June 17, 2011 Sneads Ferry, NC

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We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at Dowry Creek Marina. The wind was up and not favorable for us to travel across the Pamlico River and up the Neuse River to Adams Creek, so we decided to wait for Tuesday morning to travel. Good call. The waves were less than on foot and travel was quite enjoyable. It was a little hot, but then it is summer.

June 14, 2011. We travel from Dowry Creek Marina to Seagate Marina on Adams creek. This is a small marina, but very quiet and laid back. We were in no rush as we only had to be in Beaufort by Thursday morning.

June 15, 2011. We travel 10 miles from Seagate to Town Creek Marina in Beaufort via Adams creek and Russell Slough. This is a full service boatyard with all types of services. We are here to have the generator fixed, as it has quit genning any power.

June 16, 2011. Mac, the technician from Town Creek came early and quickly diagnosed the generator problem as a faulty capacitor. These are electrical parts that assist in the production of AC current. Removing and testing the capacitor and verifying it to be bad, we called a Northern Lights Generator dealer in Minnesott Beach and confirmed that he had a replacement. Betsy and I used the marina courtesy car to go to Minnesott Beach and purchase the part ($67.50). Mac came back in the afternoon and installed the part and all was sell. Mac is a Yanmar certified tech, so we asked him some questions and he was very helpful.

It was today that Betsy and I decided we had a leak inside the boat. We have always noticed a small amount of water in the starboard sponson, maybe a half-gallon a day. We had always thought the water was from a small leak in the fresh water system. We even uncovered the water tank closet and found it to be bone dry. However, on this day, we had two inches of water from the front of the sponson to the rear. We determined that it was salty seawater, and not fuel. So, we used a shopvac to collect all of the water in three different places and made sure that the sponson was dry. We estimate 10 gallons. We waited and watched, and sure enough, we began to see wet spots in the sponson.

June 17, 2011. We call ahead to Swan Point Marina in Sneads Ferry and verify that if we get there by the end of the day, they can lift us out of the water and put us on the hard to look for the leak. We depart Beaufort and make the 10:00 opening of the Beaufort Bridge and the 2:00 opening of the Onslow beach bridge. We arrived at Swan Point and were lifted out of the water. We authorized a power wash of the bottom, replacement zincs, and some hull cleaning. All of this in addition to finding the leak. Over the next 10 days, we will get all of this done in time to leave the end of June to go to Southport for the annual 4th of July Festival with the Cape Fear Power Squadron. So, there will probably not be any new news until at least July 1.

Overall, the six week cruise to the Chesapeake bay was a great success. We made the AGLCA rendezvous where we presented two lectures to the membership. We travelled to some very nice and interesting places and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent there. Our shakedown cruise shook down some problems (generator, leak, etc). Nothing that a trip to the ATM could not fix. Later.