Things that go fizz in the night! - in position 34:43.35N,076:42.22
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sat 6 Jun 2009 19:40
We arrived in Morehead City after a long day
blatting at full steam. We hadn't anticipated getting that far but
other locations along the way were not very inviting, and with the forecast
giving a wet and windy night we didn't fancy being anchored off the ICW
channel.
The first marina we contacted only had room for us
on the outside of the visitors pontoon which would be broadside on to the
anticipated wind and considerable chop. Not ideal! We made the decision to
motor on around the other side of the city docks to the Morehead City Yacht
Basin which was in the lee of the weather. We just caught the marina manager as
he was leaving and he helped us tie up and gave us the security code for
the washrooms. We could only stay one night as he was fully booked with boats
arriving for the 51st Annual Blue Marlin Tournament. The fishing equivalent
of a rodeo as far as sheer strength, guts and determination are concerned.
Forget small rods and reels and little fishing boats - most of these were big
flared bow Hattaras deep sea sports fishing boats with the "dentist chair" on
the aft deck. Blue Marlin come in at 100's of Ilbs weight. The fishing
equipment adorning each boat was astounding, expensive rods and reels littering
the cockpits. Massive prize money too - $1,000,000! But then you have to
brave the rough seas in the Gulf Stream to get the Big Blues.
We ate in the Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant,
(named because of the original landlord's insistence that alcohol should
not be served on the premises) which has been established on the docks in
Morehead City since 1938. It seats 600, but as we arrived at gone 2000
hrs there was just a handful of diners scattered around the 600 seats. Americans
eat early and restaurants are almost empty and shut down by 2100 hrs. We
placed our order, and after a slight hiccup with Nikki's main dish (it
got forgotten) we found ourselves with two extremely large meals in
front of us, and we had already eaten too many hush puppies (a cornmeal dough
mixed with sugar and salt, deep fried in breadcrumbs - like a chipolata shaped
savoury doughnut) which are served up as a complimentary starter which you dip
into mayonnaise. At least our first helping was free. But Phil had ordered
some more. Nikki's noodle parmajan with '3 cheese' sauce topping was served up
with deep fried shrimps in breadcrumbs. Phil's 3 deep fried flounder fillets
also in breadcrumbs with chips proved one fish too many. We were offered
"take home boxes" (a.k.a doggy bags) as we were clearly struggling to consume so
much carbohydrate. We blamed those naughty 'puppies'. However, we already
had the next night's evening meal boxed up and ready to re-heat. Anything for an
easy life. Back on board we turned in for a much
anticipated good night's sleep in the quiet of the secluded marina whilst the
bad weather enveloped itself around the Cape Hattaras area. The wind whistled
around the boat but we were snug inside safely tied to a nice big pontoon.
It was at 0200 when we were woken by the sound of a
muted alarm going off somewhere aft. We couldn't quite place where it was
coming from until Phil opened the door into the starboard aft cabin to find the
carbon monoxide alarm going at full belt. But why? The engines had been
shut down hours ago, we weren't running the diesel heaters, the gas was all
switched off and weren't plugged into shore power, so why the
activated alarm? Despite best efforts it wouldn't re-set, so Phil took the
alarm into the galley to remove the battery so he could get back to bed. Then
the carbon monoxide alarm in the galley went off, quickly followed by the gas
alarm, indicating that whatever was in the aft cabin was now in the galley and
spreading. This was alarming to quote a bad pun. Opening the door into the
bridge deck electrical locker revealed a nasty smell of chlorine. Things were
going from bad to worse. They then went from worse to extremely
worrying as the lid to the battery box was lifted, where more chlorine
smells were emanating, like a school physics experiment gone wrong. Checking the
voltage which should have been around 12.8v we found it only 12.2
and getting lower. We had a major battery problem on our hands in the
middle of the night. A careful check showed number 2 house battery was seriously
overheating. In fact the terminal post temperature was over 55 degrees, whereas
the other house batteries had a normal 30 degrees reading. Not being sure whether the battery would catch fire or
explode, Phil quickly isolated all 3 battery banks and completely
disconnected the problem battery to cut off the power it was
deriving from the other 4 batteries in the domestic bank. It was decided to
leave the battery where it was and let it cool down over night so that it could
be removed the next morning. Then the torrential rain started, making the night
seem just a little more miserable.
Have secured the situation we went back to bed at
about 0230 hrs to get what sleep we could before making a required early
departure from the berth. We laid in bed blessing the CO alarms - they had
already repaid their cost, yet we could never have anticipated the
circumstances they would sound their warning under. Anybody with a boat
without alarms - have them fitted. It's cheaper than the possible alternatives!!
But why did it happen we kept asking ourselves. |