We awoke in a roll of light chop. As the winds increased, we discussed our options. Pensacola was 55 miles East and mostly offshore which meant rough seas for about 10-12 hours. A Norther was to blow through on Sunday. We decided to pull into Dauphin Island Marina. I called them and they said our draft was too deep and that we'd have to go into Mobile Bay. I called the Dog River Marina but it was as expensive as Biloxi so I called around. I found Turner Marine Supply at half the price so we decided to head North 25 miles from the island to Turner Marine Supply on the Dog River in Mobile, AL. Ironically, this was also the marina where a friend of ours has her boat that she wanted us to possibly deliver so we started feeling like maybe it was meant to be that we ended up in Alabama.
While preparing to head out, we discovered the VHF on the fritz. It kept switching back to 16.We edged our way through the shallow bay where we'd anchored on the West side of Dauphin Island. Swinging around the wrong marker, we found ourselves bumping on the ground. Brett expertly swung us back to deeper water and we found the channel. The next hour continued in intensity as I navigated our route to Mobile Ship Channel through a narrow opening between "spoils" (where a dredge for the channel piles the mud along the sides of the channel that was in the channel) After finally reaching Mobile Ship Channel, we kept an eye out for huge, fast-moving tankers. When we turned North down the channel, the huge rollers we'd been slamming into were now on our starboard side and rolling the boat every few seconds. The large rollers were unexpected and proved challenging to move around inside the boat. At this point, the winds were East and we were headed North and could have put up the sails but with the large rollers and intense navigating in the ship channel, we decided to continue motoring.
After awhile, we spotted a Navy ship with escorts of USCG and Alabama Marine Patrol surrounding it. We swung starboard out of the markers and as they got closer, we identified ourselves on channel 16. With no response, the USCG escort drew up to us and in back of us. I waved but the serious crew kept watch on our name and homeport. After determining that a lady with a pink poodle hat was no threat, they continued on with the Navy ship. It was intense- No communication from them at all. I was too scared to even take a picture! LOL.I layed down as Brett continued to steer down the channel.
After a bit, he noticed the engine changing sounds. It got louder and louder. Black smoke started pouring out of the exhaust. After investigating, he couldn't determine the cause. I recommended we switch to the leeward side of the channel so if we lost our engine, we wouldn't drift into the huge tankers bearing down on us. He slowly made his way across the channel. The tanker behind hailed us on channel 16. "THis is....., we are heading North in the Mobile Ship Channel doing 12 knots and you are in the middle of the channel in front of me. What are your intentions?" I responded to him quickly that we were basically getting out of his way. A ship outbound also hailed and confirmed we'd pass him starboard to starboard. We maintained our course slowly on the West side of the markers where there was 15 feet of water and plenty of room away from these huge ships. Brett changed the gears, trying to figure out what the problem was. He discovered it sounded like the transmission not the engine. After a few minutes, the engine seized up. Brett turned it off.
I steered us along the markers as he prepared the genoa sail (foresail) to be set. then we slowly sailed at 2.5 knots down the side of the channel, thankful there was deep enough water before we hit the "spoils".
Tears welled up in both of our eyes. This was not a good thing. A transmission was an expensive fix. It meant almost certain death to our dreams with our low funds...As I cried, I made us sandwiches and juice for lunch. Even Brett's eyes were welling up. The marina was still thirteen miles from where we were and a challenging narrow, shallow channel had to be navigated to get into the river.
Also, as this was happening, our depth sounder decided to stop working as well. When it rains, it pours. We finally reached the channel and quietly made our way down, struggling to find the next markers. The depth sounder had kicked back on luckily. After a couple of mishaps, we actually made it to the bridge. We had been determined that we'd have to call TowBoat US to tow us to the marina but we hadn't grounded yet. I called the marina and got specific directions for reaching the marina from the bridge.
As we neared the bridge, Brett had me drop the genoa sail and we sailed under bare-poles at 1.5 knots under the bridge. Turner Marine was just past the bridge on the right. A fishing boat came up behind us. "Where y'all from?" he asked enthusiastically. We told him and he replied "Welcome to Alabama!!"We told him about our engine. He offered to hip-tie us to his boat and get us in but we declined. The wind was in the perfect direction for us to coast into the marina and sometimes hip-tying to boats can be dangerous. He happily followed us in case we needed him for help. He told us his friend had engine parts at the marina across the river and probably even had a transmission for us. As we slowly made the turn into the marina, a guy on a boat tied to the wall we were passing also offered to help. We told him we were headed to the "wall" and he said we were too deep for it. He pointed to an empty slip and said to try and make that one.
He offered to jump aboard but we were too far away from him. I got ready to fend off the boat next to the empty slip as Brett expertly wound our way between the pilings. Before I knew it, we were fending off and tying up our boat with only a scrape on a piling. We seem to leave blue paint everywhere we go! Amazed, the fishing boat waved good bye to us. The gentleman from the boat walked over with his son to talk to us. He ended up being a worker at the marina. We made our way to the office to register.
Never thought I could park a 37 foot sailboat under sail at a marina! It was crazy! But all went well thanks to Brett's expertise in handling boats under sail. He said he fakes it well but he does know what he's doing. I am so relieved we were able to do it and not have to call TowBoat US.
Brett's abilities continue to amaze me with his natural talent at manuevering boats. He's kept us from grounding imultide of times and steered us out of harms way more than once. I didn't actually do too bad either this time. We had been struggling this last week while in Biloxi but on the water, we made a great team. It was great to succeed at parking Benevolence. She took care of us.
So far Alabama has been extremely friendly and helpful to us and we feel blessed to end up here.
This morning, I am working on the blogs (obviously) and have a mess to clean up inside the boat.
While preparing to head out, we discovered the VHF on the fritz. It kept switching back to 16.We edged our way through the shallow bay where we'd anchored on the West side of Dauphin Island. Swinging around the wrong marker, we found ourselves bumping on the ground. Brett expertly swung us back to deeper water and we found the channel. The next hour continued in intensity as I navigated our route to Mobile Ship Channel through a narrow opening between "spoils" (where a dredge for the channel piles the mud along the sides of the channel that was in the channel) After finally reaching Mobile Ship Channel, we kept an eye out for huge, fast-moving tankers. When we turned North down the channel, the huge rollers we'd been slamming into were now on our starboard side and rolling the boat every few seconds. The large rollers were unexpected and proved challenging to move around inside the boat. At this point, the winds were East and we were headed North and could have put up the sails but with the large rollers and intense navigating in the ship channel, we decided to continue motoring.
After awhile, we spotted a Navy ship with escorts of USCG and Alabama Marine Patrol surrounding it. We swung starboard out of the markers and as they got closer, we identified ourselves on channel 16. With no response, the USCG escort drew up to us and in back of us. I waved but the serious crew kept watch on our name and homeport. After determining that a lady with a pink poodle hat was no threat, they continued on with the Navy ship. It was intense- No communication from them at all. I was too scared to even take a picture! LOL.I layed down as Brett continued to steer down the channel.
After a bit, he noticed the engine changing sounds. It got louder and louder. Black smoke started pouring out of the exhaust. After investigating, he couldn't determine the cause. I recommended we switch to the leeward side of the channel so if we lost our engine, we wouldn't drift into the huge tankers bearing down on us. He slowly made his way across the channel. The tanker behind hailed us on channel 16. "THis is....., we are heading North in the Mobile Ship Channel doing 12 knots and you are in the middle of the channel in front of me. What are your intentions?" I responded to him quickly that we were basically getting out of his way. A ship outbound also hailed and confirmed we'd pass him starboard to starboard. We maintained our course slowly on the West side of the markers where there was 15 feet of water and plenty of room away from these huge ships. Brett changed the gears, trying to figure out what the problem was. He discovered it sounded like the transmission not the engine. After a few minutes, the engine seized up. Brett turned it off.
I steered us along the markers as he prepared the genoa sail (foresail) to be set. then we slowly sailed at 2.5 knots down the side of the channel, thankful there was deep enough water before we hit the "spoils".
Tears welled up in both of our eyes. This was not a good thing. A transmission was an expensive fix. It meant almost certain death to our dreams with our low funds...As I cried, I made us sandwiches and juice for lunch. Even Brett's eyes were welling up. The marina was still thirteen miles from where we were and a challenging narrow, shallow channel had to be navigated to get into the river.
Also, as this was happening, our depth sounder decided to stop working as well. When it rains, it pours. We finally reached the channel and quietly made our way down, struggling to find the next markers. The depth sounder had kicked back on luckily. After a couple of mishaps, we actually made it to the bridge. We had been determined that we'd have to call TowBoat US to tow us to the marina but we hadn't grounded yet. I called the marina and got specific directions for reaching the marina from the bridge.
As we neared the bridge, Brett had me drop the genoa sail and we sailed under bare-poles at 1.5 knots under the bridge. Turner Marine was just past the bridge on the right. A fishing boat came up behind us. "Where y'all from?" he asked enthusiastically. We told him and he replied "Welcome to Alabama!!"We told him about our engine. He offered to hip-tie us to his boat and get us in but we declined. The wind was in the perfect direction for us to coast into the marina and sometimes hip-tying to boats can be dangerous. He happily followed us in case we needed him for help. He told us his friend had engine parts at the marina across the river and probably even had a transmission for us. As we slowly made the turn into the marina, a guy on a boat tied to the wall we were passing also offered to help. We told him we were headed to the "wall" and he said we were too deep for it. He pointed to an empty slip and said to try and make that one.
He offered to jump aboard but we were too far away from him. I got ready to fend off the boat next to the empty slip as Brett expertly wound our way between the pilings. Before I knew it, we were fending off and tying up our boat with only a scrape on a piling. We seem to leave blue paint everywhere we go! Amazed, the fishing boat waved good bye to us. The gentleman from the boat walked over with his son to talk to us. He ended up being a worker at the marina. We made our way to the office to register.
Never thought I could park a 37 foot sailboat under sail at a marina! It was crazy! But all went well thanks to Brett's expertise in handling boats under sail. He said he fakes it well but he does know what he's doing. I am so relieved we were able to do it and not have to call TowBoat US.Brett's abilities continue to amaze me with his natural talent at manuevering boats. He's kept us from grounding imultide of times and steered us out of harms way more than once. I didn't actually do too bad either this time. We had been struggling this last week while in Biloxi but on the water, we made a great team. It was great to succeed at parking Benevolence. She took care of us.
So far Alabama has been extremely friendly and helpful to us and we feel blessed to end up here.This morning, I am working on the blogs (obviously) and have a mess to clean up inside the boat.
Brett took the transmission off and discovered that it wasn't the transmission. The bolts used to bolt the transmission to the fly wheel that were installed when the engine had been rebuilt were not the right kind of bolts and had sheered off the fly wheel. He has to take the fly wheel off the engine (yikes!) and see if there was damage to it. The starter could also be damaged from this problem. A real mess we are into....This may be the end for us depending on the extent of damage and cost...
Turner Marine has been wonderful and we feel fortunate to have ended up here.
Please keep us in your prayers as we face this new challenge.
Turner Marine has been wonderful and we feel fortunate to have ended up here.
Please keep us in your prayers as we face this new challenge.
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