Sunday, we left Toogoodoo Creek and continued down the ICW. It is not our preferred way to travel – on the ICW, as we burn diesel which costs money, and you have to constantly adjust course frequently as the waterway is rarely straight. On the other hand, it is interesting scenery at times, and you have some reduction in the winds, and mostly flat water. Since is it blowing 15 to 25 knots offshore, with gusts to 35, we decided to stay on the ICW.
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| Sailing class out on the water on a chilly day near Beaufort, SC |
It is interesting to note all the rivers, cuts and streams we travel down that made up the 56 miles we went on Sunday. We traveled the Toogoodoo Creek, North Edisto River, Dawho River, North Creek, Watts Cut, South Edisto River, Fenwick Cut, Ashepoo River, Ashepoo Coosaw Cutoff, Rock Creek, Coosaw River, Brickyard Creek, Beaufort River, Port Royal Sound, Chechessee River, Skull Creek, Calibogue Sound, and lastly May River where we anchored for the night.
We had uneventful motoring, except that during the day, Kris had noticed the port engine running a bit hotter than normal.
Monday was better than expected. Was supposed to get over an inch of rain, but we avoided most of it. I gray cloudy day of motoring, but with motoring we have heat, which is great as it is chilly.
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| Dean dressed for the cold |
Left South Carolina and entered Georgia. Kris checked the port engine, as we only run one engine a day, and alternate back and forth between port and starboard. The coolant and impellers looked good, so that will take some further investigation on why it's running hot.
Tuesday more motoring through Georgia. Mostly cloudy again, and windy and chilly, so
the little electric motor was on inside, heating up the boat. Some of the ICW in Georgia is more shallow, and not as wide. We encountered a barge in just such a section, which made it tight quarters for passing.
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| A bit of a tight squeeze |
Wednesday more motoring through Georgia. We do one hour on, and one hour off shifts all day while motoring. In the afternoon, Kris noticed the port engine was getting too hot, so she shut it off, and turned on starboard. We had made the decision to get a marina for Wednesday night to Saturday, as the lows were in the 40s, and Kris did not want to be that cold. In preparation for coming into the marina, we usually turn on both engines, but we could not get water to pump through the port one. Multiple tries but no luck. So we came in to Fernandina Harbor marina on one engine. No issues, but dockhands to help and very light winds. The marina also gave us a nice goody bag - they should for the price they charge.
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| Several attempts to try to get water through made the engine very hot, usually only around 80 degrees Celsius |
At the dock we had heat, and had turned the heat to 60 overnight and had a pleasant night. Dean got up first and turned the heat up, which immediately blew a breaker on the dock. He put on warm clothes and went out and flipped the breaker, and then back in and it blew again. So we switched over to our little portable electric heaters to take the chill off instead of the large boat heat pump.
After breakfast, Kris worked on the port engine issue, and
took off the impeller cover to discover that there was not much left to our little
impeller. No wonder it wasn’t pumping
water. But had to check all the hoses,
and drain some coolant to check everything, as finding all the little rubber
bits and getting them out of the system is needed. But alas, only found one small piece. The rest must have disintegrated and moved
through the system.
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| Impeller and cover a bit worse for wear We took off our camber spar, and Dean removed the end of it by drilling out the rivets. We walked into town close to noon, and mailed our camberspar end to Coletech in Pennsylvania for a rebuild, and then to Tasty’s for lunch. Back on the boat, Kris finished up the port engine work, putting on a new impeller and new cover, and the engine pumped water just fine. We will see if that solves the overheating issue.  The end of our camberspar, looking a bit worn |
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| Nice old post office in Fernandina |
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| At Tasty's for lunch - Happy Halloween |
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| Our lunch, complete with Halloween candy |
Next project was finding out why our heat pump would trip the dock breaker all the time. Talked to the marina, and they said the dock pedestals would trip at a 30 milliamp stray current. So Kris started exploring, and most importantly talked to our friend Ed from What If, who is a pro on air conditioning and refrigeration, including heat pump stuff. No resolution found by end of day, but some issues eliminated. Will have to keep using our little electric heaters for now.
Friday we headed into town and took our old jib into a store called Sea Bags. We had taken our old mainsail into the same store in Newport, RI, and gotten a large duffel bag in exchange. This time we got several smaller bags.
After that, it was ice cream time, even though it was still chilly, it tasted good, and sitting in the sun was nice and warm. Friday night, back in for pizza for dinner.
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| Old town hall and fountain |
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| Nice old house |
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| Castle looking church |
Back to the marina, where we got some Amazon packages, and worked some more on our A/C heat unit. Once again, Ed from What If provided great help, and we were able to determine that our 20-year-old unit is giving up, and will need replaced.
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| Anchor and chain outside the marina. Our chain is not as rusty as that |
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| Looking at Fernandina Harbor Marina |
Saturday we headed out late, and made it to the free dock near Jacksonville. 4 other boats there, and we were invited for happy hour on the large motor yacht behind us.
Went for a short walk around the area to stretch our legs and saw a couple of storks.
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| Don't remember seeing this variety of stork before |
Not sure how fast we will move south now, as the weather is warmer, so it might be time to slow down a bit.
