Denise and I were up early and prepared to leave the dock for the 20 mile trip down river to Goose Bay. We would be running on just the port engine and were not exactly sure what speed we would obtain or how long the 20 mile trip might take. We were just off the dock and turned back south when we realized that the starboard shaft was turning from the forward motion of the boat and the noise encountered the day before was back and sounding like we could cause further damage if we continued. Actually, Geo had suggested tying a line around the prop and securing it to the boat to keep the shaft from turning, but I had not done that. I tried putting it in gear, both forward and reverse, but that did not stop the shaft from turning. We slowed and headed again towards shore as I was again thinking of anchoring and trying to get a line around the prop. Not surprisingly, we realized the better choice would be to go back to Bob and Barbara"s dock.
We were reluctant to go back to the dock because we were afraid Bob and Barbara had probably had enough of us, but surprises were still in store. Denise kept referring to us as Bob in the movie "What About Bob". We just wouldn't leave. As we approached the dock, Bob came down and caught a line for us. It was time to go back in the water, only now I knew about the snake. I tried to block the image of the snake from the day before and in I went. It took several dives under the boat to finally get a line wrapped just right and secured to a cleat topside to keep the starboard shaft from turning. I got out of the water as fast as I could and luckily didn't encounter a snake. I did get a few "barnacle bites" though.
But this is nothing compared to the bruise Denise got on her knee from bumping it somewhere on the boat.
I didn't even know about this until a few days after it happened as Denise was toughing it out.
Anyway, back to the the trip to Goose Bay. After successfully securring the starboard shaft we again took off and this time we kept going. But it was not without discussion. We were back to cruising, albeit a little slower than usual, but othere than that it seemed pretty normal. I told Denise we could probaly make it to Washington and even though we couldn't get the boat fixed, we thought about the possibility. It was only about a 10 minute discussion and we soon came to our senses and kept going towards Goose Bay. We turned from the wider portion of the river to the narrows and our speed jumped to over 6 miles an hour on just the port engine as we were riding the out going tide along with the river current.
Bob had offered to pick us up from Goose Bay and give us a ride to Washington as he was heading back to Alexandria, VA and back to work and we were still trying to salvage a few days of sight seeing before heading home. We had made hotel reservations in Alexandria.. While on the way to Goose Bay, Bob called to check on our progress and again invited us to dinner at the River House before heading to Washington.
I wanted to post a picture of Bob and Barbara, but they declined. I wanted to show you what angels looked like. Had we not met them, we would have been calling Tow Boat US and I'mnot sure how that would have turned out. I'm certain there wouldn't have been nice dinners and good converation and who knows how we would have gotten to Washington. As it is, the boat is now out of the water at Goose Bay and we are in Washington seeing the sights and forever indebted to Bob and Barbara.
Tomorrow we head home as I will be leaving on my annual fishing trip to Minnesota next week. We have flights back to Washington on June 14 and are hoping the boat will be fixed by then and we can contine the next leg of the loop. I'll post a few pictures from the Washington trip soon.
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