The Perils of River Cruising

It was a nice warm morning, so before leaving the anchorage at Sandy Point I launched the dinghy to take some pictures of Tranquility.

Note the oars and lack of a motor.  I made a brief attempt to start the motor, but gave up after just a few pulls.  Denise waved goodbye as I floated off.

On the way out of the anchorage we came past the aptly named "Great House Point".

The Potomac is a very wide river, 4 miles across where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay and still this wide for the first 40 or so miles. 

I read in the Waterway Guide that we would be passing the Dahlgren Naval Weapons Training Center and that it was possible to encounter live fire training.  The charts indicated an area deemed the "danger zone" and explained that in the event live fire training was taking place we would be directed to a safe side of the channel, but may have to endure loud explosions.  Unfortunately, there was no training taking place as we passed through the area.  At about mile 45 the river narrows to about a mile and a half wide and here I started seeing debris in the water, mostly logs and other brush like stuff. 

We started looking for an anchorage as the afternoon thunderstorms looked to be forming again and pulled into Potomac Creek.  This is the site where Pocahontas was captured in 1613.

At this point, Washington DC is 50 miles up river and we got an early start hoping to get to our downtown marina by early afternoon.  Here the river widens again to about 3 miles and we again started seeing more and more debris.  We had gotten a DC televsion station the night before and there was a story about how much debris was in the water due to recent flooding.  Their video even showed a refrigerator floating in the water.

We had only gone about 5 miles when I heard a loud thud against the hull and knew I had hit something, but I didn't see anything as we continued on and told Denise to listen for any unusual noises from the cabin.  The debris continued to increase and it was getting harder to try to find clear spots.

I was less worried about the stuff I could see in the water and more worried about what I couldn't see.  It wasn't long before we hit something again and this time it caused the starboard drive shaft and / or propeller to start making bad noises.  I had to shut it down and we began to ponder our options.  We headed towards shore and shallower water where I was thinking I could drop the anchor and dive under the boat for an inspection, but as we got closer I saw a few docks in front of houses and started scanning them with binoculars hoping to find one I could tie up to for the inspection.  After passing a few that had collected massive amounts of debris I spotted a larger one that seemed clearer and we got close enough to get lines around the posts.

I donned the mask and snorkel and headed under the boat, but couldn't see all that well in the dirty water, so felt around the shaft and propellers on both sides, but didn't come up with anything tangled or wrapped around.  We were hoping that it was just something that could be untangled or cut loose.  That wasn't the case.

Time for a phone call to Geo to get advice on what to do and help further troubleshoot the issue.  We determined it was likely a bent shaft and think this is worst case.  There could be less serious trouble, but we're prepared for a need for a new or repaired shaft. 

Thinking we could still run on the port engine, I called the marina in DC to see if they could lift the boat and fix whatever problem we found.  Unfortunately, their lift capacity was under the 24,000 pounds we needed and also said there were no marinas downtown that could do it either, now we had a dilemna.  About that time the owner of the house and dock came home and immediately tried to help with options.  Bob invited us up and we met his wife Barbara and were overwhelmed by their willingness to help and even offer us transportation.

 After a few more phone calls and with Bob's help we determined that the best course of action was to make plans to take the boat to the Goose Bay Marina, which was 20 miles back down river, the only problem was that it was necessary to have an incoming or high tide to be able to get into their docks and we were currently at low tide.  They would not be able to provide the lift until Monday morning (it was Saturday), so Bob and Barbara offered to let us stay at their dock, even providing water and electricity.  As this is their weekend house and were just down from Alexandria, we let them get back to their plans.  Later in the afternoon, Bob was going to his boat which had just been put into the water from winter storage at Goose Bay, so I rode along and was able to talk to the service man and solidify the plans for lift and repairing whatever was found.  If you're getting the impression at this point that Bob and Barbara were awfully nice people, keep reading, it gets better.

After the stop at Goose Bay, Bob informed me he had a few stops to make in La Plata, MD and these included picking up some groceries for the dinner they were inviting us to at the "River House".  He at least allowed me to bring a bottle of wine and we were treated to a very good steak dinner, which included some nice conversation with them and their son Allen, who had come down from Alexandria for the night.

I'm going to call this part of the story Part 1 and will soon post Part II, which continues with the incredible Bob and Barbara.  Stay tuned.