trishlaplaca OH, NOOOOOO! Has our Great Loop adventure ended just short of making it to the finish line in New York City? Have we lost our beloved Oyster?
Jeff and I have always believed that we’ve led an amazingly fortunate life together, but this week is definitely testing our mettle. Here we were, just cruising along the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) near Wilmington, North Carolina, and we had just called the swing bridge master to request an opening to the Figure Eight Island bridge. He would happily oblige, he said, if we could get there quickly. Jeff put the engine into a faster gear than normal, commenting that pushing it once in a while is actually healthy for it.
Unfortunately, this apparently was not one of those times. We heard a terrible noise and the engine STOPPED.
”Oh, man,” Jeff said. “This is not good.”
I radioed the bridge master to inform him that we wouldn’t be passing, and Jeff got down to the engine after we anchored out. It happened to be a Sunday, so pleasure crafts raced by us all around, oblivious to our plight.
”We need to get towed,” Jeff said grimly. “Gotta call Towboat U.S.”
Minutes later we were being towed back to the Wrightsville Beach area from whence we came, and where the boat traffic on a Sunday was utter insanity. Knowing that there were boat repair yards open, our young and efficient tower Alex brought us to a beautiful anchorage where we could at least hang out in peace.
Jeff immediately went down to the engine room to assess the damage. I was relieved when he came up with a smile on his face.
“It may not be too bad,” he announced. “I’ll order the parts and have them sent to a marina here, which they can probably send overnight.”
We received them by noon, and Jeff deployed our dinghy Pearl over to get them. He immediately climbed back down into the engine room to do his thing.
”This is bad. Really bad,” he announced when he came back up. We need to get hauled out for a mechanic to help me assess the situation.”
At the very least, we were in a nice place to try to let go of our angst and try to relax.
The next day we were towed by Alex once again, this time north bound once again to a boatyard where the head mechanic was very familiar with Ford Lehman engines. Unfortunately, we received the bad news that he won’t be able to check it out until the end of this week.
There seriously aren’t any words to describe how we feel without a clear understanding of what we’re dealing with. Will we lose Oyster? Jeff and I both concluded that we simply can’t- and won’t- let that happen. The possibilities right now range from dealing with a fairly major repair to having to rebuild the engine entirely – and everything in between. The worst part is in the not knowing.
What would we do in Wilmington in the meantime? We decided to travel back to Florida to pick up our car. If we were going to have to hang around that area indefinitely while the work was being done, we would definitely need it. Jeff and I ended up flying out of Wilmington just hours later because not a single rental car agency would loan out a vehicle one way. Crazy.
With the help of our good friend Maurice, we were picked up at the Ft. Myers airport and stayed at our little wobbly box home in Labelle for a couple of days. We then headed back north towards North Carolina in our car, with yet another wonderful stop to our friends’ Ken and Marie’s place on Dataw Island in South Carolina for the weekend. We’ll return to the boatyard on Monday. At that point the choice will be to stay around there if by some miracle they can work on it, or we’ll keep going north to visit family and friends.
As you can see, we haven’t t been “roughing it” at all! 😉
So this is the story so far. Jeff and I refuse to give up our Oyster, and certainly not our America’s Great Loop adventure. Please stay with us – it’ll help if you keep your fingers crossed for a speedy and successful outcome, too! 😉🤞🙏
