Our last night in Beaufort we got to meet the new owner of a 2010 North Pacific 43 called MV Quiescent and his crew mate (my fellow DB admins will recognize the term “quiescent” as we all have to place the DB in quiescent mode to perform a DB backup). Quiescent = in a state or period of inactivity, dormant.
Kelly & I quickly set up chairs in our cockpit for our new NP friends and we enjoyed a beer and listened to their tale. They were nice folks who had just purchased the boat in Stewart, FL but had some difficulty during their trip North. After catching their lines when they arrived, I learned that they were having some electrical issues and had pulled into Downtown Marina to meet a boat serviceman to diagnose and repair the issue. After only a few minutes aboard the service guy said … “We have a bigger issue, the boat is sinking!”. Apparently, the PSS seal’s cooling hose had been pushed up against the prop shaft and melted. This caused water to begin filling the engine compartment. To add insult to injury the bilge pump switch was not operational. The water in the engine room had crested the engine room floor boards. A quick manual running of the bilge pump brought things under control as well as plugging the broken hose and adjusting the PSS coupling so it was tight enough that the flow of water coming in was down to a small stream. I’m happy they were able to get this under control as nobody wants to lose the boat they just bought on it’s trip home.
In the morning TowBoatUS strapped them into a hip tow and wicked them away to a boat yard to be hauled and repaired. I’m sure they will be back on the water within 24 hours. I hope we run into them again but under better circumstances.
Once they were gone we borrowed the marina’s courtesy car. A classic Ford wagon but it’s FREE (just put gas in it).
I used the courtesy car to make a run over the Lady’s Island swing bridge to Bill’s Liquors. While pulling into the parking lot a biker dude laughed and said he’s sure that the courtesy car knows how to drive itself to Bill Liquors. It was not the first time the car had pulled up out front.
Once back at the marina, we pumped out, took on 260 gallons of diesel, filled the water tanks and cast off our lines. Almost as soon as we headed North we were treated to about a dozen or so military jets screeching directly above our heads.
As the afternoon light was fading we were pulling into Charleston, SC. Charleston City Marina was full of large yachts as was the anchorage.
We had pre-selected several anchorages that just did not work. Most were very crowded and the reviews of a few others mentioned boaters fouling their anchors on underwater hazards. From the look of a sailboat mast sticking up out of the water I’d guess there was more than one boat sitting on the bottom of the anchorage.
As the last bit of light left the harbor we decided to simply drop the hook along the harbor’s shore and get some sleep.
Tomorrow we hope to make it to Georgetown, SC. A trip of not quite 60 miles North.
MV Simple Life 