We finally left Annapolis on Monday, October 13. We took on fuel at Annapolis City Marina then headed out to the Chesapeake Bay. We had a great sail about 40 miles south to Solomons Maryland. As we came into the harbor we suddenly heard a loud CLUNK! and the forward gear was gone. Luckily, Billy Bob is one handy sailor, so he was able to get the boat into gear, but just barely. The transmission was in forward but the propshaft was barely turning We limped into the harbor and set the hook for the night. Hmmm....what now?
April and Kevin, who live in Solomons, called to see if we'd made it in. We told them about our problem and they offered to come down to the boat with their Yanmar (engine) manuals to help Bill figure out the problem. Bill rowed in on the dink, picked them up and brought them to the boat. Bill and Kevin analyzed the problem and decided it was definitely the transmission. Welp, wasn't much we could do at that point, so why not enjoy ourselves?
We had a dozen crabs we'd bought off a fisherman the day before and had steamed them up. We pulled out a couple of hammers and set to work. Had a GREAT evening enjoying good food and new friendship. What a difference from the old Boop and Bill who would have been wigged out by the impending costly repair. I have to say, this trip has taught us to take things one day at a time. Worrying isn't worthwhile. Be in the moment and enjoy the positives rather than focusing on the negatives.
April and Bill were quite adept at finding all the meat they could in the crabs' convoluted carcasses.
Bill demonstrates a shortcut to getting the meat out of a crab.
The next morning, Bill called a couple surrounding marinas to find someone to fix the transmission. The first one said they could do it, but didn't seem very knowledgeable. Bill called Mack Boring, who is a national company that repairs transimssions for Yanmar engines. They said, "There is a Yanmar-certified repair marina in Solomons, MD, are you near there?" "Yep, that's exactly where we are," he replied. "The name of it is Zahniser's, are you near there?" "In fact, we are anchored right in front of them." Talk about a being at the right place at the right time! Once again, things fell perfectly in place. We managed to get the boat into Zahniser's dock and settled in. By late afternoon, one of their crew was on the boat to analyze the problem. He too, agreed it was the transmission and tried to remove it, but was unable to do so, since it was wedged in behind the engine. He returned the next morning to lift the engine up and remove the transmission. They sent it out to Mack Boring's facility in New Jersey on Wednesday night. It is expected to take 7 - 10 days to be returned. So, once again, our plans are changed. Instead of spending one night in Solomons, looks like we'll be here a couple weeks. We hope to take off again early the week of October 27...will keep you posted. In the meantime, here's some photos.
Zahniser's main office. The facility is impeccably clean and well maintained.
Our friend, Eric Jensen, surprised us with a visit on Oct. 16. He was in Baltimore for business and drove down to spend the night. We took a long ride on the dink down the various creeks that feed into Solomons bay. It's sort of like Cumberland Lake, in that the creeks wind back and forth for miles. Beautiful homes all along the coast. We had a great morning exploring the area, it's always good to see friends. (By the way, the title of this blog comes from Eric. When we first got the boat, he was at the helm as we came into Battery Park. His boat had one control for speed and gears. Ours had two separate controls. As he tried to put the boat into reverse to slow it down as he pulled into the dock, he yelled, "I ain't got no frickin' reverse." To this day, we have not let him live it down. Sorry Eric...had to tell the story one more time.)
Eric left behind a case of Miller Light which Kevin and Bill took no time in devouring. Bill always kids Eric that Miller Light is "swill" so they made up the sign above to send to Eric.
April and Kevin on our first night out on Solomons Island.
Bill and I at the Calypso Crab Shack.
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