Holed up in Charleston

Well we missed the crack of dawn. I awoke at 515 and was surprised the Captain was still asleep, as he is a notoriously early riser and also a light sleeper. Feeling somewhat relieved, I crawled back into bed in the v-berth figuring I would be startled awake within the hour by the horrific rattle and squeal of the chain reeling. Unable to shut my mind down, I laid there awake for a full hour. Right around this time, I actually began to wonder if other Ralph was still breathing...which led to some rather imaginative fantasies about what I would do with Betsy and his carcass.  Needless to say, I now have a plan ;). Being a pathologist helps in this regard!

About 15 minutes later my inner dialogue ran something like this:

"Wtf."

"He hasn't slept this late since he left the womb."

"Crap, what if he really has passed."

and then...

"Well I can swim to the marina from here if I can't figure out how to get this damn boat running." 

Isn't it amazing how our innate biological instincts direct us toward self-preservation instantly in times of crisis?

EDIT: Dad pointed out that I failed to finish this portion of the story. Immediately after realizing that I could swim to shore and wasn't also about to meet my demise, I heard him step in from the back deck while talking on the phone. I should probably be sharing a heartfelt story about how relieved I was that he survived the night, but I somewhat rushed upstairs alarmed that we missed out early getaway!

Having pre-plotted our route all the way to Eastport, ME perfectly on Simrad last night as I shared, I was confident we would not make any navigational errors. And we didn't!!! Y'ALL BETTER BE CHEERING AS THIS IS MOMENTOUS.

HOWEVER... the Simrad was failing to keep up with the boat. My friends who are auto and motorcycle enthusiasts refer to me as "Ralphie Wheels," because I own too many cars and motorcycles and drive them all too fast. Well they had better start calling me "Ralphie Props" because not even GPS can keep up with me in an '85 Huckins! At 20 knots the Simrad was a blank white screen. Even on the slower sections of the ICW, it was starting to lag behind. Eventually we got a low voltage warning... and our generator wouldn't start... and our VHF was too weak to communicate with boats I could hit with a lacrosse ball... hmmmm, my intuition told me there was an electrical issue! Damn this boating shit is just too easy.

The captain wasn't keen on having me replace the (at the time, presumed) dysfunctional impeller. After all, it was replaced just two seasons ago (note to boaters- manual says to replace it at 12 months or 500 hours). Luckily, we had a spare impeller on board. #RalphsAreAlwaysPreparedExceptWhenTheyAreNot.

We decided to head into Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina where Zimmerman Marine would perform the repair (huge thanks to Steve Wallace and nameless mechanic from Zimmerman). The impeller on our generator's water pump was worn to a nub- there wasn't a vane left intact. This means the pieces have flushed into the heat exchanger. The mechanic back-flushed the system, but nothing came out. When he fired up the generator, it was still overheating within a minute or two. We are stuck at the moment because it is too hot & humid to anchor without a generator. Tomorrow morning he will return to remove the heat exchanger, which requires draining the cooling system. Ralphie Props has his money on a thermostat or sensor problem, but fingers crossed the exchanger is just plugged up and we are motoring out by mid morning. I will use that time to (hopefully) get some drone footage, mount a GoPro on the outside of the boat to get some new angles, and take some photos of the utter lack of access to working on the generator. We were told that all boats have generator access problems, and that Huckins boats are notoriously difficult. Getting to the impeller is manageable, but the heat exchanger is really tucked up under there and the mechanic said the thermostat is even more difficult. Don't worry, I am sure it will be cheap!

More updates tomorrow.