Kaimusailing

The electric pump was now running on shore power, but I couldn't sleep soundly, I kept getting up, checking that it was running, then trying to get back to sleep. It was now Tuesday morning and my plan was to get the rental car from the state park, go to the motel room, check out, come back and get reorganized on Kaimu.
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The dockmaster was on duty and I paid up the steep slip fee, in advance a few days, and let him know I wasn't sure when I could leave, but I had called a boatyard to arrange for a haul out. I was concerned because they didn't call me back. Maybe that highly desired next step wasn't available. The dockmaster heard me talk about going up to the state park to get the car and he said it was only a mile up the road. That gave me the idea to ride the bike up there, no need to wait for a taxi or the car rental place to open.
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I assembled the bike and pumped up the tires. It was about 20 after 7 in the morning and I rode through a very pretty town. It was more than a mile to the park, but a nice ride anyway. At the park entrance they knew me and said the ranger was at the maintenance facility where the car was. It was very nice riding through the park. It is scenic and no hills. It was about 3 miles inside the park when I came to the car. The park superintendent was there, Ben, and I said to him, "This park is so nice, I even come here on my day off."
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We loaded the car with the rest of my gear that had come off the boat. They wanted to know how I got the boat off the beach. I am very much indebted to them for all their help.
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So, it was bitter sweet to be done with the park and the rangers, heading to the marina. When I got there the dockmaster said he was concerned that if I lost power for any reason, Kaimu was in 26 feet of water, at low tide, and would sink at his dock. I didn't think that would happen, but I said that I had planned to check out of my motel room, he said fine, we have to wait for mid-tide anyway.
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I drove up to Kingsland and loaded the car with all the stuff that I had taken off Kaimu on Sunday. It was a lot. I paid the bill after showering and made sure I didn't forget my Hawaiian shirts. Back at the marina, it was time to move Kaimu.
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The motor was reluctant to start, but it finally kicked over. Having a good battery charger with a boost function to start the motor really helped out. Out into the current and wind, which weren't that bad, it was like a hot air balloon rushing away when the tethers are untied. How was I going to get back to the dock and into the new slip they had for me?
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I was going against the current, which helped my hit or miss steering, I was going diagonally to the wind, which made things interesting. The dockmaster had run all the way around the marina, because the new slip was just across a small channel from the main dock, so he had to run all the way down the main dock, to the shore, and out to the new slip. He still beat me by a long way. I was drifting this way and that, almost in random fashion, but my goal was to get inside the main dock, then get to that new slip. When I got inside the main dock, the current was still having an effect, but the wind was less. I began to glide down the inside of the main dock away from the new slip. There were also some very nice boats crowding the channel. It was a lot of work to keep away from damaging them, and get to the slip, but I ended up getting one bow near enough for the dockmaster to receive the bow line. We tied up and he plugged the power in. No power. Uh oh. He said he knew what the problem was. He ran off again and after a long while returned with a huge extension cord to draw power further up the dock. The pump began surging again with all the water that came in during the shift in dock spaces.
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Behind Kaimu was docked a very peculiar vessel. The dockmaster said it was the same guy who asked me all those questions in the dockhouse. The vessel was a Grumman canoe with a rough wooden frame all around, various batteries, a tent like shelter, some rough foam floats at the gunwales, and rough wooden oars. When I later talked to the owner, he said he got a lot of attention from the tourists and they all took pictures of him. He lived on another boat in the harbor and rowed out to it with his "Waterworld" boat.
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I was now stowing gear on board Kaimu. I also was making a laundry list. All the bedding that had previously been swamped by seawater on the trip to Georgetown, washed and dried there, now had to be washed and dried again, because the portlight that had given way back then had now given way again after its repair. This time it was broken in half. The new dock space was closer to the laundry than the original one. I shuttled back and forth. I found there was a Captain's Lounge next to the laundry with a good computer and internet.
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I found that the water coming into Kaimu's starboard hull was not that big of a leak, but there was evidence of the hull being almost completely submerged. Everything was wet, and beach sand, pasta burst out of cardboard boxes, tissues from a box of tissues and a roll of paper towels, some articles of clothing, a full kettle of bolognese sauce, a pan of chili, and everthing else that was in the galley including all those spice jars, so neatly lined up at the back of the galley counter, all were down int the bilges, in the shelves, in the bunk, along with sodden mattresses.
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The electric pump could not fit right down in the bilges, it was pumping from a recess that got water draining over the galley sole. And it was not that big of a leak. A good DC bilge pump would take care of it and fit right down to the bottom of the bilge. I ran out and found one at Wal-mart, along with a pair of jumper cables to power it from the engine battery. Now we were using shore power to charge a battery that was feeding the pump instead of powering a big AC pump. Now the bilges were empty, the boat was higher on its lines. I slept better.
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But not for long. I returned the rental car. The boatyard had returned my call and needed confirmation of liability insurance which required more phone time. The Captain's Lounge computer helped. I prepared the boat to leave the marina the following morning.
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When I closed out the bill, the dockmaster was tallying up a relatively big charge. I appealed to him, I'm an old poor man. He said he was right behind me, as he was close to retirement himself. He reduced the bill by almost a third. Senior discount.
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Fernandina Beach Marina is quite nice, and the town is nice, the park is nice, I was sad to leave, but I had to, Kaimu needed to be repaired.
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The picture is from the marina Captain's Lounge.