Bruadar Sailors

Using slack tide to our advantage we motored in and anchored at Charleston’s City Marina the following morning. The winds had died down and after a good night’s sleep and in ideal conditions it was ‘easy cheesy’. We called Pam and Ino to let them know we were good to go! The question was, “now what?”

Ebeth and I talked things over and even though we did not want the ‘Babymoon’ to end, it was clear to us that it was already over. I set about looking the boat over to evaluate the extent of our maintenance problems. After about an hour I came up with the following list:

1. Stern Tube leaking steady but under control (about 20 drops a minute)?
2. Bilge pump switch sticking on (better that the off position)?
3. Engine water pump bearing getting loose (but the engine was not overheating yet)?
4. Depth Sounder still not working (but heading up the ICW was starting to look like a good idea)?
5. How tall is our mast?
6. Still do not have a fuel gage for either tank?

Ebeth needed to head home and look after herself and our unborn baby. She was not happy, but being seasick 24/7 was not much fun either. Ino had volunteered to help me crew and I felt confident that after a short offshore voyage around Cape Hatteras we would have no problems heading up the Chesapeake Bay. Ino had just completed this trip last season. He was a true ‘Old Salt’ of the North Sea and nothing ever phased him when he was at the helm of a sailboat!

I got on the phone and ordered a new water pump from Bob Smith at American Diesel. I also e-mailed several other Formosa 51 owners that we met through the Owner’s Association Website, http://www.force50.org/ (now defunct), to ask advice on our stern tube dilemma. A trip to West Marine should buy us the parts to fix the depth sounder, no worries?

We had a plan in place as Pam and Ino walked down the dock to welcome us to Charleston. Something was not quite right, Ino would walk about 30-40 feet and then sit down. He assured me that all was fine, he just slept on the wrong side of the bed last night. After a short visit Pam and Ino were on their way home and I had to get to work on my short to do list.

Ebeth and I hopped in the car Pam and Ino had left us and headed to West Marine to buy some repair parts. We bought a new bilge pump switch, battery charger (it was on sale and ours got fried back in FL, oops), some underwater epoxy (to repair the stern tube) and a depth sounder that we hoped would match the transducer already mounted in Bruadar’s hull. What do they say B-O-A-T stands for; Break-Out-Another-Thousand? We felt luck that we only spent $600.- on this visit, ouch! When we returned to the boat I jumped down in the engine room and got to work. As dinnertime rolled around the bilge pump switch and depth sounder had been fixed. We had also received several e-mails from the owners association on repair options for the stern tube. Things were looking up so Ebeth and I went out to dinner.

Later that evening we received a call from our friend Pam. It appears that Ino had done a little bit more than sleep on the wrong side of the bed. The day before we arrived Ino was stepping the mast on his 22 foot trailer-sailor. As the mast was just about into position Ino slipped and fell off the bow of the boat onto the parking lot six feet below. He did not tell Pam about it until after he saw us. Ino was embarrassed and thought he would be fine in a few hours, but as it turned out he had cracked a few vertebrate and would be laid up for a few weeks. It is now late in the evening on Saturday the 5th of May. With Ebeth heading home and Ino out of commission I needed to find crew if Bruadar was going to leave Charleston, SC.