breakwater and then make our turn. All along the alarm is making this shrill "beeeeeep beeeeeep". Gets your attention but it sure is hard to concentrate with that going on. I had Cheri check the bilge to make sure we weren't sinking (we weren't).
Once we got out past the breakwater we got a "high temperature" alarm for the engine. We shut the engine down right away and proceeded to drift towards shore and the breakwater. Great. The wind was blowing a steady 20 to 25 knots out of the SE. I put up the Main to get us back out to the channel. Cheri suggested we drop anchor. In the end we went with her idea. We radioed for a tow but got no response. Pulled out our card for TowBoat US and called on our cell phone. The guy answered and said he was out grocery shopping with his wife but could be there in about 45 minutes. OK, that's not too bad. Our anchor was holding against the wind and waves. I couldn't really do much until we got back to our slip anyway. It was a little unnerving seeing the stone breakwater just a few hundred yards off our stern though and I kept checking our location to make sure we weren't losing ground.
Two hours later the little red tow boat finally came out and tied up on our port side aft. In short order he had us back at I dock. He got us up against the pilings at the end of our slip but the wind was blowing so hard against us that we had to manhandle ourselves back in with help from friends on the dock. After we got some lines tied down we signed the paperwork and thanked Captain Mike.
OK, so now what do we do? Raw water is the cooling water for the engine. We definitely lost that because we also got the "high temp" alarm. There was no water running into the bilge though so it wasn't a blown hose or anything like that. We simply lost circulation through the engine. The first thing I checked was the impeller. I had just replaced it less than 100 hours ago but who knows? After securing the intake valve and removing a hose for better access I pulled off the cover plate and wedged out the impeller. Except for the damage I did getting it out the impeller was in perfect condition. That's good but it doesn't explain what the problem was. I had some spares up in our storage shed and wasn't really sure what to do next so I walked over to Zimmerman Marine (used to be Conlyn) and talked to Brian, the dude who helped me when I replaced the heat exchanger. I showed him the impeller and he agreed it looked good. He said before I put the new one on I should bump over the engine a few times and watch the impeller shaft to make sure it turned. He also said the problem could be a stuck thermostat but it wasn't very likely, that just didn't happen very often. He felt we had probably sucked up a plastic bag against the screen on the intake, blocking water flow and giving us the "raw water" and "high temp" alarms. He said when we shut off the engine the bag would have fallen away and we would have been OK.
I went back to the boat, bumped over the engine a few times and that looked OK. I installed a new impeller, put the cover on and got the hose back in place. I could have pulled the thermostat at this point and put it in a pot of water on the stove to verify that it worked but instead I fired up the engine and let it run for 15 minutes to see what happened. Water was coming out the exhaust and everything looked normal so I put it in gear and revved it up to 2,000 RPM's and let it run in the slip for 45 minutes. No problems and I felt pretty certain at this point that the plastic bag theory was what the problem was. By now it was 5PM, too late to head across the Bay so we decided to wait until the next day.
Tuesday. We headed out at 1030 with strong winds, 20 to 30 knots, out of the SSW. We sailed with 75% Main and full Staysail on a broad reach. We averaged 7.5 knots and entered Eastern Bay after only two hours underway. We had been running with the waves hitting us on the starboard aft quarter and rolling under us. Every few minutes there would be a set of big steep waves that we'd have to turn into to prevent getting laid too far over on our side.
Once inside Eastern Bay the wind died down a bit and we continued on at 6 to 7 knots. After rounding the mark into the Miles River we furled the sails and ran under power the rest of the way into the Wye River. Using our chartplotter for the first time we continued up the winding Wye at 6.3 knots without the stress we felt the last time we had come out here. Without the GPS and digital charts the navigation requires concentration and we still managed to run aground twice last Fall. This time around the drive up the river was very enjoyable, totally stress free.
We arrived at our destination, Ward's Cove, just upstream from Pickering Creek on the Wye East River. At 6.3 knots it took us an hour to get there, just to give you an indication of how far back we were. This spot is secluded, no homes, no fishermen and no other boats. We had the whole place to ourselves for the entire time we were there. We pulled into the cove and, using the chartplotter, drove way back towards the back and circled around once to verify that we had plenty of water under us. The wind was still howling at 30 knots and back here it was coming off the shore closest to us. It took us several attempts to get the anchor to bite and when it finally did we backed down hard in reverse to set it, our usual procedure. While backing down the painter for the dinghy got sucked into the prop wash and wrapped around the prop. Cheri immediately shut down the engine. She jumped down onto the dinghy and gave the line a pull and it came free from the prop. Whew!
With that out of the way we got settled in down below. The weather report was calling for some cool nights so I thought this would be a good time to service our diesel heater. I had put off replacing the glow plug and diffuser screen because I wanted to see how many hours we could get out of it before it just wouldn't run any more. The manual says to service it every season. Our first year we put on about 2500 hours and it was still running strong. This past Winter we put on another 1000 hours before it finally quit in mid March. I crawled down into the port side cockpit locker and got to work on the heater. After about an hour Cheri came out and said she thought we might have dragged the anchor. I poked my head up and looking around could not figure out where we were. After a few minutes I realized we had dragged all the way across the cove and across the river to the opposite shore. We were gently nestled against the bank, in the trees, and the wind was still howling at 30 knots, holding us in place. I hadn't felt a thing. I went up on deck and pulled in the anchor while Cheri got the engine started and we motored back over to the other shore. Back in our original spot I decided to use the other anchor, our trusty Bruce on 300 feet of 5/8" chain. I let out 60 feet of chain and when we backed down this time the anchor dug in firmly. We held that spot for the next three days.
The next day, Wednesday, it rained for most of the day so we just sat out in the cockpit and read our books and relaxed. Around 1800 the rain let up and we jumped in the dinghy and rowed around for a while. Cheri tried some fishing but the only thing she caught was a tree branch. It was still connected to the tree.
Thursday was a beautiful day with clear skies but the wind was blowing a constant 20 knots. Cheri wanted to get out in the dinghy to go fishing but I declared small craft warnings for the day. Another kick-back day, relaxed, reading, movies, munchies. I can do this, should do this, more often.
Friday we pulled anchor early and headed home. Winds were light and variable and after several hours of frustration we fired up the engine and ran home. This turned out to be a nice short break. It was kinda over-shadowed with all the problems we had but we dealt with them all just fine and didn't let them ruin the fun. In the end we came out on top with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts. And bruises on half our bodies and these awful little cuts on the hands that'll just drive you crazy.
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