We got up in the AM (5AM) and by 5:15 we were underway, off through the fog and on our way down the Alligator River, don’t know if it’s true, but we’ve decided that it’s the Alligator River because it kind of looks like an Alligator on the map… I think we don’t want to think about the prospect of there being alligators in here. We crossed uneventfully through the Alligator River bridge, and continued on. We finally had some favorable wind, so we were able to make up to 7 knots at some point with the Genny out and the engine running. We all took turns at the helm and made some great headway. When Mark came up to relieve Brian at the helm, Brian went down to take a quick nap, and I brewed up some more coffee given that it was still pretty chilly and damp even through most of the fog had burned off. At about 2:00 PM we entered into the Alligator/Pungo River canal, passing a 31′Beneteau “Song of the Mira” at anchor just outside of the mouth at a permanent anchor (as shown on the charts). We turned into the canal with our Genny still out, and continued on at a brisk 5 knots down into the canal. About an hour into the canal, the wind started to ease off, and I relieved Mark at the helm for a little bit, while he went below to check on the throttle which appeared to be slipping, as our speed was dropping substantially. Mark came back topsides, and decided to run a little test by shutting off the engine to see how much push we were getting from the engine vs. the Genny. I emerged out of the head, and Mark suggested that I wake Brian up right away… we were getting NO thrust from the engine… meaning that something was amiss with our propeller. I woke Brian up, and the guys began to run through a series of potential causes… a wrapped prop - even though we didn’t think that we’d hit a lobster/crab pot all the way through having fully lost the propeller. We had the wind at our back, and the canal channel is fairly wide, so we were still well and truly under sail and making about 4 knots, but with the wind directly at our stern the Genny couldn’t decide whether it liked to be on port or starboard, so I went up with the boat hook and used it as a whisker pole to hold the Genny to port. Meanwhile the guys assembled and launched the dinghy (Portabote) and Brian climbed down into the dinghy and attached the outboard. A few pulls later, and the outboard still didn’t want to start. GRRR. So the boys continued to work on it, trying and trying to get the engine to catch and start running. WHOOPS! we hit a stump! not too hard, but enough to shake us all up a bit. No success with the outboard engine, so we were under sail, and we decided that we should anchor off of the ICW at mile 113.9 at the Fairfield Bridge/Canal anchorage - right next to I-94. Brian climbed back onto the boat and we continued to sail along at a decent clip… we had about 4 more miles to go and it was starting to get dark - we needed to make it to this anchorage before dark, since we had little/no room for error with no working mechanical propulsion! With relief, we rounded the corner and the markers for the canal were in sight. We began to reel in the roller furler Genny, and Mark took the helm while I navigated below and Brian set up to drop anchor. Following the directions of trusty Skipper Bob’s Guide to Anchorages along the ICW, we turned hard to port into the canal, and just as Mark yelled drop anchor, whoomph, we slid aground! Quickly the guys let out the anchor rode of the primary anchor, and then they somehow took the secondary anchor and used it to spin us around in the canal (so that we were facing out towards the ICW) and set that anchor as well so that we were securely anchored in this narrow, and shallow canal. We had the highway right next to us, we could hear some kind of highschool (I assume) game and the cheering going on… but we had NO internet and NO cell phone reception at all. The guys tried for a little while longer to get the outboard started, I mean worst case scenario we could tow Three Sheets behind the dinghy if we didn’t have a propeller right? Worst worst case scenario, we knew that John and Pat were behind us, as they hadn’t passed us, and we were all on the same route… maybe they could call ahead for us, or even give us a tow to somewhere? The guys decided that with dark closing in, we’d wait until the AM to see what the official status of the propeller was, but based on the poking around they’d done with the boat hook along the prop shaft… it was seeming like we were going to be having to get a new prop…. and a tow of some sort. Of course, we weren’t signed up for Towboat US yet… hmmm. We tried to hail John and Pat on the VHF, no luck… well, we just hunkered down, ate some dinner and watched some Carl Sagan Cosmos on the computer then turned in for the night.
P.S. THIS part of the ICW would be way more aptly named Dismal rather than the Dismal Swamp!!
