Hilton Head, SC

So for those of you who still read this blog (or did we lose all our followers?) . . .

Georgia was a long, but beautiful trip. We crossed a few sounds and travelled through many windy rivers and creeks. We passed some of the most beautiful houses that we've seen so far - even the Osprey's homes were incredible.

On Sunday afternoon, though we made our grand entrance into Hilton Head. Sunday started out to be just another beautiful day cruising up the ICW completing our last few miles in Georgia. When we realized we missed a turn and were heading up the Savanna River instead of continuing on the ICW to Charleston, we altered our course and headed back in the right direction. But then we realized, in horror, where we were supposed to go - Field's Cut. We read numerous reports about this section of the ICW being very shoaled and less than 4' in places during low tide. And what time did we get there? Low tide. Based on our history, what we should've done was drop the anchor and have lunch before even attempting this challenge, but we didn't. Skipper Bob told us to favor the green side and we'd be okay. Well, when our new depth sounder started beeping at us, this time we listened and immediately went into neutral. Then we tried to reverse, but the engine just made a bunch of crackling noises and didn't revers. Neutral again. Forward. Same thing. Steve quickly went below to check on the transmission - which we just had work done on twice already. Not good! The shaft seal that we replace in Palm Beach had completely backed off and all the oil was draining from the transmission. Very, very bad! We were stuck, not being able to motor forward or back, so we immediately dropped the hook and called Sea Tow. There was no way we could sail through such a narrow, shallow canal without an engine.

John Ray being towed by Sea Tow.

At this point we were 10-12 miles north of Savanna and about the same distance south of Hilton Head. We opted to be towed to Hilton Head. Now to figure out what was going on.

Steve and the Yanmar mechanic agreed that there is probably an internal problem with the transmission for the seal to have come off twice. Of course, there's no way to prove it without taking out the transmission. No problem, right? Wrong! Where the transmission is located, the entire engine would need to be moved around or completely removed - just to determine that we'd need a new transmission anyway. Then, with all that effort (and labor $$) why put a new transmission on a 20 year old engine - an engine which we don't know the history of? What if we spent all this money on a new transmission and the engine went anyway? After much contemplating and soul searching, we have decided to completely re-power John Ray. What does that mean? Well, it means a brand new transmission, engine, starter, alternator, control panel, etc., etc., etc. We're being hauled for the 3rd time on this trip. However, this time, we can not live on the boat while they work on her. We have to get a hotel room for a couple of days. (At least it's not Belhaven, NC.) We will keeping John Ray for many, many years to come.

On the bright side, we will be bringing the boat all the way back to New England. We were actually thinking of hauling it out in Oriental, NC and putting her on the hard for a while while we went back to work. Now, storing the boat is not going to be an option. A new engine needs to be run in order to be broken in. We also don't want to have a brand new engine sitting idle while the warranty runs out. So, we will have a boat to use all summer again, yeah! Another summer in Maine will be quite nice.

So for now, we are stuck in Hilton Head for at least a week (poor us :). It's too bad we don't golf. There are a couple of very elaborate mini-golf courses here as well, so maybe we'll take in 18 holes there. So that's all for now. There's never a dull moment in the life and times of John Ray.