It was a very brisk friday night in November. The kind where you curl up by the fire with a hot chocolate. But for our rowdy gang of bay pirates it was time for adventure, time to tackle the Chesapeake Bay and the ICW after 2 years of boat work. The plan was simple: Lindsey and I had 2 weeks to get the boat as far south as possible. Our awesome friends and racing buddies Jace and Stanley were joining us for the first weekend so we could tackle the Chesapeake Bay in a nonstop fashion. However, the weather had other plans for us.
We had said we would postpone the trip if wind was supposed to be over 30 knots. Predictions for Saturday were 20 knots out of the south, so we moved up our departure to Friday night to try to make progress before the opposing winds hit us.
We started out around 9pm in a flat calm. Lindsey and Stanley took the first shift uneventfully. Minimal waves and wind presented them with no challenges. They watched out for ships – it is amazing how a big ship is so dimly lit – in a city with lots of lights on land, you are likely to notice the ships, not by their navigation lights, but by their silhouettes blocking the lights behind them. They guided Miss Fe under a side span of the bay bridge while a tug and barge glided through the center span. By the time their shift ended at 2am we were just south of Annapolis.
The weather was beginning to deteriorate with strong southerly winds and building seas. We knew we would be doing some bashing but figured we might still be able to make some mileage south. Jace and I took the helm making about 4.5 knots, but over the next 4 hours we watched our boat speed drop to 1.5 knots and the waves increased to the point they were almost stopping our progress altogether. Stanley and Lindsey were a sight for sore eyes at 6 am quickly helping us get up the mainsail to give us more boat speed. Jace and I retired below, half frozen and happy for some relief from the 25 knot winds.
Lindsey and Stanley listened to the updated weather report, which predicted gale force winds the next day, and they started to look for places to stop in the next few hours, knowing there was no way we could or should continue to Norfolk. As the waves continued to build I found myself catching air off my mattress every time we hit the peak of a wave. Surprisingly, despite the air time, I remained in one place and didn’t get banged up smashing into the walls.
Sleep didn’t come easily though and we were quickly awoken around 9am to very concerned shouting and a cabin quickly filling with thick black diesel smoke. Running towards the cockpit, I was surprised to see the engine still running and quickly ordered it be shutdown for fear we were having an engine room fire. As soon as the engine shut down we determined there was no fire just lots of smoke from the exhaust and an overheated engine. Without time to troubleshoot all hands were on deck to deploy our staysail and keep the boat moving. This was easier said than done as the waves were approaching 7′ and extremely close together with winds around 25 knots but Lindsey and Stanley did a superb job while Jace and I took the helm.
With sails up we managed, after several tries, to get ahold of SeaTow. We were only about 5 miles from the nearest marina but the SeaTow captain advised us that even our 4 ft draft might be too much there. Seatow advised we head to Herrington Harbor where they would give us a tow into a slip. By this time we had slipped behind a fishing wier and misread the depth on our plotter. We did our best to tack around the wier but found ourselves unable to tack with that much wind. After three gybes that all lost us ground, we took a much closer look at the plotter which revealed the “5” (feet) we thought we saw was indeed the letter “S” (days later we figured out this meant sand, whoopsie). Not knowing what S meant we decided to head for it and find out since our only other option to keep from running aground on a lee shore at that point was to drop our storm anchor. We went for it and actually had what would have been a great sail across the bay if not for the fear of what might have happened to our precious 18hp SABB diesel engine. The anticipation was too great for Jace and he graciously volunteered to head below and troubleshoot. After a few minutes he popped his head into the cockpit and held up a pulley. “hey know what this goes to” he asked. In dismay I replied “yes the raw water pump”.
Seatow met us as planned and quickly got us into the harbor where it didn’t take us long to realize we were at the biggest and nicest marina any of us had ever seen. Despite our concerns about the engine, hot showers were determined to be highest priorty and boy did we enjoy the plush showers we found. After shower, beer, and street tacos we settled into the engine work. Turns out the the pulley had no key but merely a set screw holding it to the water pump shaft. This set screw came loose and the pulley literally flew off the engine. This stopped all raw water cooling instantly which caused our Vetus waterlock muffler to melt in several places spewing copious amounts of diesel exhaust, water and melted plastic all over the engine room.
After a night of beer and dark and stormies, Jace and Stanley got picked by a friend on Sunday. I went along to bring down my truck from Middle River, knowing I would probably need it to get repair parts.
I ended up spending several days trying to procure the new Vetus waterlock. Despite the Vetus warehouse being less than an hours drive they would not let me pick it up at their facility despite my begging and pleading. Fortunately we met Karl of Karls’ Marine Engine Service in the Harrington Harbor office late one evening and hearing our story he went ahead and called in a favor to the local sales rep who delivered the part to a local chandlery the next day. We can’t thank Karl enough for his help and highly recommend him if you are in the Annapolis area.