I knew the day I left Dowry Creek was going to be a long day so I was up and ready to go as soon as I could see where I was going. My planned stop was Lambs Marina just north of Elizabeth City NC and it was about 80 miles away. I was also anxious to see if the leak in the stern of the boat was fixed for good!!
I dropped my lines and pulled out of the slip into a beautiful morning with light winds and flat water. Another cruising couple I had met at Dowry Creek asked if they could follow me to Lambs Marina and through the Dismal Swamp as they had never gone that route before and wanted to try it. I agreed wholeheartedly as I wanted to pass on the same favor that the Pegu Club crew had done for me!! Now I was the momma duck!!
It was about 8 miles to go from Dowry Creek to the AP canal and we motored along at about 6.5 knots, enjoying the sunrise and looking at the wildlife. The other couple were on a catamaran so they were throttled back trying not to run me over as we turned into the canal. The canal is about 20 miles long so after some discussion on the radio, I pulled over a bit and let them pass me. We agreed to meet again at Lambs Marina that evening.
As I motored along, I started doing my boat checks and I found, once again, that I was taking on water in the stern…😳😡. I wasn’t very happy that the repairs I had done hadn’t fixed the issue so I started looking in the same area to see if I could see anything new. Nothing was obvious so I grabbed a towel and soaked up the water to try a different method of observation. One thing I’d like to point out is that I was trying to hang into the lazerette to look for the leak and this required me to set the autopilot to steer the boat. The other thing I want to point out is that the canal is only 150′ wide and of that width only about 80% is usable due to stumps and shallow water on the sides. See where I’m going with this? Auto drives to a compass point that you set on the instrument and if something offsets the boat, Auto will turn to adjust the course. Works fine in larger bodies of water but not so much in a tight canal. Needless to say, as I was hanging into the lazerette looking for a leak, Auto was driving us towards the shore so he could make a bigger leak on a stump. I don’t know why but a little voice in my head screamed that I needed to look up and when I did, the boat was about 50′ from shore and heading in at about a 45 degree angle. Suddenly, I was 17 years old again as my old body flew to the helm, disengaged the autopilot, and steered the boat back into the middle of the canal!! I had just done the biggest bonehead move of the entire trip and I wasn’t very nice in my scolding of myself…🤣🤣🤣. My stress level was now elevated between the leak and almost running aground but it was just the beginning…😞.
I finally got out of the canal and into the Alligator River which opened up a lot more and would allow me to comfortably set the autopilot so I could go leak hunting. I mopped up the water in the lazerette with another towel (the boat was starting to look like a laundromat with all the towels hanging from the lifelines to dry) and watched closely for where the water was coming in. Sure enough, water started collecting in the same spot just behind the rudder post but I couldn’t see where it was coming from. It almost looked like it was seeping in thru what appeared to be a crack in the fiberglass behind the rudder post…😳😳😳. OMG…am I taking on water thru a crack in the hull?? Is there a chance the hull could split open at that point and send Infinity to the bottom in a matter of minutes?? How can I fix this underway so I’ll at least have a fighting chance to save the boat?? Now my stress level was starting to hit the stratosphere!!
With all kinds of thoughts running thru my head, I grabbed my phone and called Denise to have her reach out to Catalina Yachts (the boat manufacturer) to see if one of their engineers could call me (I forgot it was Sunday…😖). Of course, doing this shot Denise’s stress level to about the same level as mine…😬. After we had both talked each other into a better state of mind, she hung up to call Catalina and I went back to search mode. The first thing I noticed was that if I throttled back the engine, the leak was considerably less…done. The next thing was to grabbed the owners manual and look at the drawings for that area of the boat. Nothing jumped out at me that would be a cause for the leak so I moved on. Going slower had slowed the leak down to a trickle so my stress level dropped a bit. At about that time, my phone rang and it was a friend of mine, Pat Kevane, that was very familiar with Catalina boats. Denise had reached out to him and explained my situation to him so he was calling to help with the diagnosis of the issue. I have him all the information I had to that point and his thought was that it might be the packing for the rudder shaft that was leaking. He didn’t think it was a structural problem but couldn’t rule it out completely. He suggested that I put paper towels around the rudder post to see if they got wet as it’s really hard to see if water is flowing down the post. I agreed to do just that, thanked him profusely for the help, and hung up.
I continued monitoring the water coming in as I motored towards the Alligator River bridge and into the Albemarle Sound. The Albemarle Sound is the last of the 3 major obstacles in North Carolina and I was hoping that the crossing going north would be as good as when we crossed it heading south. I went through the bridge and out into the sound with no issues at all. I unfurled the headsail and enjoyed a nice sail for most of the 12 miles to get across the sound…and then, once again, the winds started ramping up into the low-20’s. I turned up the Posquotank River to head towards Elizabeth City and they climbed into the mid-20’s with gusts close to 30 knots. I started to laugh…😖.
As I passed another sailboat in the river, I noticed that the catamaran I had left with that morning was only a mile or so ahead of me. I figured they would have already been tied up at Lambs so I was surprised to see them. I called them on the VHF and they said that they were having trouble with one of their engines so they were motoring on just one (I’m starting to wonder if I put out engine failure vibes or something…🤔). I passed them just before we got to the bridge at Elizabeth City so I called for an opening to try and time it so they wouldn’t have to slow down to wait for it to open. Mission accomplished!! Lambs Marina was just 3 miles after the bridge so it was no time before we were tied up to the facedocks and getting settled in for a couple of nights to let some weather pass before heading out to the Dismal Swamp.
As you can see in the picture above, things were almost picture perfect and it continued to stay that way for the next 2 days!! I found myself wishing the remainder of the trip could be like these days at Lambs but it wasn’t going to be my friends. Actually, it ended up being quite the opposite and it’s going to make for some interesting reading over the next few posts. I will say though, there were a lot of really good times both before and after this post so I’ll make sure to include more of the good things in the future.
Next time… Through the Dismal Swamp, out of North Carolina, and into the Chesapeake Bay!!
❤️❤️❤️
Sailing Infinity 