For the second time this trip, Pathfinder had to issue a “Securite” call over the VHF radio. The first time is documented in a post titled “Roger’s Folly.” Like the first time, the call went out after we encountered something that should have not been where it was. This time, the consequences were more severe.

The beginning of the second call sounded like this- “Securite, Securite, Securite , Pathfinder is fouled on an unknown object in Eliot Cut, all other vessels should stay clear.”

The ICW between Beaufort SC and Charleston SC has three cuts that connect rivers. The first two are known to be shallow and we needed to take them on a rising and near full tide given our draft. The final cut is known to have current and so we needed to take that near slack current (slack is the moment when the water switches from moving in one direction to the other). We used published tide and current data to make our plans. They are not right but they are usually close. Our movement through the first two cuts went without incidents. The third one was another matter. According to the current gauges we should have been entering the Eliot cut with a 0.4 kt head current, on approach there was clearly more but we decided to give it a go after radioing a boat ahead of us and asking for a report. In reality there was 3 kt of current against us just after the entrance to the cut. The current decreased after that. We were making headway at about 3 kt over ground for the first half of the cut. We moved Pathfinder over to the left side of the channel in an effort to play an eddy line that was still in deep water and help give us better forward movement. It was working well until it wasn’t. Suddenly, our forward speed over ground came to 0. Thankfully, the opposing current allowed us to have water flow over our rudder which meant we could still steer the boat- barely. That is when we made the Securite call on the radio to alert other boaters not to enter the cut.

We found that we could reduce our engine RPM’s and move backwards relative to the shoreline (SOG- speed over ground), but forward relative to the water (STW- speed through water). However, we would only go so far before stopping. Increasing our engine RPM’s would move us forward (SOG). However, only so far.
After a few forward then backward movements (that would be the Eliot Cut Two Step!) we upped the throttle significantly and were able to clear whatever we had been hung up on. We resorted to this option because the longer we stayed fouled, the higher the risk we would have lost steerage. Quikly after we throttled up we heard a nasty chunk, chunk, chunk sound. We soon suspected the sounds were our transmission breaking since after that noise the forward speed of the boat was now inversely related to the engine RPMs (think slipping the clutch at high RPMS). We were able to move slowly out of the narrowest part of the cut and the worst of the current and then requested a tow from nearby boats. The boats that were right nearby came through the cut right after we were clear and were able to avoid what we caught on after we told them where it was over the radio as part of our Securite call and subsequent radio conversations.

Had we lost positive STW in the narrow cut, we would have likely done lots of damage to both Pathfinder and shoreline docks. The cut was only about 1.5-2 boat lengths wide with docks so if we spun sideways, we would have been in a deep doodoo.

Roger and I have come to the aid of other boaters many times, thankfully good karma came back to us in the form of Jim on Cabana who was willing to help us out using a combination of bow and side (called hip) towing. Navigation rules forbid moving through a drawbridge under sail and of course there was one between us and the Ashley river which was wide enough and at the right angle to the wind to sail the rest of the way to Charleston. Thanks to Jim we got through the bridge and out to the Ashley River where we raised sail and went on our way. Our hope at the time was a cooler transmission might be able to provide us with more thrust so we could use it for the last little bit to get to a dock at the Charleston Maritime Center which we had reserved. Happily, we were able to sail right up to the marina and the transmission was able to get us to the slip. It was nice to be settled and we heard from a few boaters that they were impressed with how we handled the situation.

We (by we I mean Roger, Peter, his son Josh, Steve and my uneducated assistance) spent the next day diagnosing the issue and are fairly certain our transmission will need to be replaced. We have been trying to figure out how to fix or work around the problem since then. It’s definitely a wrench in the works, but it could have been much worse. We will keep you posted on progress as we navigate phase 3.6657 (not quite to the rounded up point 😉) of the trip and welcome all pleas to the universe to work with us on this.