06/26/2008, Charleston,S.C.
Well, I guess this is the final update or log to be added to this blog for awhile.If we are able boat wise and money wise to leave here in Nov. I will start it again.I did not keep excellent records like my friend Duane did so I cant post how many miles,gallons,hours,etc.It may be better that I dont know. I do know that it was a great adventure but a very expensive one for us.Will take some time to recover.We dont have "real job's" like a lot of you but are on a monthly fixed income.This morning(Thursday) my dear-dear friend Rob aka #1, came to the rescue and arrive at the boat with chain fall and slings in hand. In a hour and a half,we had the engine in the back of his truck tied down and ready to come back to Charleston. We are back home in Charleston and the Perkins engine is in the garage.Now the next step is locating another motor to put in the boat and get it back to Charleston.Another friend has suggested taking his boat down to Ga. and pulling the Chiqui back to Charleston. So thats another option.But what ever happens,its going to be a busy hot summer.I have posted some pictures on the blog under Waterway trip of the engine being removed.I hope every one has a great summer.Vern&Rose
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06/26/2008 | Marie (KMG629 att gmail dott com)
I just love reading your blog. I would like to introduce you to a fantastic book that will help you pass the time while you wait for your boat to get running again! Try checking out the following site: http://www.chasingsunsetsthebook.com/
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06/27/2008 | capt clark justice (clarkjr att tds dott net)
final response to the blog. glad u r back in charlie town with the frozen engine. good luck on finding a replacement. holler if u need anything.
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06/24/2008, one mile north, Kilkenny Marina
Well here we are (at the moment, Tuesday 10:30am) anchored in the middle of the intercoastal waterway with a frozen engine,waiting on good old Sea Tow. I guess that I need to start at the beginning which would be yesterday morning at 8am. To begin with, our "Buddy Boat" left the anchorage about 15 minutes before us and took off like he was going to put out a fire somewhere and we haven't seen or heard from him since. When we went to crank the engine it wouldn't do anything. We radioed Dreamer to tell him and he gave some suggestions that might help start the engine, but nothing worked. Then I thought it must be the starter was bad, so I called a friend, Steve Ross who lives about a hour away, and asked him if he would pick up a starter for me and bring it down here to the boondocks. He said that he would and after about two hours he was here with the new starter. We took it back to the Chiqui and after as much trouble putting in the new starter as taking out the old one, we tried to crank the engine again. Nothing! Still wouldn't do anything. So,since I'm not a electrical starter engineer, I called my friend in Charleston who knows more about starters than I do. He said that it sounded like the solenoid was not getting power to it. So I took some small piece of wire with alligator clips and jumped 12 volts to the starter switch and it started! It wouldn't start by just the switch but at least I could start it this way. Now to go back to the starter removal, along with catching hell taking out the three bolts that hold it in place, I had to disconnect two oil lines that were right behind the starter so they could be removed. This is where the oil filter was at one time but the oil filter had been moved to a different spot and these were the line connecting it to the engine. Like an idiot, I did not mark which line went where. There were only two lines,right? Besides I didn't think that it would really matter which line went where. I thought that it would flow no matter how they were connected. So I started the engine the next morning (today) and checked the oil pressure. It was right up there at 60 pounds. Everything sounded great, so off we went to continue our journey. After about a half mile the engine started making an awful noise. I looked down and the oil pressure was still at 60 pounds and the temp. was normal. As I went to pull the throttle back it just shut down. At this point I went down and checked the engine oil stick. Plenty of oil! At this point I thought it best to call my dear friend in Charleston, David, who works for Superior Diesel and ask him about the hose connections. He said that he knew someone who had done the same thing by reversing the lines and locked up his engine. He said that there was a check valve that would not allow oil to flow thru the engine if they were connected backwards, but would show oil pressure on the gauge. I told him that I was going to try to see if I could swap the lines the right way and then see if I could get it started again. So after putting the lines on the correct way, I tried to crank the engine. It would turn a little then stop. I took jumper cables and jumped my house battery bank to my starting battery and tried it again. This time it turned faster but still wouldn't start. I got Rose to spray a little carb. cleaner in the air intake while I tried to start it and after a few tries it finally started. I thought we were saved. That didn't last long. I noticed that what once was 60+pounds of oil pressure was now 35! I called Dave back and he said that if it was running,to go ahead and try and nurse it back to Charleston. After going about a mile in the waterway the temp. started to go higher and higher and the engine RPM's would go up and down and the oil pressure kept dropping until it finally just died! I called sea-tow and if you would ever want to see an example of adding insult to injury, this it it. Today is June 24 and my sea-tow expired on June 22!!! But let me put in a GREAT word for sea-tow. The operator called the main office and after noting that I have been a member for 11 years, they let me renew right then so that I would be covered by this tow. What a relief! So he towed us back here to Kilkenny Marina where we now sit trying to figure out our next move. None of the possibilties are great. I know the engine is shot and has to come out. I know that I need to find a replacement. Dave said that it would cost too much to rebuild this one. It would be cheaper if I can find a used one. I don't have any idea yet what it's going to cost to stay tied up here at this marina for maybe a month. So a lot of questions and not many answers at this point. More later. I'm going to go and try to find a high bridge!!!
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06/24/2008 | Duane Ising (duane dott ising att comcast dott net)
Oh, man, Vern!!! That is horrible. As soon as I started reading about not remembering which line was which, I kinda knew and feared where the story was going. I don't know what to say excpet good luck.
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06/24/2008 | cuz Mike (mroumillat att comcast dott net)
Ha Vern, looks like the old Roumillat luck has struck again. Wish you all the luck in the world to find another engine real soon.
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06/24/2008 | Bob (newbobmexico att juno dott com)
Yo Vern,
Bad news indeed. The only thing that comes to mind would be to post a thread on the cruisersforum.com , when I used to be on there, there were several folks that specialized in Perkins. As for the Roumillat "curse" .... well? you did get 2 good crossings! Bob |
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06/25/2008 | Norman & Barbara (quinnn att bellsouth dott net)
Hi Vern, Seems to me you are fairly close to Thunderbolt, GA where you could get towed and hauled. Our friends on Bonnie Lass replaced their engine there last year. If you can get online you might find a used engine or the folks at Thunderbolt might help you find a suitable replacement. In any event, we are so sorry to hear of your dilemna. I couldn't think of a worse place to get stuck on the ICW than Kilkenny. Even though the folks at the marina are wonderful, the nearest town is miles away. We wish you better luck in the future and maybe we will get to see you on the way up. We should be leaving S. FL. very soon.
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06/25/2008 | capt clark justice (clarkjr att tds dott net)
man what a bummer, looks like this could be a serious fix. charleston is not that far down the road, but when u r broke down it is really far away. anything we can do from this end, please let us know. what type of engine?
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06/25/2008 | Nancee (nancee413 att aol dott com)
Man, you guys have the worst luck! Glad you're such troopers! You just keep on keepin' on!
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06/22/2008, Kilkenny Creek,Ga.
Well if I had know before hand how bad the fishing would be here we would not have stayed a extra day.We got our live shrimp and rod's and reel's and went up the creek aways and tried our luck at fishing.Some of you may remember that we stopped here last Nov. and went trout fishing and caught 10 in less than 15 minutes! We would catch one as soon as the bait hit the water. Well that was Nov. and this is June and the trout must have taken a vacation.Not a bite all day.We tried mid day and then again in the afternoon.And we also have had back to back storms while here.Yesterday at 3:30,today at 5:30. Other than the time difference and the fact that we didn't get any hail today the rest was the same.Poured down rain for a couple of hours.I'm only going to try an make 25-30 mile days so that we can get anchored early before these storms hit.Should get home by Thursday or Friday.Could make it sooner but we're in no hurry.Was glad to hear that Duane and Diane got back home safe after there four month cruise.I wanted to stay in the Abaco a little longer than we did,but it will be good to get back home.Its going to take a week just to clean the boat up.Tomorrow night should be our last night in Ga. I never have liked cruising thru Ga. Not sure why,just haven't.Well, thats about it for now.Take care.
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06/23/2008 | capt clark justice (clarkjr att tds dott net)
Its strange how fish will be there then gone, A lot of things have changed since Nov. I know the non catch day was a downer. Keep the faith and watch out for the nasty weather the rest of the way home.
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06/23/2008 | cuz Mike (mroumillat att comcast dott net)
On the fishing, it looks like the old Roumillat luck! I hope you don't have any more storms and happy sails away.
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06/22/2008, Kilkenny Creek,Ga.
We pulled up anchor at Back Creek and started our 38 mile run to Kilkenny Creek.We have anchored there before,in fact that is where we caught all those trout last Nov.About a hour before getting here we saw in the distant,what looked like a dark cloud and we could hear thunder. I turned on the radar and it showed a lot of rain about 12 miles away.As we kept traveling north,the dark cloud kept getting closer.By the time we turned off the waterway to go to our anchorage(about a mile up the creek)you could feel (what felt like) a 10 degree drop in temperature.Lenny was about 10 minutes behind us at this point.The storm was on top of us,but still no rain.Lenny decided to stop and drop his anchor before it hit. I was only about a eighth of a mile from where I wanted to anchor so I kept going hoping that I would make it before it really hit us. It started to rain lightly just as we stopped the boat and I went to put the anchor out. I put out 95 feet of chain and about 20 feet of line and after making sure it was set I went below and shut the hatch. Rose had already taken in all the cushions from the cockpit. Just as I got below the bottom fell out! It rained so hard that you couldn't see anything outside.About five minutes into the storm it started to hail.What came down were about the size of marbles.We looked out the window and it was a sight seeing them hit the water.At about this same time the wind blew one of our dinghy chairs into a support for the bimini top and broke it.I couldn;t see if we were dragging anchor or not but had faith in my 60# CQR and all that chain.The really bad part of this storm only lasted about 20 minutes but it kept raining hard for the next three hours.Lenny and I were just talking that morning how lucky we had been on our entire trip with the weather.Ever since leaving Marathon three months ago this is the first time we have had a storm hit us and we we able to get anchored before it hit.If this had hit two hours earlier we would have been in the middle of a sound with no place to go.The internet air card is on the border line here. Can get conneted but its real slow and will disconnect often.Of course this place is out in the middle of no where.We will try to dry out things tonight and will spend all day tomorrow here trying our luck at fishing again.If we catch any I will put picture on blog when I get somewhere that it wont take a hour to send it.Been a long day. Good night John Boy.
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06/20/2008, Back River,Ga.
We left Jeykll Island this morning at 9am.It was a pleasant day,sunny and hot with a light breeze now and then to help keep you cooler.This part of the waterway in Ga. is just a mass of range markers and winding creeks thru the marsh.We made the 33 mile run and arrived at back creek at 2:30pm.Lenny got here about a hour later.Lenny and I got in his dinghy with my cast net and went out looking for some fishing shrimp.After much casting we finally had a little over a dozen in the bait bucket.We came back to the Chiqui to get the rod's ready and at the moment Lenny and Rose are in his dinghy trying to catch some fish for supper.I didn't go because of limited room in the dinghy and because I want to catch up on some internet things before it got too late.We have one other power boat anchored here with us.If they catch anything I will post the picture on the blog tomorrow.Take care.
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06/21/2008 | capt clark justice (clarkjr att tds dott net)
I got faith in fm rose and her fishing abilities. You might as well get the grease in the pan, I see trout and bass in the near future. All y ou need Vern is the side dish and a sharp fillet knife. (ps catfish may be the 3 rd choice)
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06/21/2008 | Duane Ising (duane dott ising att comcast dott net)
We're back home, Vern and Rose, and catching up on lots of stuff after almost 4 months cruising. We'll keep up with your return via this blog. Stay safe and keep having fun. Say hi to Lenny for us.
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06/19/2008, Jekell Island,Ga.
We had a great weather day again today(havent had any rain while moving since we left Marathon)and arrived here a Jekell Harbor Marina about 1:30pm.This is one of our two marina stops on the trip,the other being Seven Seas Marina in Daytona,Fl.We have gone to the food store,got fuel and water here at the marina(diesel $5.29 gallon) and since we are pluged into electric we have the A/C running.We just got back from eating the "all you can eat" frogmore stew at the Sea Jay Resturant here at the marina.I dont think that I will need to eat again for two days! We will be leaving in the morning heading ever closer to Charleston,one mile at a time.
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