WELL….. We’re still here in Sarah Creek, just off the York River in Virginia…. Tom and Marylou Stano, (s/v Dalmatian) is here… and YES…. It’s MID-November and we’re still in Chesapeake Bay !!!
They (Tom and Marylou) have been a “God-send” with respect to obtaining parts, and things that have broken or failed on the AB…. I guess the town is called Glouster Point VA….Not very large, but seems to have most everything needed… (groceries; NAPA; O’Reilly’s; Walmart… etc.)
Our printer failed… so we bought a new one… This time we went with Epson, and the INK bottles, instead of ‘cartridges’…. I did not know that the cartridges have an expiration date built into some sort of ‘firmware’…. SO… not only do they dry out and fail…the expire and fail…. Anyway… we went with an Epson 2720…. NICE!
Yesterday… when we had sort of Planned to leave… I could not get the gasket area on the Perkins to seal… so Tom drove me to O’Reilly’s Auto parts for new Permatex gasket maker… (it’s on there now, and curing)… Also they had several A-27 batteries, for which we’ve been looking for weeks… It’s the only battery that fits the remote control unit for the new Diesel Heater we purchased and installed during the summer.
So… today is TEST day for the Perkins… Here’s hoping the gasket stuff works… I am tired of working on that cooling system… Need some rest from that… and we have to get moving …… It’s getting cold up here on the Bay… Need to get SOUTH…
We’ve had a few days of REALLY hard winds….(same storm that blew through almost the entire east coast…) Steady 20’s (knots) with Gusts near 40 knots… Anyway, the bottom on this creek, must be MUSH… Black, soft MUSH… because, as good as our Manson Supreme anchor IS…. It let AB slowly (very slowly) drag across the Harbor (creek), and toward shore… Now normally, that’s not earth shaking…. Just POWER UP; move forward; pick up the ‘HOOK’; and reset where you want… : BUT……………. When the main engine is APART…and has no coolant in it…things get a little more EXCITING !
AND we were getting really close to shore… depth sounder was showing 6 feet… we need 5’-3” to float; So Susan and I secured the dinghy to the starboard side of the AB…. And used it for power… pushed AB forward… (Susan at helm; me running back and forth from the anchor windlass to the dinghy throttle); retrieved the anchor, and moved to the center of the harbor…. I’m sure that folks were wondering what the heck was going on… (anchoring, and docking are always a “spectator sport”)…
Anyway… we gained about 3 feet in depth, and are well away from the shore now… so we slept well…

BUT…………………. And here’s the BIG but… We were planning on leaving either late on Tuesday, or very early wedesday… Tuesday morning the Generator (which charges the batteries) quit, on “HIGH TEMP Alarm”…. (at this point can you SAY “paranoid” of high temp alarms ???)…

Anyway, I immediately found and cleared a bunch of pine needles in the Generator Raw Water Filter…. Ah HA…. Problem solved!!! ???? NOPE!!! Debris cleared and it still shuts down on “High TEMP”… with a very “throaty” sound to the exhaust…. (NOW…. From previous experience with this Northern Lights Generator… that means to me a CLOGGED MIXING ELBOW – TOO MUCH CARBON… because of the way we use it…. (Lightly loaded))…. But the mysterious thing is why the two things happened simultaneously…. Debris in raw water filter AND clog (??? )….
So…………what to do ?? I put coolant in the main engine…. So we’d at least have power to move…. And charge the batteries with the PERKINS…
OK…that worked fine…. Running for over an hour…. SO……………….. then I called the marina…to see if they had a slip that would hold AB while I took apart the Generator….(to get to the mixing elbow…)
I did NOT WANT TO DO THAT WHILE FLOATING IN THE HARBOR! It would be nice to have fresh water from hose BIBB… and security for the AB WHILE the generator was apart….. SO, I called the York River Yacht Haven…. They were very nice…. And did have a slip….. (but NO dock hands…..AND just in that calling HOUR the winds picked up to 15 Knots, with gusts much higher…. (and it would be an OFF-DOCK wind)…. WELL……. This had all the ear-marks of a true “spectator event”…. We called Tom and Marylou on s/v Dalmatian…. OK… they would come and catch lines…. Because with these winds this was going to BE a ONE-SHOT approach…. Then ‘sh_t-show’!!!!!
WE made it… they (Tom and Marylou were great!!! No dock hands from marina… (that sucked))… We’re secure, and I started work on the Generator….
We’re plugged in (dock power)…. We have WATER at the hose BIBB… and work is started….
SO……………. At $2.00 per foot plus taxes, and electric charges… it amounts to about $96/ day here…. NOT cheap to stay at marinas….. (which is why we rarely do this….. but in this case…. Hardly any choice)!!

It’s been exciting few days… (Perkins with no coolant  waiting for Permatex to cure (which it DID)… Generator quitting…. Moving anchor by dinghy power…. LET’s just Pray that the remainder of the trip South is “BORING”….

GOOD news about vaccines….. and a light at the end of this 2020 Tunnel !!!!