While stopped in Wilmington, we walked around town.  Passing by this house Bill pronounced it the home of his great aunt Neely.  Now, he was only there once, and that was in about 1970.  When pressed, he says that it looks like the right house anyway.

We had the boat hauled out in Southport, N.C. for repairs hoping to stop a loud squealing noise that was coming from her engine.  Here she is, all 13,500 lb resting on her keel and propped up with these flimsy jack stands.  That is were we were sleeping (or not sleeping) during the night of the storm.

In the previous photo you can see the metal steps leading up to the cockpit of our boat.  I thought you would enjoy a close-up view.  While they were a great improvement over the usual 12 ft stepladder, they still left much to be desired.

After they made us leave the boat for our safety and while the wind was still howling, we walked into town and had a nice breakfast in this restaurant.  The hair of the woman in the picture looked as bad as mine did.  Bill, without much hair, had less of a problem.

The storm blew down this 100 ft tall, 100-year-old signal flag tower in town.  It was used to display storm and hurricane warning flags.  It had weathered every wind until our storm came along.

Four motorboats on the top tier of the dry stack racks near our boat blew off their wooden bunks in the storm.  They did not fall to the ground, but they ended up resting on the steel framework.  It took a crane to get them down.  You can see it in the picture.

While the crane was working, the yard crew launched Irish Eyes with her new propeller shaft and Cutless bearing.

In a second attempt to fix the noise, a diver was called to remove our propeller and install our spare.  You can just see his feet as he worked head down in the cold water.  The spare propeller and his tools were on the dock.

We are now finally underway again and headed south.  This is the 13^th time Bill and I have taken Irish Eyes south to the Bahamas.  If I were a superstitious person, I would be really worried about this trip because we have already had a bucket load of troubles.  But, I am getting ahead of myself, so I will back up and start at the beginning.

On January 11 Bill and I packed lots of clothes, three seasons worth, and anything else we thought we might need into our car and headed to New Bern, NC.  The driving trip was uneventful, and we were happy to be back on Irish Eyes.  Bill had a list of boat projects to complete before we could leave the dock.  The biggest one was installing a complete AIS system on our boat.  AIS stands for “Automatic Identification System”.  It broadcasts our name, position, and course so other boats can tell where we are going.  Up to now, we have been able to receive information from other boats but had not been able to broadcast our own information.  I like this addition.  I have never been sure that anyone looking down from a big ship and could see little us.  Now, we will show up on a screen on their bridge.

The morning after we arrived in New Bern, Bill started the engine and noticed a leak from the fuel injection pump.  We had a leak there last summer making our trip home a little scary.  Bill had replaced an o-ring during the summer fixing that leak, but this leak was another spot.  There was a mechanic working on a boat across the dock from us.  Bill asked him if he would come and look at our pump.  The mechanic came, looked at it, and said, “Call Troy at Coastal Diesel Service”.  Bill knew another mechanic.  He came out the next morning.  He said the pump needed to be fixed, and he said, “Call Troy.”  Bill called Troy.  Two weeks later the pump was fixed and back on the boat.  During that time Bill was busy with things on his boat to-do list, and I was busy with my knitting and reading.  As soon as the injection pump was installed, I bought the fresh food, Bill filled the car with everything we wanted to leave behind, he parked the car in the long term lot, and we were ready to go.

On January 30 at 9:30 in the morning, we untied the dock lines and headed out.  As we were motoring away from the dock both of us heard a squealing or singing noise as the engine passed through 1500 rpm, but it stopped and neither of us thought that it was a problem.  We motorsailed to our usual first night out anchorage in Cedar Creek where we had a quiet and peaceful night.

But, the noise remained.  Between 1300 and 1700 rpm there was an unmistakable monotone scream from somewhere around the engine.  Bill thought the nut on the packing gland was rubbing on the propeller shaft.  Neither greasing the nut nor re-packing the gland fixed the problem.  After four days of listening to an unhappy boat, we went up the Cape Fear River to the Wilmington City Docks.  There we could try and find the source of the noise with the boat stationary, and there we would be near boatyards with expert mechanics.  Once we were tied to the dock, we tried to reproduce the scream, but the noise was not there.  What was up?  I googled the problem and told Bill my findings, perhaps a loose alternator belt, a worn alternator, a faulty Cutless bearing, or maybe a bad shaft.  Bill found the alternator belt loose, tightened it, and pronounced the problem fixed.  Elated, Bill and I played tourists in Wilmington enjoying lovely warm weather, restaurant meals, and a railway museum tour.

As soon as we untied from Wilmington City Docks, we could hear the 1300 to 1700 rpm scream.  Bummer.  Bill called Wilmington Boat Works, and we went there to have a mechanic look at our engine.  A mechanic came and decided we needed to have the boat hauled out of the water and the shaft and Cutless bearing replaced.  There was just one small problem.  The yard was having concrete poured the next morning, and they said it would be three weeks before it would be hard enough to put us back in the water.  The yard guys suggested we go to Zimmerman Marine in Southport.  That is what we did.

Zimmerman’s mechanic, Steve, went for a short ride with us, listened to the noise, and recommended that we have the boat hauled out so that the shaft and Cutless bearing could be examined.  We said okay, they plucked the boat out of the water, propped it up on jack stands in their yard, and set to work.  They gave us a set of twelve foot tall metal steps to come and go from our stranded home.  This was February 5^th, Bill’s 69^th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Bill.

An old friend of ours from Salisbury, George Wilson, lives on Oak Island.  George came over to Southport to visit.  Bill and George traded stories for an hour or two, then we all went out to lunch.  Back at the yard they condemned the shaft and Cutless bearing.  A new bearing was ordered from Norfolk, and a new shaft was to be made by a Wilmington machine shop.  It looked like it would be a short repair process.

The next night a cold front passed through Southport.  The wind howled, gusting to 80mph, lightning flashed, and the rain poured.  Our boat on jack stands swayed in the wind.  In my mind the boat was threatening to fall over any minute.  I did not sleep much.  At about 6:30am we heard some knocks on the hull and a voice saying, “You have to get off the boat right now.  It is unsafe.”  Bill and I dressed quickly and left the boat.  The wind had unfurled the sail on another boat in the yard, and the yard master was afraid that boat would blow over toppling us and the other boats like a line of dominos.  In addition, four motorboats on the top level of the dry stack storage were blown off their supports.  They did not fall to the ground but were just sort of hanging there.  The wind was still howling, the place was unsafe, and all the workers were sent home.  This was Friday.  No work was going to be done on Irish Eyes until Monday.  Another bummer.

Bill and I walked into town.  I had the clothes on my back, my phone, no makeup, and unbrushed hair.  I felt, and looked, like a homeless person.  We had a gourmet breakfast, spent two hours touring a one room museum, and gawked at the 100-year-old hurricane warning flagpole that the winds had destroyed while a TV news crew interviewed the police chief and mayor.  We then went back to the boat yard to see what was happening.  The yard master said we could not stay on the boat until a crane could come and remove the four motorboats.  He did let us go back on Irish Eyes and get our things.  Bill and I walked back into town carrying our belongings in the two tote bags we had with us and checked into the Inn at River Oaks.  The Inn is a 1950s motel which has been refurbished and is lovely.  We spent three nights sleeping in a stationary bed.

Monday morning, Bill walked back to the yard to see what was up.  The workers said the crane would be there Tuesday.  Bill really wanted to be back on Irish Eyes and convinced the maintenance manager to say we could move back aboard so long as we kept a low profile.  So, even though the motorboats had not yet been removed, we moved back on our boat.  Work continued on Irish Eyes.

On Tuesday as a crane was lifting the motorboats off the dry stack’s steel racks, the Travelift launched our boat.  Bill, Steve, and I went for a ride.  The noise was still there.  The shaft and cutlass bearing were new.  Where was this noise coming from?  In desperation engine oil and the transmission fluid samples were taken and sent away for analysis.  Bill replaced our alternator and two vee belts in case that was the problem.  Then, to add to our woes, our hot water heater suddenly ruptured spilling water into our battery box.  Bill mopped up the mess and ordered a new water heater.  Friday, Nick, an engine specialist, went for a ride with us, and he said he thought the scream was coming from our propeller.  Friday night as the sun was setting, a diver came and replaced our propeller with our spare propeller.  (Bill of course had a spare).  Our replacement water heater had arrived, so Bill had something to do over the weekend while the yard was closed.  Sunday, Bill and I took the boat for a spin.  The scream was at last gone.  We needed to have the engine aligned, and we needed to pay for all the work.

It took two days for Steve to align the engine with Bill’s “help”.  They had problems with the engine mounts, but finally on Thursday they were both satisfied.  Another cold front was coming, and snow was predicted.  The wind picked up on Friday, it was very cold, the marina closed because of the weather, but there was no snow.  After two and a half weeks repairing the boat, we untied our dock lines on Saturday and left.  It is great to be on the move again.

Stay well and warm.