Days 159 & 160: Not an Easy Fix

Crescent River to Thunderbolt Marina, Thunderbolt, GA

June 23 & 24, 2022

Travel days often start really early to make best use of time and tides. We knew that we had to get through Hell Gate on a rising tide at around 1:30 PM to make sure the water was deep enough, which meant leaving Crescent River anchorage around 6:30AM.

On days we are on the move, breakfast is prepared underway. We don’t have enough power when we are not attached to a dock to use any electric heating devices like toasters or coffee makers, so we’ve figured out some routines that work for us.

We had a few fresh berries left from when we last shopped in Fernandina Beach so we used them up.

Since we can’t use our toaster, we butter bread on both sides and fry it as a toast substitute. I usually do this as we wait for the water for tea and oatmeal to boil. Sometimes John will have French press coffee, but cleaning the carafe is kind of a pain.

The water was really calm and the tide was pushing us along so we actually got to Hell Gate earlier that we expected. John dropped the speed and we sort of glided through; the slow pace gave us some grace in case the water was too shallow and we needed to back off.

Once again, we are really, really thankful for the air conditioner that John installed in Titusville. We plan to eventually install a marine air conditioner so we won’t have to worry about having to stow or secure the unit when we sail. There was no wind when we arrived at Thunderbolt and the 100 degree inside Lailia was not at all fun. By the time we went to bed, the air conditioner had dropped the temp to 70 degrees in our cabin.

In hopes of repairing the autopilot, we spent an extra day in Thunderbolt Marina because they have an attached boatyard where we hoped we could get some information and assistance. The break in the cable was easy to find (after John engineered a way to take off the special fasteners on the back of the unit).

The good news was that an electrician had the part we needed and was willing to deliver it to us at the dock; the bad news was that he couldn’t get there until after lunch. We needed to stay at Thunderbolt for an additonal day, which turned out to be a good decision because unforecast high winds blew in.

There were five wires inside the cable for the autopilot. It took a while to attach them all in the right order (we are working on a boat that is moving in the wind and waves with a limited selection of tools). The really bad news is that once everything was connected, the autopilot still does not work.

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Once the sun went down and the temperature cooled off a bit, we strolled through the tiny town of Thunderbolt (near Savannah). The town embraces its history around the the yacht basin so much that even the town seal has an anchor on it.

It’s also dog-friendly 🙂

It’s raccoon-friendly, too: the raccoon crossing sign is very close to the dog treats. No doubt the trash pandas are aware of the container of biscuits sitting there.

This marina has very limited staffing so John has made a plan for our departure in the morning that does not require any outside assistance even with the strong wind and current. We’ll head to Port Royal on the last stop prior to a short stop in Charleston, where we will visit some friends and I will fly out to Tahoe. We’ll continue heading north after a week or so.