Bronze Hold Down Bolt Bites The Dust

We're getting closer...

In the weeks since our last update, Céilí has been steadily moving northward. I'm not sure why we haven't been motivated to do regular updates but I suspect it's the sense of being back over old ground with nothing new to report.

That having been said, Céilí is now in Baltimore, tied up on the face dock of the Anchorage Marina where we stayed in the fall. Along the way we made stops at:

Georgia
Brunswick (also the site of a cellulose plant but not as bad as Fernandina)
Darien River (the Little Mud River requires lots of planning)
Savannah, GA;

South Carolina
Beaufort
Charleston
Georgetown
Myrtle Beach

North Carolina...which remains my least favorite stretch of the ICW

Carolina Beach, NC (where 10 or 12 public moorings have been installed since our last stay there)
Snead's Ferry (barely more than a fuel dock)
Beaufort
Oriental
Belhaven (the Belhaven Waterway Marina was great find)
Columbia
Coinjock

On our passage through Swansboro, NC we were once again treated to a "courtesy safety inspection" by the Coast Guard. We'd heard boats ahead of us being hailed so we knew that there was a distinct possilbility that we could also be in their gunsights. And it was pretty clear that they'd been doing inspections for a couple of days...one skipper ahead of us, when asked when was he last boarded replied, "Yesterday!"

In anticipation of the inflatable with the blue flashing light pulling along side and being asked, "Captain, when was the last time you were boarded for a Coast Guard safety inspection?", I dug out the "canary yellow" sheet from our previous boarding in Newport so we'd have the exact date at our finger tips. Despite my immediate response they weren't impressed one little bit.

Even when your boat is thoroughly up to snuff, the procedure is still a little intimidating. But this inspection was much easier and less intensive than the prior one. It seemed to us that it was more of a training exercise rather than a full monty kind of inspection. As before, all who came aboard were unfailingly pleasant and polite. Among the things they wanted to see were our documentation papers, the overboard discharge plaques, our distress signalling devices, fire extinguishers, overboard discharge valve, and our flotation devices. As everything was in compliance, all was well. They handed us our inspection report, which now looks like a grocery store receipt, and were off to board the next boat.

In the course of the inspection however, we learned something about pfd's. When asked to produce ours, I pulled out our SOSpenders (which Bill has tricked out with all kinds of extra safety and signalling devices) only to be told that they didn't qualify as we weren't wearing them at the time of the inspection. Did we have any of the orange ones? I pulled out the bag of orange type 1 pfd's from the lazarette, where it was buried beneath the generator, life raft, fenders, etc. and that satisfied them. I briefly toyed with asking why the orange vests, that weren't being worn at the time of inspection were somehow better than SOSpenders that weren't being worn, but wisely chose to let the question go unasked.

Virginia
Chesapeake (at the Top Rack Marina which improbably has the best restaurant we encountered on the ICW called the Amber Lantern, where you can eat your dock fee)
Yorktown (the York River has a significant current, ask us sometime how we know)
Deltaville

Maryland
Solomons
Annapolis
Baltimore

Our transit this time across the Chesapeake from Norfolk was very pleasant, unlike the somewhat harrowing one last fall. At the mouth of Potomac we encountered a large number of fishing boats, of all sizes spread out in all directions, towing things off their sterns. Turns out that they were trolling for stripers, also known as rockfish, using umbrella rigs, something we'd never seen before. Turns out, 'rockfish are king' in Maryland. They take rockfishing very seriously around there.

Our planned one night stay at Solomons became five due to small craft advisories on the Bay and a small problem with the engine raw water strainer. On the morning we planned to leave, when Bill went to check the strainer basket as usual, one of the bolts that secures the strainer lid broke off. He was able to retrieve it from the bilge where it had fallen but, but since the hole at the bottom of the bolt had worn through, it couldn't be replaced. And, without the bolt to secure the lid the engine, for all intents and purposes, was disabled. It's always the little things that get ya.

Once again, fortune smiled on us. We were staying at Zahniser's Marina, a full service boatyard. As soon as the office opened, Bill went up to explain the situation and see what kind of assistance we could get. He was told that the next morning the work boat would tow Céilí to the service dock and that a mechanic would be over shortly there after. I have to admit, after years of dealing with the 'marine (lack of) service industry' I had my doubts about how it would all go.

Amazingly, Monday morning the work boat showed up right on time and, shortly after we were tied up to the dock, Bill E., the mechanic, made an appearance. He took a quick look at things and left saying he'd see what he could come up with. Within an hour, he was back with an exact replica of the broken piece which he'd fabricated in his machine shop. He pinned it in place and we were back in business. Zahniser's gets all thumbs up from us.

That brings us pretty much up to date. For the next couple of days the forecast for the Delaware Bay and New Jersey coastline look unfavorable so we'll wait and see how things develop.