Day 18: Problems

BOBBY'S FISH CAMP, ALABAMA USA

We woke up this morning to a little bit of fog.  A report from the Demopolis Lock and dam indicated that the fog was a bit more heavy down river so we waited on the dock a little while longing.  Our friends from Texas Tea were making the 218 mile jump to Mobile Bay today and while we were quite capable of doing that we were not interested in burning that amount of fuel and we are still keeping a close eye on some storms down in the Central America region that have a small chance of becoming a Hurricane.  We left the dock and it was business as usual.  We have been having some problems with our bow thruster and while we are waiting for parts for the starboard hydraulic pump the port pump seems to be fine other than alarms that are triggered due to the starboard pump being disengaged.  I called American Bow Thruster as soon as they opened to trouble shoot some of the problems to see if we could bypass the alarms and get the thrusters working.  We didn't have much luck so I flipped the breaker on the thrusters and we continued down the river.  An engine check a short time later came back with bad news.  The thruster motor seemed to blow, similar to what happened to the starboard pump.  It was weird because the breakers were off and nothing was engaged.  Worried that the spinning engine would cause more damage to the pump we shut down the port engine and I attempted to disengage the entire pump from the engine.  I could not do so.  We ran on one engine for about an hour and talked about the options.  Just as this was going on we got alarms from the starboard engine about exhaust temperature.  Everything seemed to be normal and we decided to start both engines and continue down the river at a slow pace.  Once at Bobby's Fish Camp I spent hours on the phone with ABT and Wade our yacht services guy from Michigan.  We determined that our situation may not be as bad as the starboard pump but things were not looking good.  I spent about an hour in the hot engine room blasting set screws with torches and resetting speed sensor rings.  All of the mechanics seemed to be working fine again.  I fired the engine and got a good healthy thrust from the bow thruster for about a second and it stopped.  After a few more hours on the phone we are still not sure what the problem is but are hopeful that it is not nearly as severe as the starboard pump situation.  We are going to continue to run until we can get to a port where supplies and mechanics can come and go as needed.

On another note Bruce saw a 6-8 foot alligator on the river banks today and Bobby's Fish Camp is another cool spot in the middle of no where.  There are a few other boats here and it was nice to have conversation and a beer with everyone.  Apparently there is a chance of waking up tomorrow morning to alligators sun bathing on the dock.  Tomorrow we will make the final push to Mobile Bay and finally reach the gulf.  I shouldn't say finally because we will be getting there in two weeks time from Chicago if all goes well.  The owner of the boat has granted us a few days off in Panama City to have "some fun in the sun" if we wish to take it, and we may just take him up on his offer.  From there we will probably cross directly to Sarasota if the seas and the weather permit.
I promise to get some photos up soon.

Sound Waves Out