Thursday morning at about 6:15 the generator quit. I tried to start it but it died right away again. This usually means it has overheated. I made a quick trip to the cockpit and discovered the mass migration of jellyfish that was happening right under us. I've never seen so many jellyfish in my life. In every 10 seconds, six or eight jelly fish floated by. Yep, the sea strainer was full of jellyfish. Susan and I cleaned it out and by then the generator had cooled down enough to restart. One hour later it shut itself down again. Four more jellyfish in the strainer. We needed to get going anyway.
Mike the diesel mechanic had arranged for some guys to help us unload the outboard motor so another mechanic could see what damage was done by being underwater during the big storm. We met them and dropped off the motor and then started motoring back across Pensacola Bay to Little Sabine Bay where we intended to stay the night. On the way there Susan called around and found someone to fix the bimini. They met us at a marina in Little Sabine Bay and took all the canvas off. From there we went just a bit farther into the bay and anchored. This bay is indeed little and the majority of it, in the middle, is not more than a foot deep. People paddle board or row out there and then walk around. There is one corner that is deep enough for a sailboat to anchor.
Our first attempt to anchor wasn't a success. It just didn't feel like the anchor was holding well and we were in the middle of the channel a bit. We moved to a better spot and tried again with more success. Storms were coming again and we weren't real comfortable about the anchor so Susan suggested we set a second anchor. We hadn't ever done that before but I sure felt better sleeping last night knowing we wouldn't likely drag the anchor. Speaking of, I downloaded an app for my iPhone that notifies you if you move outside some parameters you set. It's called Drag Queen. Isn't that cool.
Once we were settled in and the thunderstorms were mostly gone the generator shut itself off again. This time it was sea grass. The strainer was stuffed full of it. And not just the strainer, it was from the sea cock all the way to the strainer. It took us a good 30 or 45 minutes to get all the grass out of there. No more issues so far but I saw some sea grass floating by a bit ago when I was up on deck.
Remember me saying I was sleeping well last night with the help of Drag Queen and two anchors? At 4:15 this morning the Drag Queen alarm went off. That's not an alarm where you just hit "snooze" and go back to sleep. I poked my head outside and determined we were just swinging the opposite direction than from last night, we weren't dragging the anchor. I reset the parameters on Drag Queen and eventually got back to sleep.
Today we got our canvas back and put it up. We walked over to Pensacola Beach and enjoyed the white sand beach and the clear water. We hadn't gone prepared to swim but we did anyway. It was wonderfully refreshing. On the way back we stopped at the Sandshaker for an original Bushwacker. The annual Bushwacker Festival is this weekend so we may be making our way back a few times. Today, but before the Bushwackers, Susan went up the mast in the bosun's chair again. The flag halyard was showing a lot of wear, as were the flags. Not surprising after the wind we've had since we've been here. Susan replaced the flag halyard and we held off putting flags back up because we were supposed to get more thunderstorms tonight but it looks like they have all missed us.
The dinghy outboard is at a mechanic, hopefully we'll get it back on Monday so then once the weather cooperates we can head east again. That's it for now.
Take care.
Brian
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