When a little bad news is pretty good news.

With heat indexes in the 110+ range, two days of thunderstorms in the forecast, short on sleep and even shorter of temper, (that would be just me, by the way) a slight change in plans seemed appropriate. So this afternoon we moved First Light off the free dock and back down the river a couple of hundred yards into a transient slip at the Ocean Yacht Marina. There I made my second successful back-into-the-slip landing. The first order of business after setting lines and fenders was getting the AC running. It took a while as, once again, the inlet was blocked. Not jellyfish this time. Seriously stinky mud that had to come from the Swamp was the culprit. With the aft engine room hatch open to facilitate that repair, Deb noticed a trail of salt water from the aft of the boat down into the port side shaft seal pocket. An observation that did nothing to lengthen my aforementioned short temper. One problem at a time please. Let's get the AC running, then figure out if the boat is sinking. Deb then had a short wrestle since the AC strainer leaked the first time we cranked up the pump. With the strainer leak fixed, the AC went to work on the hot, muggy air in the boat. We went to work tracing down the leak around the shaft seal.

The water under the shaft seal appeared to have its headwater around the starboard side rudder post. I dried it off and watched while Deb worked the rudders stop to stop. No more water. We went about cleaning everything up, finishing about the time the diver showed. We explained the bump and the vibration. My thought was that a) the rudder took a jolt that unseated its shaft seal for a bit, allowing a good squirt of water ingress and b) the jolt also left us with a bent prop tip. All just a guess of course, but that seemed the most likely explanation for what we had felt during and after the event. And, as it turned out, that is exactly what the diver found. No damage to the rudder and a bent prop tip. A little bit of bad news that is pretty good news.

The diver offered that he knew a guy that could pull the prop, have it repaired, and put it back on without lifting the boat out of the water. The whole process would take “just a couple of days”. Not saying that I didn't believe that but, well, I didn't. The boat is not hurt. A slightly bent prop tip isn't going to do much except save us some gas by having us slow down. The boat is already scheduled to come out of the water for the winter around Oct 1st. So we intend to drive on. But first I'm going to catch up on sleep, food, and music playing while waiting out a couple of days of storms.

I stand corrected from my correction...

We left the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center this morning. The trick was to time the bridge / lock opening so as not to miss it or to spend too much time holding station waiting for it to open. The other trick was to move at a speed appropriate for the conditions; ie SLOW. Upon pushing off of the dock it was clear that we were in a different Dismal Swamp than the one from the day before. This one was was truly dismal. 

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. 

Weather forecasts suggests we will be here for a a day or so waiting out some potentially serious storms. We are hoping to get a diver on the boat today or tomorrow just to be careful. We have full water tanks and an empty holding tank, but the fridge is getting bare after days off grid, so a provisioning run is also in the plan. There is some concern about hanging around this spot to wait out the weather. After the sun went down last night the ambiance surrounding the boat took a decided turn. At one point a land side wanderer started shouting at me as I closed up the fly bridge for the night. He wasn't being particularly coherent and I wasn't particularly interested in engaging in conversation with him. Something to which he seemed to take offense as his side of the conversation deteriorated into shouts, insults, and threats to return to teach me some kind of lesson. I have some experience in those kinds of lessons, wasn't particularly concerned, and let him sputter off without returning any comment. But, having some experience in those kinds of lessons, I spent most of the night on "anchor watch" with phone close at hand and 911 ready on the speed dial. Still, this is a well protected place to ride out storms which, seems to me anyway, are the bigger hazard at the moment.

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

I stand corrected...

While living on Kintala we did the ICW North – South – North trip several times. During none of those trips did we attempt the Dismal Swamp. The primary reason was our better than 5 foot draft. Word was there would be barely a foot of water under the keel for most of the trip. The secondary reason was more prosaic. Neither “Dismal” nor “Swamp” are words that conjure up a vision of a pleasant place to visit. The name itself was enough to keep me away. But things work out as they will, and we committed to trying to pass through the Swamp. So we fired up First Light after a brief trip to the local coffee shop and departed Elizabeth City for the Dismal Swamp Visitor's Center with its free dock, bathrooms, and water supply.

It was some of the most interesting miles of water I have ever ventured across. Other than the temp, it was a perfect day. The water was so flat that it was hard to tell where the horizon was. Everything in sight was perfectly reflected in the mirror-like water. Only a thin dark line marked where the actual shore line could be found. It felt like First Light was drifting though a sky of tree shaped green colored clouds. The visuals were nothing short of mesmerizing. The first part of the channel was as twisty as any I have traveled. Fortunately First Light's twin engines and hydraulic steering are starting to feel "normal" so staying in the middle of the channel was not near the challenge it might have been. To be frank, I have never seen such a scene before. It was near magical.

We did bump into something a few times. But we were also running just enough above idle for the engines to be happy, leaving us doing about 4 knots. So whatever we bumped we didn't bump very hard. I don't know that I would have ever come this way in Kintala. But I'm glad that circumstances suggested we come this way in First Light. If you ever get a chance to drive a boat north from Elizabeth City into the Dismal Swamp, don't pass it up. It may be a swamp, but there is nothing “Dismal” about it.

South Mills Lock

South Mills Lock

South Mills Lock

South Mills Lock

Dismal Swamp Free Dock

It's worth a try...

On the one hand the people here have been wonderful. There are good places to eat, a very informative museum, and a pleasant waterfront park. Dan the Dock Master for the Maritime Ministries free docks came down to meet and welcome us when we first got here. There wasn't room for us on his dock, but we were in sight and had been talking to him on the phone. He was unbelievably (couldn't resist the pun) helpful, letting us have parts delivered to his door, lending us a car, and generally being as generous as one human being can be to others. For that reason alone the town is okay. On the other hand...

Roo, Tj, Deb, and Dan Smith of Maritime Ministries

For a place that is at the headwater of the Dismal Swamp route there is very little support for the long distance cruiser. Fuel, water, pump out, electrical service...all are in short supply or non-existent. When I say “short supply” what I mean is we have been here for a couple of days and have not found any of the above. There is rumor of a pump out somewhere but, as of yet, we have not located it. There is not a water hook-up anywhere to be found. There are public bathrooms but don't need one before 0800 in the morning as they will not open yet. If you need to save ship water (since you can't get more here) shower access will cost you $5 for the code. If you had spent a very long day working in a hot engine room you might come out of the shower cleaner than you went in. Maybe.

The shower is right near the city free dock, which would make them a bit more livable than the dock we have been tied to. But we looked them over and it is doubtful First Light would fit. A Saber backed in while we were watching, both rub rails rubbed down the piling as he backed in. Once in they set lines but I'm not sure why. They were wedged in place. Too tight a fit so far as I am concerned. You can get an Uber back and forth to the store so provisioning need not be too painful. But it was a bit of struggle to get things together so we can be on our way.

The free dock at Jennett's

When we left Oriental we knew we were on a “shake down” cruise. First Light had been sitting on the hard for the better part of four years. Even with all the work we did before splashing the thing there were bound to be glitches. In addition the original plan included a couple of more months of time to work things through as we traveled. So, all things considered, the fact that we are making any progress at all is likely a pretty good sign. We made some good progress during this particular maintenance stop. The gen-set, after the tender ministries of Grand Son Eldest installing his first ever gen-set part, purred quietly while pumping major amps into the house bank. Before that part arrived we also ran down the engine start wiring to get some idea as to what is happening. As I suspected, the port engine is wired to the start battery while the starboard engine is wired to the house bank. There is a “emergency start” switch panel that is wired nothing like suggested on the front plate. The panel states “KEEP BOTH SWITCHES IN OFF POSITION TURN SWITCH ON FOR EMERGENCY START ONLY.” Ahh...no. Turn both switches OFF and nothing will start. I do leave the “BOTH” switch OFF with the idea that at least one of the battery banks will hold a charge should there be a drain on one of them. I'm not completely convinced that is what was intended, but it is working for now so we will drive on.

Though there is still some debate on this, both battery chargers, the old one and the new fancy one, may need to work in tandem with either gen-set or shore power to get the house bank into float. That seems seriously weird to me so I will be looking into it some more. But, at the moment, First Light is back up with all systems running. How long that will last is anyone's guess. I'll just keep reminding myself it is a shake-down cruise. Finding broken things is part of the plan. Well, it's worth a try anyway.