CHAPTER EIGHT – THE PORPOISE OF OUR TRIP

CHAPTER EIGHT – THE PORPOISE OF OUR TRIP

Last night the gale force winds rocked Slow Motion, which was tied well at various points to the dock. You could hear the lines straining against the wind. This was as close to nature as camping, almost. The winds kept up all night into the morning, and then the rains came. Intermittently, we had brief respites but for the most part we were in a major storm. No way we were going out on the Intracoastal Waterway under those conditions. Mostly the 45 mile per hour winds were the deterrent. We will cruise up the ICW in the rain, so long as the winds are below 10 mph and there is no lightning.

Here’s the silver lining in these storm clouds. Slow Motion continued to throw perplexing numbers at us, as we headed north yesterday. What was the transmission gauge telling us? Did we need a new filter? Did we need a new transmission? What about the readings on the two main fuel tanks? Why was the starboard side engine fuel gauge down a lot and the port side engine fuel gauge still at full? There’s a connecting pipe between the two tanks, so the fuel should be used equally, unless…. Unless what? So Quigley Mobile Marine showed up at 8 a.m. during the storm to go down into the engine room to check on the transmission and the fuel tanks. What did he find? A whole new and different – and very serious-- problem that needed our immediate attention: our “shaft brushes” were severely worn. Okay, new marine term: “shaft brushes”. As I learned today, a very bad thing –electrolysis-- can happen to your propeller shafts and propellers if the brushes are worn and not in contact with the propeller shafts. Basically, your $3,000.00 propellers slowly dissolve in the ocean water. Oh really? Yes, really! Did the boat surveyor mention this in his report? No. Did the repair yard bring this problem up? Of course not. But blessed Quigley noticed the worn out brushes. Then he went to town 10 miles away and returned with new brushes and installed them. All before noon. Ka-ching! (but a reasonable ka-ching).

Then the fuel tank polishing guy – yes, they polish fuel, who knew? – arrived to find out why only the starboard fuel tank was working. Well, a miracle happened between last night and the time of his arrival today. The gauges on both the starboard and port fuel tanks were nearly identical, showing that fuel had been used from both tanks. AND THERE WAS NO NEED FOR A REPAIR! AND ROBBIE THE FUEL POLISHER DIDN’T EVEN BILL US FOR THE HOUSEBOAT CALL! Could this be the beginning of a new era with Slow Motion? Could this be a fluke? Could this be magic? We just knocked on every bit of wood we could find, bade Robbie goodbye, and celebrated like it was 1999.

Okay, we’re not stupid or naïve. B O A T actually stands for Bring Out Another Thousand ($). We know that now. And we know that there will probably be daily concerns about boat parts, although some boat owners say they have gone for months without a repair. We’re not that lucky. But in that shining moment when we were told that the fuel tanks were working properly and there would be no repair bill for them, and no bill for checking on them, we rejoiced. And we decided to try to relax the rest of the day.

As we were relaxing on the sundeck, we heard the sounds of fins hitting the water, turned and saw porpoises playing around, diving up and down, racing from point A to point B – just off our boat. We also observed two pelicans on the pilings next to neighbor’s boat, as the pelicans were in turn observing us intently, particularly our hands. I know you can watch the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel and see the wonders of nature. But when you’re just sitting on your sundeck, enjoying a minimal repair expense day, and nature comes right up to you – it’s a great feeling. These porpoises were dark gray and 5 to 6 feet in length, and they loved to play together. After a while, we noticed twosomes in about four different places near our boat.

As we walked to the little grocery store on the dock, we saw a whole school of fish (about 12 inches each) swimming between boats. Art posited that they were hiding from the porpoises. Much of what we saw as “play” may very well have been hunting and feeding. It is quite shallow 10 to 20 yards away from our boat, and the porpoises would have an easy time getting food in this area. They were breathing hard, as they arose out of the water, so the fish they were chasing must have given them a little bit of a battle. And the pelicans just kept watching. That was kind of unnerving, what with their huge mouths and hooks on the end of their beaks.

The folks at Nettles Island are a mixed bunch. There is the hard working repair person (Quigley). There is the long bearded guy who helped us dock, who was fishing today “for something to do”. There is the grocery store owner, who sells everything, including chocolate mint chip ice cream in sugar cones. There is the voice on the phone, who is the marina guy, who we never see and whose door is always locked. There is the guy with the yellow lab mix, who looks well acclimated to boat life. There is the “southern belle” or “slut” with the two young men, who left in a huff this morning – she had a wheelbarrow full of stuffed Gucci bags – while the boat they had been on was perhaps repo’d by some guys from out of town. There are people who are living on their boats here, a completely different community than Soverel or Marina Bay, where most of the boats were unoccupied and many were up for sale.

One last item: Boat names. There is a boat named Perseverance tied up near us, and one named Tryst. My favorite, of course, is Lady Ann. There will always be an Osprey in this area. We followed Encore under many bridges our first day on the ICW. What would you name your boat?

The photos we are posting after this blog are from our excursion yesterday past many opulent areas, as well as wildlife refuges. We hope you feel a part of this watery adventure.

About “comments” to the blog, it appears that you have to have a google account or gmail account to post a comment. You might ask google about this. I know that the one comment we received (Thanks Brenda!) came from someone who has gmail. When we decided to do the blog, we consulted other bloggers (like Dorth in Abu Dhabi) and they said this google blog is the easiest to do. Except for posting comments by readers, that has been true so far. Thank you so much for reading and for letting us know how you’re doing. With any luck, you will be with us on Slow Motion one day.