Epilogue: Bright Eyes Gets A New Engine

We are still here in Ft. Lauderdale working on the engine. After getting a bunch of quotes and talking to mechanics we found that it was just as expensive to swap in a new engine.

So we are now awaiting a fully rebuilt Yanmar 3GM30 with a one year warranty!  It also comes with a new transmission. When it comes in we will get towed to the boat yard and have them do the swap.  I thought about doing the labor myself but it wasn't too expensive and they will do it much faster and correct.

At that point we will put Bright Eyes in a slip somewhere between here and Stuart Florida and leave it with a broker to sell.  

Since we are putting in a fully rebuilt engine with a one year warranty we will be listing Bright Eyes for $35,000.  However, for the next week or two before we contract a broker we are offering her for $31,000 since we would save on the broker fee and slip fees.  

Make us an offer!

Bright Eyes For Sale

And now for the main item...

1985 Seidelmann 37

LOA 37’ (40 with davits)
Beam 12’
Draft 4’6’’
Displacement 13,900 lbs
Main Sail and 140 Genoa
Mainsail outfitted for the Dutchman Sail Flaking System
44lb Claw Anchor, Two 22lb Fortress Anchors
Two 30 gallon water tanks
18 gallon fuel tank
13 gallon holding tank
6’5’’ head room
9’x11’ V-berth, Starboard single settee, Port double settee, two pilot berths, port aft quarter berth (sleeps 6)

Engine: 1985 Yanmar 3GM30, 2600 hours, 24hp

Improvements (all made since May 2009)

44lb Claw Anchor with 75ft 5/16 HT G4 Chain and 225 ft 5/8 triple braid rope
Lofrans Royal Manual Windlass
Raymarine SPX5 Auto Pilot
Martek 250 Dinghy Davits
Garmin 441s with transducer and arm mount
Solas Parachute Flare, Flare Gun with flares, Four handheld flares, Air horn signal
Prop Guard Blade
Two Sunforce 80 watt Solar Panels, 30-Amp digital charge controller
New Starter Battery, purchased July 2011
Xanex Battery Monitor
1500 watt Cobra Inverter
New on board VHF, purchased January 2011
Four 12 volt fans, two in cabin and two in v-berth
Two LED Cabin Light fixtures
LED Masthead and Anchor Light fixture
LED Red/Greed Running Light Bulbs, LED stern light bulb, Two LED cabin light bulbs
New Main Haylard, purchased December 2010
Two cleats on sliding tracks
Lifeline Netting
Single Basin Galley Sink
New fiberglass exhaust muffler, Exhaust manifold cover, Cooling system hoses, purchased May 2010
Racor 500 Fuel Filter
New Secondary Fuel Filter Encasing, Fuel Lift Pump, Fuel Line Hoses, purchased August 2010
Fuel Gauge in Cockpit
New Lube Oil Pipe, purchased December 2010

Reductions
CNG Stove removed and replaced with Microwave and storage shelves
No House batteries since July 2011
Starboard Bow Fairlead needs replacing
Cockpit Cushions need replacing

Three Canvas Zippers need replacing

We are currently working on repairing the engine which will not start right now.  It is not getting compression and we believe it has a bad piston ring.

Once we get the engine fixed the boat will be put on the hard and listed with a broker in Ft Lauderdale, Florida.  We will list it for $34,000

If we decide not to fix the engine due to cost then we will list the boat for $29,000 because we found a replacement engine online for $4,000 that we can refer you to.

We are also offering a $3000 discount if you buy the boat before we leave Ft Lauderdale.  This will save us from putting the boat on land storage and selling through a broker. We plan to stay here about a week or two to prep the boat for sale so contact us asap to set something up.

So for this week only the list price is $26,000

We can be reached at 240-305-7177.

Celebrating Bahamas Independence

Like we said before, Nassau isn't the worst place in the world to be stuck.  It is pretty expensive and the beaches are distant and crowded but there is still plenty to enjoy.

July 10th was Bahamas Independence Day so we have been enjoying the celebrations.

Here is that scary dredging barge that we had to sail and anchor next to at night.  It looks like it wants to eat sailboats.   We threw out a second anchor to keep from swinging into it and then it moved to harass other boats.

For $30 we can get 15 Kaliks and a bag of ice. This is how we reward our selves after a few days of blistering heat.

Our friend Francois has been anchored next to us and has been a big help with our engine.  We have been enjoying the city with him.

We went to Atlantis again, this time with Francois showing us how to do it cheaper.  They have complimentary movies in Theater!  So we saw Gnomeo and Juliet, and Just Go With It.  

We also found that you can just walk through the aquarium for free! (Nobody checks for wristbands)  Why did we pay $80 last time, ugh.

Then we enjoyed the gypsy/pirate show.  There were fire dancers, stilt dancers, and a mermaid.  It was a huge carnival party.

The rest of our time here has been hunting down free internet signals.  The Green Parrot, Starbucks, McDonalds, and the side of buildings are our favorite spots.  

Here is Christine being a rebel.

As for our departure plans we have decided to just sail to Florida just the two of us and fix the engine there. Here is the thread we posted on Cruiser Forum which has a lot of advice. We think it is a bad piston ring.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f54/cruiser-stranded-in-need-of-advice-63643.html

 Thank you for all the help and offers to crew but we want to get out of here asap before the weather gets worse. My mom is coming to visit this week and then we will get going.

We hope to sail into Fort Lauderdale, fix the engine and put the boat on dry storage while we are in MD.  So if anyone has any recommendations for a good mechanic or good marina let us know.

How Will Bright Eyes Get Home?

So in our week here, stranded in Nassau, we have had a lot of diagnostic work done on the engine.  

If you don't fancy engine talk then skim down to the page break below to find out what we have decided.

I went through the engine looking for oil leaks and tightened a few bolts and hose clamps that showed signs of leakage.  I checked that the fuel filter was clean of water and that fuel was reaching the cylinders.  There was excess transmission fluid so I removed it all and added new oil.  I resealed a small water leak at the water intake filter. I checked the aft engine zinc which was fine.  

The primary indications of problem were oil coming out of the exhaust when we were going through heavy waves and when trying to get off of a shoal.  The main engine oil leak seems to be between the transmission and the engine block.  The head gasket shows no sign of oil leaking.  I replaced the oil lube pipe before we left and it was still leak free.  The engine does turn over but would still not start.

The first mechanic opened the oil cap and felt a lot of air coming out as we tried to start the engine.  From this he concluded that there was crank case pressure and probably a failed piston. He said they need to remove the engine from the boat and take it apart to find the problem.  But then later he said that our engine did not have a liner on the head gasket and that the head was probably scorched and that they did not have a machine shop to fix it so we would need a new engine: $10,000 estimate

Our friend Francois from George Town just happened to be anchored next to us here and came over to lend his expertise.  He tried switching the compression levers over.  He noticed the air coming out of the oil cap when removed as well as fumes.  He concluded that there could be a faulty valve that might have seized the last time our engine leaked out oil.  Or we could have a failed piston ring in need of replacement.  He advised me to take the valve cover off and find the faulty valve.  He also said I should be able to take the head off and into a mechanics shop to have the valve replaced without removing the whole engine.

The second mechanic tested all the fuel lines for fuel.  There was fuel coming through.  He used starting fluid on the air intake as well as switching the compression levers.  He too noticed the fumes coming from the removed oil cap.  He also put gasoline on a rag and put it over the air intake to try to start it.  It would not.  He concluded that their was a compression problem, probably a failed piston ring.  The only option they gave us was to remove the engine from the boat and take it apart back at their shop to find the problem.  The estimate was at least $3000.

None of these mechanics seemed honest though so we are not paying $1000 to have the engine removed and then getting stuck in a situation where we have to pay $10,000 for a new engine or paying another $2000 to have our engine put back together with nothing solved.

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So that leaves us with few options to get back home.

1) We will attempt to take the engine apart ourselves and find the failed valve or try to take the head to a mechanic for fixing. If the engine starts we will sail to Florida, only using the engine to dock/anchor.

2) We will fly in an experienced sailor to help us sail back to Florida or Maryland (preferably MD) without an engine.  We can't afford to pay anyone but we can cover all your expenses.  We can pay for two people to fly into Nassau to sail to MD or one person to sail to Florida and then we would fly them home.  We estimate the sail to MD to be about 7-10 days straight and the Florida sail to be 2 days straight .  If you are interested in this please email me at jtp1285@hotmail.com to talk details. 

3) Our last option is to sail without an engine to Florida by ourselves.  We do believe we can do this.  Our only concerns are sailing upwind, getting stuck in a storm, and docking.  We can use our Boat US to help with the docking. We also learned a trick from Francois where we can tie up our dinghy to the side of the boat and use the 3.5hp outboard to tow ourselves.

My mom was supposed to fly into Eluethera to spend a week with us but because of our immobility she will just hop off the plane at her Nassau layover.  She will be here later this month so we have until after her visit to make a decision.

Until then we will just hang tight. It's not the worse place in the world to be stuck :)

Bright Eyes in Peril

We enjoyed three calm days at Normans Cay.  We got some grub at the Normans Cay Beach Club.  It was expensive of course but much needed.

We snorkeled a wrecked plane that was really cool.  At high tide you can see the top portion of the plane and it doesn't look like much but under the water it is an entire 75 foot long plane with wings and fish swimming all around it.  We took pics with the disposable under water camera so you will have to wait to see those.

On Tuesday the 28th we left Normas heading for Highborne Cay.  We had to motor around the corals and through some shoals and then our engine decided to quit on us.  We have had a small oil leaking problem for awhile and it finally got worse.  We have been adding oil to the engine pretty consistently to keep it happy.  This time when the engine died we threw out the anchor in shallow water and then added oil and started it back up.  It ran for and bit and then conked out again.

We decided to sail up to Highborne for possible help.  We made it pretty close until one of our turns required us to go upwind.  We are absolutely horrible at sailing upwind.  We can never get more than a perpendicular angle with the wind on either side.  We even broke out the Sailing For Dummies book for help and couldn't get upwind.   So we anchored in a relatively safe area and looked up engine mechanic info.

Our desired destination of Eluethera did not offer much but Nassau had an advertisement.  So that's where we decided to go.

Highborne Cay Marina was supposed to give the weather everyday at 7:30am so we got up then to listen but they said they couldn't get the weather.  That began the longest day ever.

We used our manual windlass to crank up 120ft of anchor rode against the wind. That was no fun.  We then sailed in the direction of Nassau by 8:30am.

We were headed directly down wind which we also have trouble sailing.  We were able to gibe most the way pretty well.  Around 1pm we had to cross the Yellow Banks which is a shallower area with a lot of coral heads scattered around.  On the way down we went around it but this time we decided to go through it because of our slow sailing.

Of course right before we get to the Yellow Banks the sky turns dark and storm clouds loom over us.  We were smart enough to put on our life jackets but not foul weather gear.  As we enter the coral garden chilly winds hit us.  We reduced our sail to slow down as the winds picked up and then it started pouring raining.  Christine laid on the cockpit seat trying to cover up with small pillows while I shivered at the helm.  We were both just wearing our bathing suits and life jackets.

Eventually Christine remembered not all our hatches were closed so she went below to close them.  The only damage was half our bed was soaking wet (my half of the bed).  She came back with jackets for us.  That made it bearable in the cold stinging rain.  The storm lasted an hour and a half as we navigated through the shallow corals.  The corals were much scarier than the storm which was really just uncomfortable compared to the big waves we've been through other times.

And then around 2:30pm the storm finally let up and we came out of the Yellow Banks safely.  However the storm took all the wind with it and soon our sails were luffing and then laying like curtains.  Originally our Garmin told us our arrival time was 5pm, now it was saying 5am the next morning.  When we had only 4 miles to get in the Nassau Harbor we were basically drifting with the water at less than 1 mph.  

We drifted our way into the harbor around 8pm and then the current took a hold of us.  We lowered the Genoa and left up the main sail for direction.  Our goal was to anchor in the first anchorage before the bridges.  However we underestimated the current when we turned into the wind to drop the main sail and by the time we got the anchor down we were swinging close to a charter boat docked.

Night had fallen by now and we had to re-anchor.  Instead of cranking up the anchor one link at a time like before we figured out how to let out some of the Genoa and sail back and forth upwind on the anchor as I pulled it up.  But once we had the anchor up we had our familiar problem of not being able to sail upwind so we couldn't get a better anchorage spot.

That meant we had to try the next anchorage down, on the other side of the two bridges.  So Christine went on the bow with her headset on and a fog horn and I used the half Genoa and the current to take us through the bridges.  It was a lot scarier before than after.  No other boats came and we made it through with ease.  

We then pulled into the next anchorage which was where we anchored the first time we came to Nassau.  However there was a huge barge sitting at the entrance making our life miserable.  We couldn't sail across and anchor right away because the current was still pushing us so we had to cut through the barge and another boat and anchor behind the barge.  We got the anchor down just in time to give us enough distance between us and the boat behind us.  

So at 10pm we could finally get off the boat.  We quickly headed to the Green Parrot, our favorite lodge and now you know the days story.

While we are here we plan to find a mechanic and hopefully get the engine in a better mood.  And then back over to Eluethera.  Wish us luck.

Again sorry for the lack of pics but grabbing the camera was far from our minds most of the day.

I drew this picture to depict us in the storm

High Seas to Leaf Cay

We left George Town on Wednesday June 1st.  The weather was pretty windy but we never let that stop us before.  As we made it out of the harbor the waves got bigger and bigger and were crashing on us.  It just reminded us of some bad days on the Chesapeake so we kept going.

Soon the waves were over our head (i'd guess 10 feet) and the boat was pitching side to side hard.  We had everything inside tied off good so that was no worries but it still didn't feel good on the boat.  I would steer into the bigs waves slightly to prevent the harsh rocking.  Nomy began to cry as the waves crashed on deck and got us wet.

It started raining and Christine, who was reading her e-reader, got up to put it and our camera inside.  Just then a huge wave smacked us on the side and threw Christine to the lifelines.  The force of the jerk sent her e-reader flying out of her hand and into the deep blue sea.  It was a scary moment as I thought she was going over too, but luckily the netting and life lines kept her in.  Christine was very upset about losing her second e-reader, that we just got, as we both held on through the rest of the huge waves.

We made it back to Normans Cay, where we anchored on the way down, but took a left over to Leaf Cay this time.  After much debate we decided we would go back to George Town to get some more books since the e-reader was gone, have another under water camera shipped through dhl this time, and just hang around our town that we missed already.

The ocean had different plans.  The next day as we headed back to GT the waves were somehow bigger.  The narrow channel to enter the ocean had huge waves breaking right on our bow and the boat was shooting to the moon and then crashing down.  We made it through there but after about 5 miles of motoring the engine slowed and then died.  This wasn't a spot to be working on the engine down below as the boat was still pitching with each monster wave (they looked closer to 15 feet now), so we opened up the genoa (our front sail, our favorite sail) and kept moving along.  We couldn't aim south to George Town though because the wind was in our face so we turned around and headed back to Leaf Cay.

This actually turned out pretty nice.  Since we were now sailing about 6-7 knots with just the genoa up instead of motoring we felt more in tune with the waves.  We crashed into less of them and seemed to drift easily over them with the wind.  The scary part of sailing back through the narrow channel and to our anchorage turned out to be a piece of cake and soon we were spinning the boat into the wind to drop the genny and toss out the anchor where we had started a few hours before.

At anchor I found an oil leak and tightened it up and the engine came back alive.  But now we knew we didn't need that dumb engine. The winds are at our backs now heading north...

Friday we decided to rest and check out the Leaf Cay beach.  Back to island living!

We were greeted by the funny green and pink iguanas.  There were only four as opposed to the tons at Allens Cay and these guys were a little more brave.

They came right up to us and we found some near by fruit to feed them.  Soon they were eating a buffet out of our hands.

The beach itself was nice and we did some exploring to look for sea beans.

We wanted to circumnavigate the island but the winds were strong on the other side and it was raining too.  We cut through and then had to do rock hiking to get back to our boat

We found a small beach with the largest conch garden/graveyard we've ever seen.  These are all conch shells and there was more out of camera

At one point I wanted to walk through the water to get back to our dinghy but I'm glad we didn't because we saw a nurse shark swimming around.

This is the tiniest hermit crab we've found!

It's good to be back with nature

Nomy is more of a hotel cat.

Good Bye George Town, Heading Back North

Well we have been here in George Town for just over 6 weeks.  We have made this our temporary home and are quite comfortable.  We haven't been too adventurous lately but we are enjoying ourselves.

We still read a lot.  Christine even wrote a 42,000 word book herself and is working on her second book.  I have been practicing the guitar everyday and play Star Craft 2, an online video game at night.

For exercise we have been swimming laps around the boat.  I can't do many but Christine usually does about 25-30 while I lay out on the pink floaty :)

Our nightly routine has been to go to shore and plug in at a picnic table at the local play ground and play online till 2 am.  We our really gonna miss this view.

We finally had our first engine problem in the Bahamas.  In preparation of our departure, I changed our primary fuel filter, secondary fuel filter, oil filter, and both oils.  Of course after this the engine wouldn't start.  I thought it was a battery problem since our batteries are dead.  So we charged up the starter battery with the solar panels and it still wouldn't work.  Luckily while we were at the park another cruiser asked to use our computer and we got to talking about the engine and he offered to come check it out.

He was a cool Frenchmen named Franswa (sorry if its misspelled) aboard French Summer and after an hour of trying we finally got the engine up and running.  In the process we learned how to use the compression levers, ether starting fluid, and to bleed the fuel injectors.  That's the only good thing about a troublesome engine is we always learn something.  It is rarely the same problem twice.

And as a result of this we had our FIRST boat dinner guest!  We invited Franswa over for spaghetti and garlic bread and he brought over a cheese and bread platter that was much better than the main dish.  He has a fridge and water maker so her even brought over cold water!  Yes that is a luxury on Bright Eyes.

We ate and talked into the night and were glad to finally host someone.  It also gave us a reason to clean up the cockpit some which it needed.

Lastly we'ed like to warn anyone against the use of the Bahamas Post Office.  Before we got here in early April my mom sent us an underwater camera via the Post Office.  Some people warned us that it could take 3 months to get here and I didn't believe them.  Well it's been almost 2 months and we can't wait around any longer so hopefully they will return to sender.

We did have success with Christine's e-reader which was sent through DHL to Top to Bottom (a marina store).  It arrived in 5 days.

So we will just buy a disposable underwater camera in Staniel Cay to take Thunderball Grotto pics.

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  We haven't done anything too impressive recently.  Here's a cool cloud we saw :)

 But it is time to finally start heading back north towards the US.  We plan to spend June revisiting the Exumas.  Then we will meet my mom in Eleuthera in July.  Then we will visit the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama Island on our way back to Florida In August.  So there is still plenty of exploring to do and we are going to try to put our kayaks to use more!

Repairs and Georgia

UPDATES:

We forgot to mention on the way to Georgetown, SC we got boarded by the Coast Guard.  They were just doing a routine safety check and we didn’t even stop.  They hopped on and we easily passed.  Before they came on I told them we just had a safety check done and had the Coast Guard sticker on the side of the vessel.  I guess they were bored cuz they still wanted to do their own check.  We were kinda hoping the Coast Guard sticker showing we had already passed a safety check would keep the Coast Guard off of us but owell.

Also we have not been so lucky to avoid repairs during this trip we just haven’t been reporting them so much and we apologize.  Here’s our list

Fixed:

Handheld VHF battery charger lost = Purchased a new one

Driveshaft bolts came out = We were spinning on one driveshaft bolt at one point but now have them all tightened back up and replaced the one bent bolt. We plan to replace the other three as well.

Stuffing Box came undone = We bought new packing and repacked the stuffing box.  No more water flowing in!

Loose engine mounting bolts = Tightened

Laptop dropped in water = Bought a new one. Ouch!

Dinghy Davits bent sideways from supporting the dinghy (and me) while we were on our side = We straightened up the davits but they still aim off to an angle.   We will be cautious with them.

Transducer not working = We didn’t have depth since the big tilt, Saturday, Sunday or Monday but Monday night we figured out it just needed to be filled up with mineral oil again since being on our side must have drained it.  It works perfect again.

Solar Panels not charging = We have been being real cheap with our electricity because the monitor showed we only had 50%.  We called the Solar Controller company, Sunforce, and turns out the solar panels were charging our batteries fully but our battery monitor wasn’t properly configured.  After confirming that our batteries were full with a volt meter and being able to run the microwave, we configured the monitor to show 100%.  So really our solar panels are doing great in team with the alternator.  We have seen between 2 and 5 amps on the solar controller.

Turns out I didn't read the battery monitor directions (i'm not surprised) and I never set up the monitor properly to know how large our battery bank was and when it was full. I thought it just knew.  So it shows full  now and we have solar power coming in!

And other minor fixes.

To be Fixed:

On board VHF still to be installed

Starboard fairlead broke off while trying to get towed off the shoal.

Cockpit grill propane valve broke off during a bad docking, needs to be replaced.


SPOT:  We also added a SPOT link on the sidebar that shows where we are daily.  This should help follow us when no internet is available.

Saturday we were floating again and back on our way.  We made it a short day and anchored in the South Edison River near Fenwick Island, SC, mile marker 509.  We worked on some repairs and relaxed some.

Sunday we had another short day and pulled up to the Beaufort, SC town day dock.  We got showers for $1, yes it was cheap enough for me to par take in.  We spent the day walking around the very scenic and historic town.  We settled at the local coffee shop to get our internet fix and then went back to the boat to find an anchorage.  The town dock is only for use during the day and the marina lady said you get a large fine for trying to stay the night.

We dinghyed back into town and found a sports bar to watch the Steelers beat the Jets.  Christine is a Steelers fan and was very excited.  Now we have to make sure we can watch the Superbowl.

Monday we arrived in Georgia!  We went through Thunderbolt, Georgia, best city name yet.  We now see dolphins on an almost constant basis!  We thought about going to Savannah but it was 8 miles out of the way and our chart book didn’t show it, plus our depth sounder wasn’t working so we just anchored in the Wilmington River at mile marker 585.  While picking out an anchorage we finally figured out how to read the tides and currents charts available on out Garmin.  It’s about time we learned that! 

Tuesday was a wet day.  It rained all day sometimes very hard.  Visibility got bad but never too bad to stop.  We anchored in Crescent River, mile marker 643.  Now that we realize that our batteries are full and staying charged we can use a lil more electricity.  Christine made coffee in the morning and we played Family Game Night 3 on our PS3 at night.  We even were able to watch the weather on our tv!

This boat didn't make it

Wednesday joined our top three worst days (the other two are day 3 on the Chesapeake and the day after the snowstorm).  The winds were about 20 mph with even larger gusts.  This made it very cold since everything was wet the day before.  The small rivers weren’t bad but crossing the Sounds was rough.  The waves were about 3-4 feet, not as bad as that wavy day on the Chesapeake, but still enough to toss our boat around.  One wave even crashed into our cockpit while I was at helm and soaked my pants.  Then we would turn into the waves and they crashed onto our deck and sprayed the dodger.  We eventually made it into Jekyll Creek which wasn’t east because of the jetties at the entrance.  Rocks and waves make a scary entry.  We anchored after the Jekyll Island Bridge at mile marker 685. 

Garmin told us to keep this red to our left, bad Garmin!

Then the charts and Garmin told us to go inside another red marker and it looked safe but was not.  We ran aground pretty good and then a boat behind us joined us aground.  I got on their dinghy and we did some recon depth sounding with a string and weight.  As soon we found where the shoal was and were able to get off and on our way.  Luckily the tide was rising this time!

This cloud has a weary face just like we did

Just before Florida is a Nuclear Submarine landing zone.  Awesome!

Today (Thursday the 27th) we left GA and made it to Florida!  Georgia was our least favorite state and now we know why people skip it.  We are currently anchored at Fernandina Beach, FL!

The Adventure Continues

 Sunday night we could see a McDonalds from our anchorage.  We had been craving it since we got to Kure Beach so we hoped in our dinghy and ordered 5 burgers and ten chicken nuggets!  Our dinghy is pretty easy to deploy and use now that we have the dinghy davits and the engine is mounted.  So much nicer than lifting it on and off the deck.

Sunday night I also fixed our engine problems.  Here you can see the leak at our stuffing box.  It was pretty steady, now it only drips slightly which is normal.  I was also able to replace one of the four driveshaft bolts as ofcourse the other three I got at a different hardware store were the wrong size.

We awoke Monday and it was pouring raining.  We still felt like we could use some more rest so we layed in bed all day.  One day of no work, errands, or tasks.  Just relaxing!

Tuesday we were up bright and early and continued on our journey.  We made it to South Carolina!  We anchored in New River just pass the state border.  So close that when we dinghy up the river to Calabash, we were back in North Carolina.  Here are some pics along the way. As you can see Christine discovered the black and white setting. 

Coming down the Cape Fear River we really got moving.  The current was in our favor and we broke all speed records.  We normally cruise between 6 and 8 mph, here you can see we were in the tens!

After we anchored we decided to explore the near by town of Calabash.  It was basically and mall of seafood restaurants, most were closed.  We did find a fast food type seafood joint called the Seafood Shack and got a styrofoam cup full of shrimp for $5 as a shrimp cocktail. Yum

On the dinghy ride back it was dark and we saw the lights of a huge boat coming our way down the ICW.  We a little frightened that it was gonna turn down our anchorage and take us out so we hit full throttle to get back to the boat.  Our boats anchor light was on and we carry and bright stern light on the dinghy as well but we still wanted to get home fast.   Luckily it kept going down the ICW and away from us.  In the morning we saw it parked, it was a casino boat!

It rained again Wednesday morning so we slept in a little before starting the day. The day warmed up and we were finally feeling like we were down south.  We both took off our winter coats with a huge smile!

Wednesday we made it to Georgetown, SC.  There is a near by papermill that was workin hard.

Georgetown by moonlight

We went into town to again find most shops closed.  We decided to take advantage of the dollar beer night at Buzzs Roost.  It was the first cold beer we had in 2011 and justifiably priced!  We played a bar game they had on the tvs that was pretty fun.  It was a live trivia game and we had game pad and played against other bar patrons here and at other bars. We guessed a lot but ended up getting the high score for the month of January, I just missed getting a pic of our name as the top score on the bar tv.

The rest of the town had a lot of signs about how it was built in the 1700s.

Thursday was really boring.  We went through mostly man made canals that were 9 feet deep with 50 feet on each side of us.  It was sunny so we hung some clothes out to dry.  And we made some french fries. Exciting!

The tide is so low that it doesn’t even reach the piers.

We anchored just out side of Charleston in a little creek before the Ben Sawyer bridge.  While in the cockpit at night I heard and sorta saw an aligator!  It made snarling sneeze noise and I could see its mass and then it went under water.  Almost like a whale would do.  It was about 20 feet on the side of our boat! It did it again even longer the second time but I couldn’t see it well.  I quickly grabbed the cats that were hanging off the side looking at the water and locked them inside and grabbed the spot light.  I waited for the gator to return but it never did.  It was a lil creepy.

It was between our boat and the bushes.

We are at Mile Marker 461 out of 1090.  Including the Chesapeake Bay we are about half way there!