The Beginning

I am going to flash back for a while in this blog to give you an idea of the trials and tribulations we encountered to get where we are now...

We finally set off on our Bahamian cruise on November 5th after being at home in Maryland for a year and a half. This being our third trip there was a little less fanfare than in the past. I guess people are getting tired of saying goodbye! That said, Lynn’s family was again totally enthusiastic about the journey and had a special pre-Christmas gathering before we left (including really nice gifts). Then most of them showed up on the morning of our departure to see us off, with only a few tears shed. Our friends Chuck, Dave and Darlene were also there to wave goodbye.

It felt great to finally be underway again. It was a beautiful, sunny day as we travelled down the Chesapeake Bay…no wind for sailing, but that meant calm seas. We arrived at our first stop on the West River (just south of Annapolis) where we joined Kathi and John on Makani. We were invited to dinner with their friends Bryan and Hannah, and Mike and Roycelin. It was a lovely evening. The only mar in an otherwise perfect day was that the generator refused to start, despite the best efforts of Mike who kindly came over to Coyote to lend a hand. We thought it was probably a battery problem, but opted to stick around Galesville for an extra day to check it out…but more on that later…

While on shore the next day, Lynn’s nephew KC called. He was on his boat and happened to pass Coyote at anchor. What a coincidence! I had been feeling bummed that we had already been delayed just one day into the trip…but, decided that we were meant to be there to see KC. Later that day we worked on the generator some more and managed to get it started, so we concluded there must be a battery issue and that it was OK to set off again the next day.

We had an early, pre-dawn start followed by another beautiful day on the bay. That night we stopped at a peaceful anchorage on Mill Creek, just south of Reedville. We retired early after dinner on Makani. It was on the third day that we first noticed the engine acting strangely. It was fine at low RPMs, but seemed to be struggling at higher RPMs. We limped into Norfolk late in the day and anchored at Hospital Point.

The next morning we had a mobile mechanic come on board to check the engine (yes, there are mobile mechanics!) I probably should have recognized the omen when we woke to fog as thick as pea soup and the outboard rip cord broke in Lynn’s hand. Anyway, just like going to the doctor about a pain that disappears in his office, the engine seemed to work perfectly well when Bryan was on board. We chalked the problem up to crud in the fuel that must have worked itself out. As an afterthought, we mentioned our generator issue. He took a look and discovered that we had water in the engine that appeared to have backed up from the exhaust. I now understand that this is a VERY BAD THING. Apparently diesel engines do not like water. Bryan gave it a valiant effort, but was not able to fix it. In the end we had to replace the generator.

Then, on our way back from getting the generator installed, our engine started acting up again. After a second sea trial we determined that the transmission was not behaving. This required a very laborious removal of the transmission (definitely not an easy task in the confines of a boat), a rebuild, and a re-installation. Happily, our engine was purring when the task was done.

As you can imagine, all of this took some time to resolve and we were stuck in Norfolk for four long weeks (a place where 4 hours is probably too long). There were a few silver linings to the delay, like meeting some very nice people at the marina we were using as our temporary home, particularly Mark and Nadine from Belgium. They were on a custom catamaran and had crossed the Atlantic Ocean five times! They were worried about getting their 63-foot mast under one of the ICW bridges. When I asked what they would do if the mast was too tall, they responded in their French accent, “well, den we will just go to Bermuda!” Now that’s being flexible. We also really enjoyed meeting Bill and Amy and their 3 year old son, Finn, who stole my heart. I think he liked me too because he wanted me to take him to the head, which his parents said is an honor he usually bestows only on his grandparents.

Other nice memories included wandering around the historic part of Portsmouth (the rest of the city is not very nice), designing a mermaid ring that Lynn bought for me (to cheer me up I think), a day trip to Williamsburg, a nice Thanksgiving Day dinner hosted by the marina, and a quick visit back home to take care of a few things. But, I have to say we were very glad to say goodbye to Norfolk when we were finally on our way again…we were starting to wonder if we should just call it quits.

The remainder of the trip down the ICW was much like the previous five trips...this part of the coyote adventures is definitely getting old. There are some things I still like though. I can never get enough of the dolphins swimming alongside the boat and love to watch the pelicans skim just a few inches above the water. One highlight was accidentally bumping into KC (again!) as we were anchoring in Adams Creek. He just happened to be at his property in NC and looked across the water to see us coming around the bend from the Neuse River. This second coincidence was pretty unbelievable…I am still wondering when we will see him next!

There are a few ICW stops I always enjoy. We stayed over in Wrightsville Beach to visit with Lynn’s grandson, Ryan, who showed us around town and his college campus. We also stayed at David (Lynn’s brother) and Gini’s beautiful home in Beaufort SC, where we had a very nice Christmas. We spent some of that time working on the boat…specifically replacing our entire battery bank…problem #3, I hope that means we are done!!

On December 29th we were underway again, leaving the ICW from the Port Royal Inlet just south of Beaufort for a 48-hour off-shore cruise to the Fort Pierce inlet. The conditions were great and we made excellent time, arriving at our destination in Stuart Florida on New Year’s Eve, just in time to celebrate with Kathi and John and their friends Dean and Nancy. Of course we were so beat from the ocean hop we barely made it to 8:00 PM and snored through the ball dropping at midnight. We stayed in Stuart for a few more days waiting for the window to cross to the Bahamas. During that time Dean and Nancy very kindly drove us around town to get re-provisioned.

So, that brings us back to the last blog and finally reaching the Bahamas…and it is the end of my whining. Tomorrow we pull anchor at first light to head out of the cut from Little Harbor destined for the island of Eleuthra…this will be all new territory for us, so exciting and a little scary. Time for bed now to be ready for tomorrow’s adventures!