Catamaran Harmony: Cobbs to Beaufort

I am afraid it has been awhile. Lets see. My brother, Em, and his daughter, Linda, joined as intrepid crew. We finally left Cobbs, after a wonderful man, Simon from his Blue Water Marine, got the water pump working in the starboard engine. Of course he found something else, a leaky hose in the fresh water heater. No parts but a little ingenuity and imagination got a new hose in and off we went. Well almost. IMPORTANT lesson: Make sure the electrical hookup is off before you leave the dock.! After some quick action on the helm and Em jumping off and retrieving it, we set off. Came down the ICW to mile 0 and then noticed that the bridges were all closed in Norolk from 3:30 to 6:00. A quick u-turn and found an anchorage. Picture a checker board with the red squares being the boats and the black squares being crab pots and you got it. The next morning everyone took off. By the first bridge we were 17 sailboats and 12 motorboats. Timing the bridges we arrived at the lock in the middle of the pack. Not everyone made it into the lock and we haven’t seen any of the others for the rest of the trip. Everything went well until Pungo Ferry Marina where we stopped for fuel. We left and went under the bridge marked as 60 ft. when it happened. Someone tried to use some water and there was none in the tanks. As it turned out, it was all in the Port engine room. Quickly spun around and, with Em bailing by the bucket and me on the bilge pump we got it back to the marina. What had happened was that the hose for the fresh water heater had come off emptying the tanks and flooding the compartment. Amazing that the engine still worked at all. After getting all the water out and adding a second clamp to the hose and getting more water, we took off again. I only ran the starboard engine until I really checked out the port one. We had gotten water into the transmission and the oil was all cloudy. Over the next day, I did “oil changes” with short bursts of using the transmission until all the cloudiness has disappeared. We only made it to Coinjock (mile 50) that night.
Next morning we left and only used the Starboard engine. We were able to run at 6.9 knots without any sign of overheating. At 7 we got a little steam so we kept it down. Got to mile 105 where the Alligator River narrows and the canal begins. A lovely little spot. Next morning we tried out the transmission for awhile and it seemed fine. Using both engines we got to a lovely spot just past mile 175 on the South River just across the Neuse River from Oriental. Next morning we were in Beaufort, at the docks where the current runs incredibly fast. A lovely dinner, Thank you again Linda, and a front was supposed to come through. Apparently NJ got more weather than we did. It is now about 80 degrees and no clouds in the sky. A wonderful time to head south but that will have to wait for more crew on the 25th.
Em and Linda went to the airport about 11 this morning and I miss them already. It was a good trip even though…but that is Linda’s story.