Confessions of a Coward
A couple of weeks ago a single handed cruiser we met in St. Marys called us out to her boat as her engine wouldn't start,
and she also thought she had a fouled anchor. We rowed over to her and Dave helped start her engine for her, after which
we proceeded to pull up her anchor. Some fishermen had dropped their large crab pot right over her anchor, and with
the constant tidal changes, her anchor rode had wrapped itself well and truly around the crab pot. We pulled up yards of
chain wound tightly with more yards of rope. As all this was going on, Irene's boat starting drifting up the river, approaching
the shallow shoals. With her being quite distraught about the whole situation, I called out that we should drop her
secondary anchor and get the boat re-anchored while we untangled the mess with the crab pot. We didn't want to cut
the line, as the fishermen would then loose all the big blue crabs that were already caught in the pot. So calmly, we
lowered her second anchor which set itself immediately and thus we could safely work until we had the lines untangled and the crab pot back in the
water. After it was all said and done, I realized that all this had transpired without any anxiety whatsoever! As you
will see shortly we have had our own trials in St. Marys, and each time something has gone haywire on our boat I almost
suffer a heart attack!
I have been on plenty of sailing boats in plenty of nasty situations in my life - the only difference: it was never
on
our own boat. This little sailboat is all we now own in material terms, and the responsibility of its wellfare as well as our own,
is strictly up to us. This, I realize, is what is making a brave sailor into a cowardly sailor, something I need to get over immediately
as there is nothing worse than a frozen mind in a panick stricken body. I must admit to being quite taken aback by myself, and am grateful
that Dave does not seem to succumb to such weaknesses. In previous times, my Dad was always the Captain, and never appeared shaken by any
events, no matter how dire they seemed. I pray that one day soon I may follow in his foot steps!
Let me relate to you then our adventures thus far in St. Marys, starting at the beginning...
Arrival at our first Cruising Destination - February 6th, 2009
On our first morning in the sleepy little town of St. Marys we awoke to the sound of birds chirping in our rigging and
the plopping sounds of their breakfasts landing on our decks. On our way to the showers we were greeted by two otters
swiming around the docks with large fish in their mouths. Pelicans slept on the pontoons in the sunshine. Best of all - it was
suddenly wonderfully warm! All very idyllic
and lovely for our first cruising destination! Little did we know at the time how much St. Marys was going to have a hold on us!
Nat, the almost 80 year old dockmaster who has spent most of his living days in St. Marys, greeted us kindly and
in his laid back, friendly manner told us to take our time before checking in with him. "Have your breakfast, take your time!"
he kept on at us, and so began our first day in St. Marys. Almost as though time has bypassed this lovely little town, St. Marys
has a rythm and hospitality of its own. Should you ever find yourself in Georgia, this is definitely a good place to come
to slow down and enjoy the pleasant water front town with its old beautiful homes and churches. We were delighted to spend
a couple of days just resting after a very stressful time at the boat yard in Florida, and taking in the beauty and
slow pace of St. Marys. As we quickly found out the ice cream shop on the corner also has a washer and dryer in the corner, so we could
do our laundry while eating chocolate peanut butter ice-cream outside in the sunshine. The little used bookstore up on Osborne St.
has free wi-fi for sailors, and apart from the boaters and the weekend tourists not much happens in the heart of St. Marys at all.
The people exhibit their southern hospitality and welcomed us wherever we went!
We decided to stay a week at the dock at Langs marina with the intention of finishing up our last bits and pieces, like
doing our taxes, making sure all our systems worked properly, and selling our car. We listed the old Jeep on Craigs list
and started working on "getting ready" to sail to the Bahamas. In retrospect it seems almost laughable that we thought that
we might be in the Bahamas so soon! Boy were we in for a few lessons!
St. Marys Curse - or Neptune's test?
Our first problem began when after a week at the dock we decided to move our boat out to the anchorage in St. Marys so that we would no longer incur any dock charges. We also needed to start trying out all our systems on the boat, including our anchoring equipment. So, there I was at the helm trying to make it out to the anchorage, when suddenly an alarm went off on the boat. Looking down at our temperature gauge showed the engine temperature at 240F, which caused us to go into a bit of a panic. Dave almost killed himself trying to get to the anchor to let it down, all the while yelling "we need to get the hook down so we don't blow up our engine!" Of course we weren't yet at the ideal anchoring spot, but rather than fry our engine, Dave dropped the anchor, and we turned off the engine, and watched to see if our first anchoring maneuver would be a success. Of course at that very moment it started to rain and the wind picked up. So I sat in the cockpit with my heart in my throat to make sure we weren't dragging. We were much to close to another sailing boat and because of that couldn't let out enough chain on the anchor. Meanwhile the high pitched alarm on our boat is starting to make our ears ring. So here we were, poorly anchored (on our very first anchoring attempt!), in the rain and wind, with an engine that is overheating for no apparent reason, and with the alarm screaming in our ears. Luckily we had heeded Johnny and Susans advice to take out BoatUS Towing Service, so we rang them up, and within an hour we were towed back to the dock in the cold rain.Our own fault finding attempts as to what the problem could be proved to be fruitless, and it wasn't for another two hours that we finally figured out that the annoying alarm was actually the high water alarm. Another moment of panic for me, as now I was sure we must be sinking, but a look inside the bilge fortunately proved me wrong. To this day we have no idea why the high water alarm went off, as it has no connection to anything else in the boat at all! Dave decapitated the unit, and we could finally think again without the high pitched noise doing our eardrums in. Next step: find a diesel engine mechanic. Enter Jack.
Jack is St. Marys diesel mechanic who has worked on his own shrimp boats to the U.S. navys submarines. He arrived on Sunday with his grandson and started one
of many many sessions on our beloved engine. Jack is an absolute diamond of a guy, and by now has been through thick and thin with us! He is in high demand
around the area, and squeezed us in whenever he had a chance to come by. At $70/hr I was began worrying about the magnitude of the final bill. While trouble shooting all our bits I suddenly had the entire stop cable in my hand!
We ordered all the parts and gauges we thought we needed, and had a heck of a time getting all the correct parts. We would drive down to Jacksonville, pick up
the parts we ordered, take them back to the boat and end up finding out that they didn't fit. Thus the process started taking longer and longer. In the interim,
we also broke down with the Jeep several times, and had to use our AAA services! The first time our battery went dead, the second time the keys locked themselves
in the car while we were pumping gas. We started to feel like we had the gremlins, and resorted to all sorts of remedies that were suggested to us, including
going around the boat with a lit sage stick and asking the little devils to leave. To no avail! When we finally thought we had it fixed, we decided to take
the boat out of St. Marys for a ride and promptly ran aground in the channel. To make matters worse, it was exactly the same spot a couple of cruisers we had met
had run aground a week before. The bright side - we had done it at low tide, so all we had to do was put out an anchor and wait an hour until we floated off
the mud bank. Fifteen minutes later the engine alarm was back on, and the temperature gauge above 200F again! Back down came the anchor, this time with a little
less panic, and we sat there trying to trouble shoot the problem. We pulled out our boat bible on how to fix almost anything on a boat, and spent a few hours
trying to find a problem. The sea strainer was clear, except for a few medievil looking sea creatures that had been sucked into it. Bottom line, we couldn't really
find the culprit - sea-strainer, heat exchanger, impeller, thermostat... you name it, it all seemed fine!
At this point we decided that something beyond our faculties was forcing us to slow down and take our time in resolving all our problems. We limped back into St. Marys, and kept working with Jack. The upside to it all was that Dave (and even I, mechanically challenged as I am!) got a great education in our diesel engine, and a good working knowledge of it. The Yanmar dealer in Jacksonville rolled his eyes every time we came back in for yet another part. We put in new gauges, new senders, thermostats, and a new start cable, and rewired some of the electrical wires that connect certain gauges to the engine. And still the problem persisted - when we ran the engine the temperature seemed to go up and set off the alarm! All in all it took five weeks of pulling our hair out, until Jack realized that he had installed the thermostat the wrong way around. Thank goodness it even came to him, because obviously we had no idea that such a thing was possible! So, long story short - the thermostat had gone out on us initially, and the new one was installed wrongly, and as such the problem persisted and kept us St. Mary bound for almost two months!
While at the dock another sailing boat pulled in behind us with a delightful couple on it - Mary & Christian on "I Wanda". We thoroughly enjoyed their company, and Mary came eagerly for acupuncture and to exchange sea stories and her own wisdom. Twelve years or more ago they had set out for a one year cruise with their daughters, and are still at it! Their daughters are now grown up and live ashore, but Mary & Christian are just about to head off again to sea, after a year long refit on their boat, which they did at a "Do-it-yourself" boatyard in St. Marys. Mary told me about their own first six months aboard, and how tough it had been. Countless obstacles and problems arose at first that they didn't know how to deal with, and she felt strongly that Neptune was putting them to the test to see if they had it in them to take to the sea! Was Neptune testing us too? Would we live up to the challenge??
Cruisers at last!
Even though we spent much time working out our boat problems in St. Marys, and not going anywhere, we did feel that we finally became part of the cruising community. What an incredible Blessing! Everyone we met came with kindness and a great willingness to help! Irene, on "Katja", showed up to show me how to use the sewing machine we inherited with the boat. Christian and Mary helped us with advice and cooked dinner for us. Bruce & Pam on "Aquahbi" gave us a fabulous navigation program after I gave Bruce some acupuncture. They have sailed around the world, and were a good source of information for us as to where we might spend this years hurricane season. Nat, the dock-master, who loved to get a piece of cake from me whenever I baked some, allowed us to stay on the dock at no extra charge for days when we awaited a good weather window when it finally came time to leave. Tom and Laurel came up several times to spend some time with us and help us out. The local shrimp were so wonderful, we enjoyed some great meals together, especially after Jack gave us a huge bag of them! We also met some wonderful people from Atlanta who had their boats in St. Marys
and came down on weekends. I realized then that there are so many people who have stepped outside of the "box" as we are doing, and have managed in many different
ways to make it work out. Money or no money - amongst cruisers there is an unspoken rule that we help one another when we can, and we are all in the "same boat" if you
like. It is incredibly refreshing and heart warming! Slowly the "hamster-wheel effect" of trying to work hard enough to pay the bills and needing fine foods
and entertainment just to keep yourself going is fading away from my reality, and instead the morning sunrise, the warmth of the sun, a fresh loaf of bread, a smile
and kind word from a stranger are more gratifying than the riches we pursue in the name of "progress" or whatever we call it.
Goodbye St. Marys!
The day finally arrived when we had no more excuses to hang around St. Marys, and we had to say goodbye. The Jeep sold in two days, we finished stocking up on food and last minute errands, and before we knew it I had to hold back the tears when we hugged all our new friends goodbye as they untied our lines. Ultimately we felt that if we had to be stuck somewhere, St. Marys was a good place to be!Our first destination: the famous Cumberland Island just off the coast of Georgia. We knew the weather would be unsettled, but didn't dream that we would be facing 50 knots of wind at our very first anchorage! Luckily the anchor held, and although we had nothing but torrential rain, thunder and lightning for most of the three days we were there, we did not get hit by lightning, even though our new chart plotter lived in the oven for a lot of the time there to protect it from damage. By the second night, with tornado warnings broadcast on the weather station and more thunderstorms in sight, we were prepared! Fould weather gear, sea-boots and all! Nothing to stop us from fighting the elements outside! As soon as it started up we jumped into our "arctic" gear, and then had a good laugh at ourselves as we looked at each other, and realized that absolutely nothing was going to happen!
Only the Heavens gave forth more and more water to the point
where we were able to use our dinghy as a bathtub in the morning!
On our second day there we managed one trip ashore, and had a walk on the island. The Atlantic side has a beautiful white sand beach, and the island boasts armadillos (which we saw plenty of), deer, all sorts of birds, and even wild horses! The island used to belong to the Carnegie family, who built a grand house on the island which now stands in ruins. In its heyday the island was a place for the rich and famous to come and party in its grandiose gardens with fountains and pagodas. It is still impressive to see today! Today the island is preserved as a National Park, and many people take the ferry there from St. Marys to go hiking and camping, or to stay at the little inn on the northern end of the island. It was well worth a visit!
Emergency at Sea
On April 5th I found myself waking up in a beautiful room with a gorgeous view, looking out over trees and the rising sun, filled with gratitude to be well and alive. How I found myself there is the result of our very first offshore voyage, when we finally headed out to sea.April 4th we awoke early before dawn to set out into the Atlantic, and sail down the coast of Georgia en route to the Bahamas. The weather prediction was good, with northerly breezes, which seemed ideal for our trip south. I had a slight stomach ache, and put it down to "nerves" as this was our first passage out in the ocean on Anam Cara. We motored out of the river without incidence while the sun came up, and just as the first swells hit us, I started to feel a bit queasy. I am prone to seasickness, so I thought I had better stay in the fresh air to avoid a bad case of it. But with a following wind and sea, and the engine running, I quickly deteriorated, and felt crummy. Even Dave, who has never been seasick, gave forth his breakfast! In my case, however, an unrelenting abdominal pain made matters worse. A few hours later we were about five miles from the St. Johns River, the entrance to Jacksonville. By this time I felt so badly, that we made the decision to abort our journey and head in towards Mayport. Even when we were in the calm waters of the River my nausea and pain did not ease up. I felt the chills in my bones, and all I could think about was lying down. It took all my concentration to get us to a dock that would take us and throw the lines ashore. As soon as were tied up, I crawled into the V-berth and curled up in a ball. Dave took one look at me, and immediately went ashore looking for a way to get to a doctor. Luckily, a gentleman who happened to be at the marina there offered to drive us. I had to throw up again in the car, and by the minute felt my condition deteriorate. We arrived at First Baptist Medical Hospitals emergency room, and within no time at all I was being seen by their fabulous staff. Diagnosis: appendicitis! As it turned out, I was one of three appendicitis cases they had there in one day, and one after another we were wheeled into surgery to have that little bit of our anatomy causing us such misery removed.
Dave was such an angel by my side while I felt like death warmed over, and our dear friend Laurel immediately drove up to the hospital to help out. In fact, between her and Tom, and her son Kyle, our boat was brought safely back forty something seamiles to their boatyard in Green Cove Springs where we can keep it as long as we need to! In addition she left Dave her car, so that after being discharged from the hospital we could go back to our good old "Howard and Johnson" hotel in Jacksonville to recover! It is now three days since the surgery, and looking back I cannot help but marvel at all the events that have led us here! Had our engine troubles not kept us in St. Marys so long, we may have been in the middle of nowhere when I got acute appendicitis! Again I feel as though we have been guided and inspired on many levels, and I truly feel so blessed to be alive and well, and with so many loving people who out of the kindness of their hearts have helped us and made our situation easier for us! The hospital a stranger took us to turned out to be the best hospital either Dave & I have ever seen, and as I said, when I awoke the morning after surgery, I could scarcely believe how lovely the room was, how grand the view, and how Dave was allowed to sleep there with me on a sofa bed! He even got to enjoy a lovely shower there, as even the bathroom was palatial! My only regret was that they discharged me so soon, as I was recovering quickly and easily! Laparoscopic surgery is a fantastic invention, and I hope to be up and about very soon, and back on the boat by tomorrow!
Reflections on the past week (April 14th, 2009)
Thinking back over the last week, I marvel at how smoothly events have transpired for us, even in the face of adversity! Had we not had all the troubles with our engine in St. Marys, I may well have ended up with an acute appendix in the remote cays of the Bahamas, or somewhere offshore! Had Laurel and Tom not been there for us, we would not have had such wonderful help, and also wouldn't have broken the antenna on Laurels car which we managed to do as we took it through a car wash on our way back to the boat from our three days in the hotel. Had the antenna not broken, we wouldn't have been up so early the next day and a lovely sailing ketch called Jenny would have sunk to the bottom of the River.
When we walked down the dock that morning our eyes couldn't believe what they saw!
One of the most beloved boats tied to this dock was almost up to the toe rails underwater. We immediately called Tom, who was able to get someone to the boat
with a big pump within half an hour. Just in the nick of time too! The toe rails were just barely above the water, and so they were able to pump the boat out
and save her! What sank Jenny? As is turned out it was the plastic seastrainer that popped, and the owner had forgotten to leave the bilge pump on. The boat
was immediately hauled out in the yard, and now sits there awaiting repairs. Poor Tom is quite beside himself, and spent the entire weekend here trying to get
the engine back to life.
Dave and I, in the meantime, have had the chance to spend some time with these wonderful friends - Tom & Laurel, who have helped us out in this time of need. Each day I count all my Blessings - the wonderful husband I have, who so lovingly took care of me, and who is coming more and more into his own fixing up the boat where it needs attention! The new friends we have - their help has been such a huge part of my recovery! And all the lovely phone calls from friends and family with concern. Having my sister Marion call, and my little niece Mia leave a message on the phone - these are all things that fill me up with gratitude and make every day worth being alive!
We are now awaiting the next front to pass, which has brought us more rain and thunderstorms, and are planning to leave tomorrow. Hopefully the next time you read our website, we will be reporting from the Bahamas!
