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Cleaning the windshield on Tropical Horizons II.
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Schaefers Canal House, eerily quiet in the morning.
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The morning started off as normally as every other morning has with one slight difference, this time I decided to start the engines from the helm. I turned the keys on, silenced the alarms and pushed the start button only the hear......SILENCE! This was not good. We had problems with the batteries ever since I arrived at the winter storage yard to find that the batteries had not been properly stored. I would have to make sure that the batteries always had a charge on them so that we would be able to have the power needed to start the engines. I looked down at the panel to find that I had missed the 32 Volt charger breaker. Even though this breaker was missed, we should have had enough battery power to start the engines? As the rest of the crew were on the dock and deck readying Tropical Horizons II for departure, I was going around the cabins and engine room, shutting off all 32 Volt loads. I noticed in the guest head a light fixture that was left on .... this light fixture had a sticky switch and could become difficult to turn off and it would seem that it was left on all night. Then in the engine room, there was a sanitation pump that was running, very slowly now. I had found the culprits. I cut power to the sanitation pump, turned off the light fixture and disabled it. Then I started up the generator and brought the backup 32 Volt charger online to push an extra charge into the battery bank. I then emerged on deck and gave our crew the news that we would not be going anywhere and what I had found as well as what I suspected took place. We waited for a few hours for the batteries to take on enough charge before we could start the engines again.
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This was a great stop, we'll be back here.
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Diane came up with a temporary solution to the sanitation pump issue as it seemed it was a toilet bowl seal that was dried up and needed lubrication. She applied a coat of grease on the bowl seal and this seemed to have resolved one of the problems. While we waited Tank got another walk in before what would seem to be a long day for him. We had some breakfast, checked weather and tides again as the batteries charged. I gave the engines another try, this time from the engine room, and they fired back up again. We were ready to shove off!
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Goodbye Schaefers, we're off the Utches.
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Departing the dock was uneventful and almost routine as I was starting to know how Tropical Horizons II behaved, however I kept on forgetting to turn on the stabilizers and set them to center. This could potentially cause me some grief in the future, so I needed to make this part of my start checklist. We continued down the C&D canal and before long we were into the Delaware Bay.
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Down the canal, bridges on the horizon.
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This railway bridge is kept in the open position.
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Some interesting bridges spanning the C&D.
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This was a great opportunity to continue working on my radar skills and learn about taking bearings and placing range marks on targets so that I could compare them with what I was seeing on the GPS plotter. This was great practice! As the day moved on the list angle became more and more pronounced. I could see that we were over by about 6-7 degrees to Port. Capt. Steve came into the wheelhouse and brought his concerns to my attention and that he could really feel it while sitting on the aft deck. This is when I came up with a plan.
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Tank, I think he is starting to feel at home on Tropical Horizons II
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The end of the canal is in sight.
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I think I'll stay out of his way!
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I asked Steve to relieve me for a while as I addressed this problem. I started to understand what the problem was. With the fuel tank full there was nowhere for the fuel to go and so it would stay mostly centered in the tank. This acted as a ballast and would help keep the boat on an even keel. Then the water tanks which were connected together via pipes and valves would also find a balance that would behave in the same way as the fuel tank. With less fuel in the tank, the fuel was then able to move from one side to the other further adding to the listing. The water tanks, which were placed higher up in the vessel would act the same way and would continue to exacerbate the problem. I went down into the engine room and isolated the tanks through the shutoff valves and set the port side tank as the supply tank to the freshwater system on the boat. The starboard tank was shut off and isolated completely. I then went out on the fore deck and connected our potable water hose to the anchor freshwater wash down tap and started transferring water from the port tank to the starboard tank. Since the tanks were higher up in the boat they would have a greater righting effect. As water moved from one tank to the other the boat started to straighten out and we managed to return her to an even keel as the fuel moved as well to even out the level of the boat. It was a creative way to address a problem that could have become a safety issue for all on board.
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A pod of dolphins that Karen spotted in the bay.
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More lighthouses.
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Radar target practice!
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And yet another lighthouse.
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And another one, I wonder who cleans these up?
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Someone is going to have a nice meal!
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Heading down the Delaware Bay.
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Open water all around us.
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Now that I was out on the deck, I looked at the line setup. Karen was not happy with the arrangement that Diane had set up, moving lines from one side to the other and always removing the lines after departure then re-positioning them prior to arrival. We had enough lines to cover both sides, so I wasn't quite understanding why we were moving lines around. I started to sort all of this out placing lines on all cleats then coiling the lines and storing them on the rails in a way that Karen was familiar with. This way all she had to do was remove the line from the rail and toss it to the dock hands or catch a cleat, mooring bit, or piling, depending on the situation. This to me made so much more sense. Karen and Diane had worked on removing unnecessary fenders from the deck, which I stowed on the boat deck, so deck clutter was reduced and we put out our fenders after we have docked since fenders can become a real hazard. I showed Karen what I had done and she was quite content with this arrangement.
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Next stop Cape May New Jersey.
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Back in the wheelhouse, and checking on the boat level, I was pleased that we were still on an even keel and that the solution that I had implemented seemed to have resolved the problem. I took back command and we continued on our way towards Cape May. Along the way, Karen spotted dolphins and many different birds. We kept an eye out for the tankers and other vessels around us, watched for fish traps and crab pots and just enjoyed a nice day on the water. As we arrived at the entrance into Cape May using the back channel, we were over taken by several other vessels and we scooted past the ferry terminal. Diane had me concerned with the amount of shoaling that was taking place in the channel, I followed the track that a work boat ahead of us was taking with the hopes that he knew where he was going. As it turned out....he did!
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| Entering the Cape May Channel. |
Once in the canal, we kept to the center and hailed Utches Marina on the VHF for navigational instructions about the entrance into their marina. This would be the trickiest approach that I had yet to maneuver through. At a given channel marker I would make a 90 degree turn to my starboard side, then I would have to keep about 10 - 15 feet from their breakwater to stay in the channel. As I approached the entrance to the marina, it would be another 90 degree turn to starboard and into the entrance of the marina. This required port engine forward, helm hard to starboard, forward thruster to starboard, stern thruster to port and as we were halfway through the turn, starboard engine astern. All of this happens slowly as we are not moving very quickly with Karen talking in the headset telling me, "I don't know how you're going to do this", almost resigned that we are going to crash into something. Once Tropical Horizons II was about 2/3 through the turn, it is time to start bringing everything back to center as her momentum will carry the turn the rest of the way through. With the wheel at center, I was now only using transmissions and thrusters to steer the rest of the way into our slip. We landed without incident and once tied up we were ready to decompress.
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Our slip for the evening.
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Karen and Diane went ashore to do laundry, while Steve and I decided to transfer 20 Gal. of fuel from the Jerry Cans I had in the engine room back into the fuel tank. We should have transferred more, however; the remaining Jerry Cans would have been more of a challenge to get to, especially crawling around those two very hot fire-breathing dragons that lived in the engine room.
Steve and Diane decided to treat us to a lobster dinner that evening. While Steve and Diane went out to get the lobster dinners, Karen was busy with laundry and I decided to take Tank for another walk and go to the ships store to pick up a new boat hook for Karen. The old boat hook that came with the boat was not locking in place and was giving Karen a hard time.
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Yummy!
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A good time was had.
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| This picture speaks for itself! |
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Lobster dripping with butter!
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That evening, we enjoyed a nice lobster meal, with clarified butter, corn on the cob and a baked potato. We retired for the evening as the next day would have us heading out into the Atlantic Ocean. We were excited about this as it would be a first for Karen and I. Laying down in my bunk, I couldn't help but think "Finally the boat is level!"
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Red sky at night, sailor's delight!
Another great sunset to cap off a great day. |
