At Norfolk and now even wetter
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Tue 6 Aug 2013 20:51
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In position 36:50.80N, 076:18.00W Warning - not to be read over a good meal - or any meal
come to that!
Just checked the calendar - yes, it's definitely early August
but this morning, after spending a pleasant evening devouring fish and chips of
the oven variety we awoke to skies just itching to dump tons of water over
everybody beneath them. Well, go ahead then, we don't care. Just another
woe in the tale of woes since leaving Oriental last Friday.
Apart from the weather (which to be honest we shouldn't really
complain about but being British comes to us naturally as a birthright) we have
the small matter of a grounding last Sunday whilst navigating a slight bend on
the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal. The lead up to this event is roughly as
follows with 'Skip' on the helm....
Admiral to Skip..... "Have you got that tree
stump sticking up out of the water to your right?"
Skip..... "YES! I have seen that tree and I have a
small barge ahead of me, it's a bit tight and there's crab pots to
port"
10 secs later...
Ajaya..... "Bang, crash, wallop, bounce, another
wallop and a thud" (abbreviated version)
Admiral to Skip...... "!!!%***£££$$$$$ !!!! ....what
shall we do?" (polite version)
Skip to Admiral..... "Go forward while we try and
reverse off"....................
Well, without drawing this little drama out we did manage to
get off to our utter relief. With no apparent damage to the boat
(inside) that we can see attributing to the grounding - but careless all
the same. This little contretemps with the bottom signalled the start of more
misery to come. For instance a night of minor terror at the
Little Alligator River anchorage having negotiated 3 million crab pots getting
into the river mouth. Then finding our two charting systems onboard disagreed as
to the exact location of a reported wreck in the channel with the nearest
alternative anchorage five miles away. Meanwhile, the nasty thunderstorm
that welcomed us into the area moved off the coast to make room for another
one that was queuing up in it's wake to terrorise us during the evening. But, at
least we were in a good spot to get across the notorious Albemarle Sound early
the next morning before the wind was due to shift into the north later in the
day. HA! In fact to say the next day was not enjoyable for Ajaya's
crew would be like saying that General Custer had an
unfortunate skirmish with a few Indians at Little Big
Horn!
So the next morning we were up with the lark and underway
across the Albemarle Sound when the 'Admiral' spotted lots of steam coming out
of the exhaust on the port engine. In fact there was steam from both as it was a
slightly cooler morning. A check on the cooling water exiting with the exhaust
revealed there wasn't much water to be seen so the port engine was shut down for
investigation. We continued on starboard because the breeze had now already
clocked into the north about eight hours earlier than had been predicted and so
was more of a nuisance than a help.
The port engine was definitely out of sorts so the raw water
pump was pulled off to ascertain the condition of the impellor. Apart from
one lobe of the impellor being about to detach itself there was no real
reason for so little water being pumped through. The impellor was replaced with
a new one and refitted to the engine but still the condition prevailed. The
intake hose was detached from the pump and lowered below sea level which should
produce a frightening amount of water ingress but there was very little flow. So
it was definitely a blockage then. We continued limping across the
Albemarle hoping the starboard engine wouldn't give up the ghost either. It
didn't and we anchored just off the ICW channel south of Buck Island where we've
stopped before. Skip figured the cooling water intake on the saildrive leg was
gummed up from two months sitting idle whilst busy little barnacles did their
stuff. Or maybe a jellyfish had committed suicide by loitering by the intake
just waiting for the moment the engine would be started. Either way it was a
trip into the murky water to see what was going on.
'See' turned to 'feel' as the ICW water clarity in this part
of the system is to be likened to scuba diving in a vat of strong Indian tea.
The tannin content reduces visibility to virtually zero, well let's say 5 inches
which was where 'Skip' lost sight of his hand in front of the mask as he
descended into the abyss (not really an abyss as we were only in eight foot of
water!). Groping under the hull to find the port drive leg was somewhat
disconcerting but after a while and knowing where everything was situated the
leg was found adorned with barnacles which started to succumb to the plastic
scraper. 'Skip' cleared the holes on both sides of the leg and hoped that would
do the trick. Meanwhile the 'Admiral' was on the satphone to home - usual Sunday
routines to be followed regardless of course - we're British you know!
'Skip' surfaced to see if he could hear words like 'idiot' and 'liability' being
mentioned but could hear neither so re-submerged and continued to take the day's
frustrations out on the resident barnacle population. Both saildrive legs
were cleared around the water intakes and the props were also scraped clean as
they were heavy with growth. One barnacle did cause minor wounds to 'Skip's' leg
but otherwise it was a 'home win' for the Ajaya crew.
Whilst underwater it was time to try and clear the blocked
holding tank line to sea which had been bunged up since Mexico. This was a
delicate operation as 'Skip' would insert a length of wire into the through-hull
fitting and thread it as far as possible towards the blockage. Then
if and when something ghastly began to head in his direction signifying the
blockage having been cleared three loud taps on the hull would signify the wire
had been withdrawn enough to close the seacock (as of course it's not
permitted to pollute any of the USA waters we are navigating through). Also
'Skip' didn't fancy being immersed in a cloud of 'you know what'. Well, nothing
happened meaning the blockage was quite substantial and had probably called up
reserves from the tank so as to 'hold the line' during the unwanted prodding
from without! So diving operations ceased (with the loss of one diving fin!) but
at least the port engine water intake was now hopefully clear?
No it wasn't, as precisely no water came out of the intake
pipe when removed from the strainer. So, having just used the air pump for
diving ops it was now used to blow through the intake line so as to blow any
jellyfish or whatever out of the system. After a few tries lots of air could be
heard bubbling from under the boat as if there was a Buster Crabbe memorial
service taking place. So success was claimed. But the holding tank blockage
was still a nagging itch to be scratched and so, adorned with multiple pairs of
rubber gloves 'Skip' proceeded to attack the outlet pipe in the tank with
the wire prodder. Still no movement but it was now more obvious as to where the
blockage was and there was only one thing to be done - disconnect the pipe from
that area in the starboard engine compartment and stand well clear. The
'Admiral' retired to the cockpit with a good book as the hose clamps were slowly
unscrewed......the pipe slowly prised apart.....bucket at the ready.....GUSH,
all over the engine compartment. What a mess said Pooh Bear to Piglet.
Well, we put all that 'stuff' straight back into the
holding tank (due to USA regulations of course) and we'll bid it all farewell at
the next pump out station.
Monday dawned bright and clear. A beautiful 'good
to be alive' sunny morning as we started engines to head towards Norfolk. Anchor
up, underway, wait a minute, the port engine's not putting out any water! Out
with the 'Cousteau' air pump, blow down the intake line, just a
few bubbles but nothing more as we proceed once again on one engine as
'Skip' rigs up a bypass for the cooling water using the nearby port heads intake
valve. Success, we now have a working port engine but only one working head so
need to coordinate matters in the mornings for a while and re-dive the leg when
the water visibility is at 'Jasmine Tea' strength somewhere in the
Chesapeake. Things can only get better now we're in Norfolk and yes those skies
did dump copious amounts of water as we negotiated the various bridges along the
way.
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