A Reunion!

Weather: It’s cool today, the temp range 61 – 68 degrees; winds N 15 – 20 knots.

Comment:
It’s 0800 hours and we are up and ready to go. Anna Marie checked on a pump out (needs 24 hour notice, which they never mentioned yesterday) while I secured the life lines (they were slacked off to make boarding easier while at the dock) and stowed the electric cord.

Anna Marie returned with a dock hand who cast off the bow line while Anna Marie tended to the stern line. We backed out of the fairway as nicely as can be and we headed toward the ICW and the Wappoo Bascule Bridge.

We arrived at the bridge at about 0950 for the 1000 opening. There were two other catamarans behind us, one was a PDQ 36. We were treading water as nice as can be when a tug pushing a barge approached from behind us. Her radioed the bridge to say that he was pushing “an empty red flag.” We graciously allowed the tug to pass as did the other PDQ. The third catamaran chose to lead the tug through the bridge. Once on the other side, the tug radioed the cat to say he’d see him “on the two.” This meant that the tug wanted to pass to the port side of the catamaran. The tug pushed forward and we settled into the “parade of catamarans.”

At 1145, we left the parade and made way to the Ross Marine fuel dock. On the way to the fuel dock, I heard a loud crack from the port engine well. Once stopped, we checked to see that the engine lifting cleat has cracked the fiberglass lip to which it was attached. We also found that the apparatus that locked the motor down to allow it to reverse no longer functioned. Without this lock down, the motor will just “fly up” when power is applied in reverse gear. We’ll have to fix this problem when we get to another dock (probably Thunderbolt Marina or Isle of Hope). We’ll do a temporary repair after we anchor for the day.

Our fuel stop lasted just fifteen minutes. With a full tank of petrol, we back off the fuel dock and headed back to the waterway. The other two cats were long gone and we proceeded alone, or seemingly so, down this winding stretch of the Stono River.

During the day, we were contacted by “Reflection.” It was great to talk to them again. We are headed for the same anchorage as was "Kallista" and "Tally Ho." We had the anchor down by 1430 and tended to some boat maintenance chores. The first order of business was to temporarily rig the motor lifting rope. The next task was to grease the port motor’s reversing lock. Sadly, I had no luck in getting it to function properly. It is still inoperative. I tried to grease the fittings on the motors, but the grease gun wouldn’t fit over the nipples. I had better luck greasing the hydraulic steering ram and even managed to clean the hydraulic hose fittings. "Reflection" arrived at the anchorage shortly after we had the hook down. About an hour later, “Tally Ho” and “Kallista” arrived. We were invited to a reunion of sorts aboard “Kallista,” where we shared stories about our adventures and compared notes for future anchorages, parties and great places to spend some time.

Back on “SUNSHINE,” we had dinner, watched a movie and hit the sack early!