Kaimusailing

I spent two days at anchor and didn’t go ashore again. There was plenty to do, stow away stuff from on deck, monitor the solar charging by turning off the inverter when the sun gets clouded, bag the genoa, set up the sef-tending club boom for the jib and hank the jib on the inner forestay. I checked all the shackles and turnbuckles and moused them, I guess I left that job for another day, which is now.
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I also read part way through Love in the Time of Cholera. It was no longer hot as hell but I still took breaks from time to time. On the second day when I had nearly everything stowed and ready to go it was half tide ebbing with a nice East wind. I tried to haul the dinghy aboard and failed. I have to make a harness for it and use a halyard. I started the engine and brought the anchor up short, then powered it out. 50 horsepower.
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I ran the engine just above idle and followed the current out the North River. We were doing 5 knots aided by the current but dropped to about 4 on the legs of the winding river that ran into the wind. Just before leaving the North River we got stuck in the mud, but we were in the channel according to the chart and the GPS. These things change when big storms move the shoals. I was in the process of refilling the little day tank that I was running the engine on, so I continued filling it, then used that 50 hp to forcible move the vessel in any direction it would go. There had to be a channel somewhere. We were free of the mud and continued on into the St. Marys River and were going East to Cumberland Sound aided by the current but bucking the breeze.
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Once into the sound I could line up the marks to head out into the ocean. We were running economically on fuel. The sails were ready to be hoisted. Just a matter of time before we made it out to open sea.
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There was a funny sound from the engine and I was surprised to see it tilted back up, although I did not hit the button to bring it up. When I pushed the button to bring it back down nothing happened, but when I released it I could hear the little hydraulic motor that runs the engine up and down. Something must have shorted the tilt control somewhere. It is not controlled by the engine power switch, you can tilt the engine even when it is off. I quickly grabbed a wrench kit and while holding the tilt button down removed the positive cable from the engine battery that is located under the helm seat.
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OK, no engine, in the channel into a headwind, I hoisted the jib and bore off, sailed across the channel to the beach at Cumberland Island and dropped the hook when it got to 25 feet of depth. I thought I would have a lot of work to do, but after all the anchoring, etc., the tilt now worked normally. I guess salt water had got to the relay that controls the tilt. Now it was up anchor and motor back into the channel, of course with the jib down.
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We probably used 5 gallons of gasoline to get from the boatyard to the sea buoy at St. Marys Entrance. There were 3 shrimp trawlers working there and a couple of helicopters. When I got to the buoy that marks the end of the North jetty I hoisted the main, then set the jib again. Off with the motor and hoist it up and tilt it up. The wind is light about 5 knots and we are making about 3 knots on a course for Cape Hatteras.
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I kept working the boat NE trying to make the course 048, but happy with anything near that. It was a course offshore but heading toward a mark at Cape Hatteras. I made something with pasta, clams, and Ragu Alfredo sauce. I also added some Parmesan flakes to the hot noodles. I had some wine and took blood pressure medicine and ibuprofen. I napped. The boat was sailing itself pretty well, but when I awoke at about 3 AM we were headed South. Not to panic, there was no wind and we weren’t going anywhere, just pointed in that direction.
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The photo is of sunset sailing North from St. Marys.