Sunday, October 12, 2014

I was reminded by my son David that I possibly need to update some of my experiences as I have been so busy either motor-sailing or repairing something that needs to be fixed to get along the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway).

Just to bring things to a little more current, I left from Georgetown, Winyah Bay on Wednesday the 8th of October around noon since the current was so strong pushing inland from the ocean it would have been futile to leave until the tide changed and moved the current back to the ocean. 

Well, along the way, around 3 pm the same day, I misjudged my area and ran aground (soft landing)  unlike in an airplane where there are no soft landings.  I was stuck in the mud with my keel and to top it off, my engine also quit.   I knew that since it was almost low tide that within 2 or 3 hours the tide would pick my boat up out of the mud and I could get moving along again. 

Well, I was correct in the the tide picking up the boat however the second part of that assumption was incorrect in that I could not get along on my down the ICW since the engine would not start.  I worked on many things that I could imagine including cleaning the carburetor twice, the water separator, the fuel bowl all had some dirt and water in them so I thought that would solve the problem.  Well, not so fast!  After many attempt to start and nothing happening, I got further in detail and found that there was no spark getting to the spark plugs.  Now what?

Well after several hours and considerable frustration all of which I had to set my anchor in the side of the waterway and knowing that soon again the tide would go out again and I would be aground again.
I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't know what to do next and I decided to go to bed and await the inevitable tide lowering and the boat laying on her side waiting for the next tide to come in.  Well fortunately I wasn't as close to the shore as I thought and I never touched ground again but the engine still wouldn't start in the morning.

My son, John kept talking with me on the phone since he has spent considerable time working on thie boat with me and knows a lot of what has happened.  He suggested that I get back to basics and check the points, condenser, coil and etc.  I mentioned it would be very difficult to check the point without another person to watch them while I cranked the engine but I also knew I had no other choice so I spent the next 20 trips up the ladder and back down cranking the engine and coming down and seeing what position the points were in only to discover after all of those trips, the points never opened at all.  Somehow the screw had allowed them to slip and the engine would have never run again without re-setting the points.  This I did and in an instant, the engine started right up and on my way I was by noon the next day a little late but very happy things were working again. 

THEY SAY THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF SAILORS, THOSE WHO HAVE RUN AGROUND AND LIARS!

I am here to admit I have run aground on my first day down the waterway so I hope I have done my turn and it won't happen again.... knock on wood!

More to come.