A week in the life?

Oh, my, where to begin? I guess I’ll start at the beginning.

We finished up the necessary jobs and launched on Saturday as planned. Then we took the big motor home to town one last time. The plan is to load the rest of the things onto Submit on Sunday and pull out at high tide Monday morning. We need high tide to get out the channel from Gibson’s. It started raining about 3 AM on Sunday and continued to dump buckets until 5 AM on Monday. We moved the motor home next to the boat so we had a fairly short distance to haul stuff and bagged what we could to help keep it dry. Of course, wet was the rule of the day. It was slow going, so we didn’t finish. Monday was cold, but not raining, so we finished loading and put the motor home to bed and pulled away from the dock. We were later than we had hoped, but we were able to get out without touching bottom. The engine died partway out but restarted in time to keep us from hitting pilings.  We are on our way!

I think we mentioned in one previous post that water had gotten into the fuel tank. We made periodical checks of the filter and switched over to the second one.  We are making good time and hope to make it to the low bridge by low tide. But….the engine dies. We drop anchor in the middle of the St Johns River and start tracking down the problem. Sleuth Reggie determines it is the secondary filter. For those of you that know us well, this will be a surprise to you—we had no spare. (we hqve since acquired several) Reggie did something to a filter we did have on board to make it work for the clogged one and, after having lunch, we are under way again.

Reggie was on the helm and Barbara was below putting away everything that had been unceremoniously temporarily “stowed” on the V berth. She then decided to let Reggie go below and warm up, so she took the helm. Reggie was standing in the upper salon rearming our life jackets. Barbara checked the depth sounder, 17-20 feet. Then she scans the river for a channel marker. Suddenly Submit comes to an abrupt stop, her bow dips and the shallow water alarm goes off. We are in 5.5 feet of water. Reggie falls backwards like a tree that has been cut down in a stiff wind. Barbara calls out “Reggie! Reggie!” No response and he is not moving. She reduces the engine to idle, shifts the transmission to neutral and goes below. His eyes are slightly open, he is breathing heavily and making a groaning, gurgling noise. He does not respond to Barbara voice or touch. Then blood starts coming out of his mouth. Time to get help. Her hands are shaking too much to push all the buttons on her phone to call 911. She grabs the VHS “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.”  The coast guard answers immediately, “What is your situation?” She answers all the million questions and Reggie starts to come to. He wants to get up from the floor. Barbara wants him to stay down, but she has to go out to the helm to get their location. The Coast Guard contacted Fire Recue and ordered an ambulance and a boat to come get him off Submit and on shore. They also contacted Boat US to tow us off. Barbara thinks she also talked to the Sheriff. It took 20 to 25 minutes for the boat to arrive and by then Reggie was sitting in the cockpit. He was unstable on his feet and wasn’t real sure what had happened, but he knew we were bouncing on the bottom and needed to do something. He had bitten his tongue, hence the blood. He was able to climb into the rescue boat with assistance. While they took him to shore and to the waiting ambulance a fire rescue member and Barbara prepared the boat to be left. Barbara thought she could get Submit off the sandbar as the tide had come it a little. Then she dropped bow anchor, collected needed items, turned off GPS etc.  When the rescue boat returned to take Barbara to shore, they hauled our stern anchor out and dropped it, too, to help keep Submit in place.  By the time Barbara got to the ambulance Reggie was almost fully alert and all vital signs were good. They still wanted to take him in to make sure there were no broken bones in his shoulder and no bleeding in his skull.

The ER visit was typical. Lots of questions and waiting. CT scan of head and neck and x-ray showed no fracture or bleeds. He has a concussion and sprained shoulder. Prescriptions for pain meds and a muscle relaxer were given as well as a sling. The only unusual thing that happened was two heavily armed uniformed men walked in, “Mr. Good?”  Oh, no, what now? They were from the Florida Wildlife Conservation. It turns out that they must investigate all boating accidents. They were very friendly and we had a nice chat. It turns out that there are only two sand bars on the river and we found one of them.

It was around 6:30 when Reggie was released. We were miles from the boat and it would have been possible to get there, but then what? There was no way to get out to Submit. Boat US had been working on a solution to getting us back on board. However, their boat was two hours away and if we were, in fact, no longer grounded, we would not be covered. We were exhausted and decided to take a taxi to a motel and work on logistics for getting back aboard Submit next day. All we had with us when we checked in was two life vests and some cash and cards Barbara grabbed from Submit before leaving.  Because we checked in with our life jackets we figured we would be safe.  The desk clerk did make a comment about how we pack lightly. They took pity on us and gave us tooth brushes and paste and a comb. Neither of us, but especially Reggie, wanted to move.  Barbara cooked in the room by ordering in pizza so Reggie could have food for taking his first dosage of meds and sleep well. The motel offered breakfast the next morning and then friends came to our rescue.  Larry and Barbara picked us up to take us to Harry and Darla’s because they have a fishing boat and live not far from where Submit went aground.  

We are grateful to the Coast Guard, sheriff’s office, Fire Rescue, Boat US, and of course our friends.

We were not sure what we would find.  Would submit have drifted away?  Would she have been stolen?   Did she sustain damage in the grounding and took on water and sank?  Would she have been vandalized? 

Submit was still in place hard aground and sitting about 8” higher out of the water than usual.  We were able to board from Harry and Darla’s nice fishing boat.  We hoisted the bow anchor and were able to drag the stern anchor aboard.  We tried to back off the sandbar but she would not budge even with their boat trying to help.  There really wasn’t much else Harry and Darla could do for us, so, after carrying our stern anchor out to deep water for us to use as a kedge, we said our goodbyes, thank you and sent them home.  We would set an alarm for high tide in about 5 hours and settle in for the evening. 

Water depth said 5.1ft.  Reggie hauled in as much slack as the stern anchor would allow and we went below to have dinner.  Barbara was all set to cook a nice hot meal when we discovered the propane system would not work so no cook stove?  What to do? No problem!  We had been carrying, for YEARS, a supply of military MREs (meals ready to eat! Yum!)  So, out of the depths of a storage compartment came a chicken fajita dinner with seasoned rice and tortillas, and a pasta primavera dinner.  Just stick the primary portion of the dinner in its self heating pouch, add a little water and in about 5 minutes a hot dinner.  Other parts of the meal just needed small amounts of hot water.  Sorry, no propane means no hot water.  And, after 30 or 40 years, self heating pouches don’t.  We managed to eat some of the dinners cold and didn’t die!

Water depth was checked over the next couple hours and dropped to 5.0 ft and then 4.9 ft.  When it came back up to 5.0 ft, Reggie again took up what slack he could on the rear anchor line and we settled down to read and sleep until the alarm went off.  In about ten minutes, Barbara looks out the window and asks if those are airplanes or moving lights?  They begin to reverse their motion so it seems they must be lights.  Reggie heads to the cockpit to check depth and the anchor line only to discover that we are in 30 feet of water.  We did not even feel moving off the sandbar.  Quickly the aft anchor is hauled in, the engine started and we head directly away from the sandbar to mid river and drop anchor in 17 feet of water for the night.

Not our most pleasant night. It is bitterly cold and the wind is howling, the river is rough. Reggie gets up to tie the boom down so it quits squeaking and banging. Then Barbara get up to remove a gender that had been forgotten and kept knocking on the hull to be retrieved. Then it was Reggie’s turn again to reset the anchor chain lock because the anchor was banging every time we rode up a wave.

Wednesday morning dawns cold, overcast and a north wind blowing 15 with higher gusts and wind chills in the low 30’s.  And, we must head north into the wind and waves.  Neither of us was very hungry so we had a little snack and headed out.  Reggie donned long pants, long sleeve shirt and fleece top to wear under his foul weather jacked.  Barbara found his black watch cap with a bill and his supposed-to-be warm gloves and he zipped to his nose, put up his hood and started north.  Our hope was to make at least 13 miles to a bridge which we could only get under at low tide.

The north wind caused 3-4 ft waves on the river.  Bashing into them threw spray over the bow and occasionally into Reggie’s face.   The waves also caused the fuel in the tanks to slosh a little.  This dredged up some of the water which had leaked into the tanks.  It slowly began showing up in the Racor dual fuel filter.  After about two hours, there was so much water in the first filter that Barbara had to go down into the port lazarette and switch to the other filter.  In another hour and a half or so, the second filter showed almost at the maximum we could allow for water.  On top of that, Reggie had gotten chilled to the bone.  We pulled out of the main channel and dropped anchor.  We had a bite of lunch and then curled up below with every blanket we had to see if Reggie could warm up. This led to some napping. 

After the nap, Reggie warmed up enough play Whack-a-Mole and crawl down into the lazarette to drain water from the filters.  Decision time.  No way to heat anything to eat or drink, let alone a way to keep us warm, and there are freeze warnings out for tonight.  Thanks to the headwinds and waves and sometimes only making 3 knots speed, we still have about 4 miles to go to the too low bridge and it is nearing low tide.  Do we grit our teeth and just stay put for the night and shiver ahead in the morning or buck up and leave now?  The wind and waves have eased some.  Reggie remembers a marina not far past the bridge which has one slip which might work for us if we can get there before 5pm and it is after 3pm now.  Pile on clothes and blankets, haul anchor and away we go.  The possibility of electricity to run a little heater is too appealing.   We are able to make better speed now and are able to squeak under the bridge.  We arrive at the marina at around 4:30 and are able to fit into their tie up spot.  We decide to stay two nights since tomorrow is still supposed to be so cold.

The shore power cord just barely reaches the power outlet and the tiny electric heater starts to try to thaw the interior of the boat.  We gather up dinner fixin’s and are able to cook a hot meal in the community room.  A lady tied up near us sees us arrive and gives us four packets of hot chocolate mix to help us warm up.  After two, Reggie can feel his hands.  After three, he feels his feet.  We have a nice hot meal, head back to the boat to bed down with all the blankets plus the little heater.  The heater manages to warm the boat and us and we sleep well.  Next morning, we take breakfast supplies and coffee to the community room and have hot showers and a hot breakfast.  An Enterprise rental car helps provide a temporary solution to the propane issue and allow for a take-out lunch.  A later run covers lots of miles but is unable to solve any issues, but does allow for a dinner out which keeps Barbara from having to cook and wash dishes.  Perhaps on the way for an early drop off of the rental car tomorrow, we’ll get breakfast before returning to Submit to cast off lines and heading farther north to Jacksonville.

We are not posting any pictures this time.  Between Barbara’s frightened shakes at seeing Reggie in the bottom of the boat unconscious and Reggie’s shakes from freezing half to death, all the pictures are too blurry to post.  (actually, we never took any!)