As we wake on this beautiful Sunday December 30th, Bill and I watch the sun rise over the Apalachicola bay, drink our morning coffee and think back on the last few days. I, Joy get irritated at myself for not blogging as I intended on Dec. 25th, but days go by so fast. Time slips away ...so much happens.
This is a picture of the of the beach near the place we grounded (or touched bottom on 12 17)
This is the place we grounded (touched bottom) take a close look at the brownish white area under the water its right at the opening into the Grand Lagoon not far from the Gulf of Mexico, which is behind us in this picture. Well I have another story to share.. we touched again on the 27th. YES, 10 days later as we cruised across to Apalachicola we touched again. This time I was at the helm and following another boater/boat The Zone just singing and minding my own business and the depth dropped to 0.1 feet mud churned, my nerves jiggled. Ross, from the Zone calls on the radio and said, "don't follow me I'm off course". OOP's - so I veered to starboard (to the right, away from The Zone, but we churned a lot mud. We got into deeper waters. Bill went down below to check the engines. He quickly came back up to the bridge to see what was happening. We check the engines about every 1 or 2 hours when we are cruising for any problems or overheating. When I check I just lift the hatch to the engine room if anything is wrong by sight or smell I
and close the hatch. When Bill checks the engine he really goes down and checks for stuff like, puts a monitor on the engine for overheating and looks for leaks etc, etc.. So for him to come quickly back to the fly bridge he had to crawl out of the engine room shut the hatch and climb the stairs back to the bridge.
So on with my story about touching bottom. We developed a vibration in the starboard engine, thinking mud had gotten into the sea strainers Bill returned to the engine room again and cleaned the strainers. STILL a vibration in the starboard. Long story short we slowly cruised at about 6 knots an hour and continued into Apalachicola.
Friday December 28th
This picture is of an open railroad bridge. The Zone is ahead of us entering into the bay.
This is Apalachicola it is a small fishing village with lots of cute shops. They have a Piggly Wiggly grocery near where we shopped for eggs and milk. There are lots of restaurants and shops.
OK.. so on with the story this is the good part...
Because of the vibration we hired a diver to go under the boat to check the props and shaft.
It was 12/ 28, 7:00 pm at night, the water cold about 60 degrees, there are things in the water I would not have the nerve to swim with...the divers name is Anton.
Bills face when he finds out nothing is wrong with the props and shaft. To make the best of the situation,
we had a gathering with other looper's with snacks and docktails and dive party.
These are some of the pictures of the shops we had so much fun.
Bill and Bob from Karma spent the day Saturday 12/29 discovering the source of the vibration in the starboard engine and driving the golf cart to the Ace hardware. A bolt and pin on the shaft at the back of the starboard engine had sheared off. Bob says that it was an old problem but aggravated by the new recent groundings. Bob is a mechanic and we are so thankful that we met him because we keep him busy. Also, thankful that he loves to work on boats. Bob is a wonderful man. Bill and I would give him an award for helping other boaters along the way. YEAH! BOB!
I will try to post more tomorrow about Apalachicola, but today we travel to Carrabelle and wait to cross the gulf....Oh MY! The anxiety starts to build again, I'm so glad for shopping therapy.
Love and Prayers, Joy
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