Sea-Tirement Adventures

Boats in the water at the Hinkley yard dock ready to go. Another nice sunrise, to start the day.

Left the dock at a few minutes after 8:00 am and off we go. The admiral wants to know what the squeaking noise is so I said “here you drive I’ll go check.” Checked the engine – all of the boat – can’t find anything but the noise stops. Okay, back to the bridge I go. The boat’s not responding great but it’s okay, and we almost get to the Savannah river channel (again) when the admiral asks “why is the Aft Bilge on?” So I say “Give me a minute then I will go check, the mechanics were working on the upper helm maybe they nocked something loose.”

Down to the engine room I go to check the bilge pumps and lo and behold it’s doing its job pumping water out, but where is water coming from? Now the Mid bilge is also running. WTF, this can’t be good!

I begin checking and see the source of the problem: the drive shaft is no longer connected to the transmission on the starboard engine and has moved far enough that the seal is leaking water into the boat. I take a couple of deep breaths and try to think of what to do….first thing shut off the starboard engine since it’s not doing anything, but that’s not going to stop the water. Check the pumps – are they keeping up? Yes? Then we’re not going to sink – today at least.

Back to the bridge helm to report to the admiral. Small episode of Tourette’s take place, as all can imagine. I mention we are going to head back to the boat yard on one engine and tie up. The admiral was calming down as I was calling the yard, but getting no answer – which is to be expected on a Saturday. Also by now, I was thinking I should put SeaTow Boat on notice we may need help. They responded immediately by phone and explained if we are moving with one engine, then there was not much they can do for us. Makes sense, but they say to call if anything goes bad with the working engine.

I start calling and texting the Service Manager and Service Writer’s cell phones to tell them we are headed back to the boat yard, but don’t get any responses. An hour later we have docked the boat and I head for the engine room to see if I can figure out how to stop the water. I decide to wrap the drive where leaking with towels and secure them with hose clamps, but that only slows the inflow of water a minimal amount. I text the service guys again that the pumps are doing a good job but I don’t think they are made to run for 48 hours (until Monday morning) and could use some assistance.

Five minutes later the Service Manager responds that they are on their way and they will pull the boat out, if needed. I’ve come to the conclusion that will be needed already and I need a very large drink! Needless to say, the Admiral is still a little bit upset.

When the guys get to the yard they agree that the boat needs to come out of the water and they begin the the process while Holly (said Admiral) and I begin packing and unloading the refrigerator that we have just stocked up. Now the question where to go. We end up renting a car and decide on Atlanta, the kids are going to hate the old farts showing up all the time -my oh well they will get over it.

We’ll wait for Monday and the mechanic to figure out what’s happened and what needs to be done, my guess is when we bent the prop we also bent the drive start and it wiggled loose from being out of round.

More to come next week!