After 2 weeks we left St Augustine

Well I have been remiss in updating our blog. But, hope to get caught up over the next couple days.

Happy New Year to all.

We spent 2 great weeks in St Augustine and left on Sunday past for Daytona Beach,.

Above is a picture of the St Augustine Municipal Marina. This is the man fairway with the dinghy docks off to port.

We intended to leave STA early but when we got off the mooring the fog was fairly heavy but visibility was reasonable so we motored to the fuel dock to pump out, take on fuel and water. As we serviced the boat the fog actually got worse so we waited a bit hoping it might lift. About an hour after our arrival at the fuel dock it began to lift so we took off. But a few miles down the river it got intense so we slowed and with Linda on the bow we went mark to mark for about an hour until the fog lifted. Once it did it turned into a beautiful day. Temps got up to the 80's and we cruised past some beautiful homes.

We were passing Ormond Beach with just 5 miles to go Daytona and we were talking to a trawler who had been following us since back in the fog when we heard a loud pop and suddenly lost power.

I cut the engine and got the anchor down before the current could push us into shallow water. I then investigated and found the prop shaft had broken. We called Towboat US and made arrangements with the Daytona Beach Marina and Boatyard for a slip and after a few hours towboat arrived and took us into the marina.

During the tow we were unable to steer because the prop had fallen back into the rudder. After we got into the marina we discovered that the shaft log had cracked and there was water leaking int the bilge which identified a mystery source of water incursion since we left Oxford. We tried to find it and had made numerous fixes but this was one we hadn't seen until now.

I stayed up most of the night dozing off occasionally to ensure that the bilge pump kept running to remove the water. I found the hand pump handle and got it ready in case it failed and we needed to pump by hand. But, morning came and things were under control.

The yard folks came by in the morning and saw the issue and later in the day on Monday we got hauled and are now sitting on the hard.

More to follow...