We are just over halfway to Georgetown, SC. It’s been a bit of a rocky start to the trip. First, we had a super low tide, and we had to wait until 9:30 to leave so we had enough water! Because of the low water, we went slower than planned as there were a lot of places with lower-than-normal water, so we only made it as far as Fernandina Beach on the first day.
When I did my engine checks on Wednesday morning, I found that the transmission on our port engine had a major leak. Bad enough that we can’t run that engine. We had that transmission rebuilt when we had our service done in December and discovered a small leak on our way home (this is one of the reasons we were bringing the boat back up to Georgetown for service), but whatever was leaking broke. So yesterday and today, we ran on one engine.
We have run the boat on one engine for short periods before. Once due to an issue and a few times just to practice “in case.” It’s not fun, but the autopilot makes it manageable. Running on just the starboard (right) engine, the boat wants to turn left all the time, and it takes a lot of right rudder to correct it. Also, sharp left turns are very fast, and sharp right turns involve throttling down the engine and taking it wide. We can only make about 8 knots, rather than our normal 10-16 knots, but we are still making pretty good time.
We made a stop in our “Favorite” Marina, Kilkenny, in Richmond Hill, GA. We were going to skip it, but we ran out of daylight yesterday, getting in around 7:00, just as it was getting dark.
Today we traveled to Hilton Head. It was a shorter day, but we needed a break. Also, we had been lucky to be following the tides, so we had plenty of water, but we got to Hilton Head about two hours before low tide, so we’d be in skinny water if we went on.
Tomorrow our goal is Charleston, SC. It’s a 75-mile run, but we should be on the rising tide most of the way, so we will have extra water in the problem areas.
Thanks for visiting! –Tom & Brenda
