About 10pm, the halyards starting rattling against the mast and then the wind became audible.  Turning to Elena, I said, “There’s something going on” and went on deck.  Out to the north, evil looking clouds and lightening were approaching our anchorage quickly.  The wind quickly increased speed to 30 knots and more (a fellow cruiser on the other side of Hampton Roads in Newport News clocked gusts at 50 knots).  Suddenly, the boat in front of us begins to drift toward “Sophia”.  No one is in the cockpit!  I yell over the wind to Elena to get me the air horn.  As the drifting boat passes our bow, I give “five blasts” (the danger signal in the nautical rules) to our wayward neighbor.  He pops his head out of the cabin as he goes past us too close for comfort at about 2 knots dragging his anchor behind him.  Eventually, he got his anchor up and disappeared around the corner looking for a place to hide from the storm.

Meanwhile, we decided that we needed to put out more anchor chain.  Elena started the engine to relieve the strain on the chain, and we put out another 40 feet to get 100 feet of chain, our standard in a windy anchorage.

An anniversary underway and with a storm thrown in….it doesn’t get much better!

“Sophia” has been remarkably dry for the two years we have lived aboard.  As the rain poured down, more than any time in our two-year voyage, we started to see leaks we have not seen before, some from the deck seams, some from somewhere on the cabin top.  More work goes on the maintenance list.

We were underway the next day for an easy 30 miles to Deltaville.  I had been advised by mechanic to run the engine harder than is my usual 1800 RPM.  We were motoring along at 2100 RPM with sails up making a nice 6 knots, looking forward to an early arrival.  Looking over the side, I spotted a flow of water coming out like a fire hose.  There is only one source for that water, the tertiary (that is, backup to the backup), emergency, 3000 gallon-per-hour, automated bilge pump I had installed for the unlikely event of an underwater hole in the boat.   Having it pump water out of the boat meant there was at least 18 inches of water in the bilge.  Not good!!!

We started looking around for the source of the flooding.  Our first stop was the shaft seal, a problem that we had seen once before long ago.  It was the shaft seal—a type called a dripless seal, but it was not dripless now, water was pouring through the seal.  We slowed the engine to 1500 RPM and the leak stopped.  The seal is quite inaccessible and there was nothing we could do without some professional help.  The water level fell below the emergency bilge pump switch.  We discovered then that the secondary bilge pump was not operating.  We used the primary bilge pump (relatively slow at 5 gallons per minute) and the manual bilge pump (12 gallons per minute dependent on how fast one can pump).  After fifteen minutes or so, we pumped the bilge dry and made our way to Deltaville, albeit more slowly and arriving later than planned, but early enough to get in before sunset to anchor.

I did, upon arrival, congratulate myself on installing the extra bilge pump back in 2013.  It was a painful and expensive installation, getting the big pump in a tight space, and I questioned whether it was really necessary.  It was nice to have that decision validated.

We moved into the marina the next morning.  We had planned on a week in Fishing Bay Marina, near Deltaville proper, to have the generator looked at, to have some repairs completed on our dinghy cover by the fellow who constructed it, fix the secondary bilge pump, and most importantly to visit our old friends, Bill and Mary.

The marina mechanic came down to look at the shaft seal.  As expected, it took most of a half a day to get to it, having to remove the engine exhaust system to get to the seal.  He made an adjustment to the seal, put the whole thing back together, and then we tested.  Everything was fine at 1500 RPM.  We increased to 2100 RPM and the seal began pouring water.  The mechanic told me the shaft was jumping around, with something out of alignment…perhaps the propeller was unbalanced or the bearing along the shaft was worn or the shaft itself was bent or even the engine was out of alignment—but nothing we were going to be able to fix in the next few days.  Disappointment!

The secondary bilge pump turned out to be a blown fuse.  After several failed attempts at getting the right size fuse, we got that fixed with little effort.  Hurray!

The canvas guy fixed the dinghy cover and didn’t even want to charge me.  A retired Air Force special ops guy, he told me that he was retiring a second time soon.  Good for him, but bad for me.  Chris had a reputation of being one of the best canvas guys on the bay.

Ken, our generator mechanic, came over the next day to look at the generator.  He messed around with a few electrical things and then tried to jump start it bypassing the starting panel.  Nothing.  The engine was frozen, and, as Ken sadly reported, beyond repair.  Another disappointment!!!

Elena said “Sophia” was telling us something, that she was tired and needed a rest.  Inoperative radar, condemned generator, leaking shaft, water coming through the deck seams when it rains—maybe she is right, but I really think Elena was talking about herself.

Ken is an expert mechanic, so I asked for his opinion on the shaft leak.  We started the engine and ran it at 1500 RPM.  No leak.  Up to 2100 RPM, no leak, no bouncing shaft.  All seemed OK, at least for the 60-mile run north.  Finally, a little good news.

 

With our repairs taken care of, at least resolved however unsatisfactorily, we were underway for home on May 21st, with one stop at the Solomons.  As we were coming out of Fishing Bay, I notice the compass heading on the autopilot was 90 degrees from our real heading that I could see visually and as compared to the magnetic compass.  In other words, the autopilot thought we were heading south when we were heading east.  And when I engaged the autopilot, “Sophia” would swerve widely and sometimes in the opposite direction that we wanted to go.  It looked as if we were going to have to hand steer the final leg home.

Elena said “Sophia” was telling us something, that she was tired and needed a rest.  Inoperative radar, condemned generator, leaking shaft, water coming through the deck seams when it rains, and now an wayward autopilot—maybe she was right, but I really think Elena was talking about herself.

Sometimes something with magnetic properties (like a tool box full of wrenches) gets put too close to the autopilot (“fluxgate” to be technically exact) compass.  Previously, we had to move our canned goods around to avoid a deviation problem.  And once I did put a tool box in the wrong spot.  But that is generally a 20 degree problem, not a 90 degree problem.  A quick look in the locker revealed no offending magnetic materials.  I decided to use the old timer’s approach—a sharp rap with a significantly sized tool (an adjustable wrench in this case).   Voila!  Fluxgate compass fixed!!!  Autopilot steering all the way home!

As we were coming in to Solomons to grab a mooring ball for the night, we could see a storm coming in from the North.  With no wind at that moment, we made a straight run for the ball, and with an audience of 4 old guys on the sailboat next to us, Elena grabbed the ball on the first try as I put the boat in reverse at the exact right moment and we were securely moored just minutes before the wind increased to 30 knots and rain came down in torrents.  Well done to Elena!

The last 20 miles went by quickly and, on May 23^rd, at 1pm, we pulled into our new home at Herrington Harbour South Marina (ironically, where we were married ten short years ago).

Our two-year,  5838 nautical mile odyssey has ended.  It has gone by fast, too fast and has ended too early.  Elena and I learned that we could live together in a tiny space, with no one else to speak to, for weeks on end.  That we can sail anywhere and for as long as we need to but learned to avoid the rough stuff and that we prefer not to exhaust ourselves with lack of sleep. I found out that  I can still do it alone if I need to, but definitely prefer the help.  “Sophia” is a good boat and capable of much more than we ever threw at her.  Most important, I learned where my soul wants to be and Elena has learned she really could hang in there with me.

“I must go down to the sea again…..”