The water was scummed over making it that much
more difficult to spot floating debris and logs. The channel was narrower,
shallower, and had tree branches just shy of brushing the boat. The water itself
was full of branches with fallen trees tied up to signs and shore in attempts to
keep the waterway navigable.
Within minutes we heard the first “thunk” of
something getting stirred up off the bottom and chewed up in the prop. We moved
along at less than 5 knots doing our best to avoid more thumps while still
moving fast enough for the rudders to steer the boat. But it was impossible.
Each thump caused the crew to jump a little but it appeared that nothing was
being damaged...until the very last one before we got to the bridge.
A hard
thunk scared everyone and a noticeable vibration off the starboard side engine
scared everyone even more. Dropping the revs eased the shaking. I tried neutral,
a few moments in low reverse, and back to forward. It eased the shake a tiny bit
but did not eliminate it. Clearly we took some kind of damaging hit. A check of
the engine room showed no leaking around the seals and no vibration in the
shaft. Which was all good news. Other than a minor shake nothing else seemed
amiss. After a bit of debate we elected to keep going. Truth to tell I'm not
sure there was another option. Before anything could be done we had to get out of
the swamp. We cleared the last lock and limped on.
Once clear of the swamp I played with the power settings. Revs that
would get us a touch over 5 knots were fine. Anything more and the shake was too
noticeable to be comfortable. My best guess is that we bent a prop blade a
little. Not a major concern, but a concern nonetheless. We stopped at a small
marina called Top Rack for fuel, a desperately needed pumpout, and to ask about a diver.
Fuel and a pumpout they had, but no diver to recommend. So we pressed on to the
free docks in the heart of Portsmouth. Kind of a cool place this. Well, not cool
as it is something like 102 degrees. But there are big ships all around, ferry
boats coming and going, the Navel Shipyard museum is literally a few steps off
our starboard side, and we are sitting in the middle of a big city in our boat. A bit of a change since we have been more or less off the grid
for much of the last few days.
Difficult as it has been, it feels
good to be out of the ICW. These past few months have been some of the most
challenging Deb and I have faced for a long, long, (long) time. I am both
thankful that we managed and relieved to be this far north. Limping along? Maybe.
Heading in the right direction? So far so good. But I've had my fill of the
Dismal Swamp. I am (depending on how broken we are) sort of glad we went this
way once. But I can't imagine I'll ever take the risk of doing it again. Nor
would I ever suggest anyone else go this way by choice, at least not in a boat
like First Light. The channel is simply too narrow, too shallow, and too full of
things that can break a boat. This boat is still struggling through this shake down cruise. It doesn't need any
help getting broke.
 |
| Dismal Swamp slime |
 |
| Finally a new state |
 |
| It's steaming hot |
1 comment:
Good to hear from you Mike. Sorry for the late response but we have been on the move. I'd like to say something along the lines of, for all of its challenges this has been a good trip. But the trip is was it is, we are just dealing with things as they come up, changing plans as necessary, and doing our best to do our best. I will admit to looking forward to being back in St. Louis for the winter. I miss that part of the family.
We are in Back Creek in the Solomons for a day or so, always one of our favorite places. It is good to be here again. Talk to you soon.
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