Pott’s Lagoon to Laura Cove: June 17 – 21

Lagoon Cove Docks
Saturday: After two days at Lagoon we pulled away from the dock at 11:00 AM. We are taking turns at the helm so that either of us can handle the boat if the other is unable to for any reason. Today is Rolynn’s turn and she took us for the one hour run to Pott’s Lagoon. We turned the corner into the lagoon only to find our favorite spot occupied by a 50’ DeFever and the rest of the bay a mine field of commercial crab traps. We managed to find a spot to drop the hook and settled in for a couple of days. We got dinghy down from top deck. It hasn’t been run since last season. Started at first touch of key. Life is good! Put out the crab pot.

Anderson’s Third Nautical Law: If there is a problem there is more than one cause. Conversely, if there is only one cause there is more than one problem.

Rolynn fired up the coffeepot around 7:00 PM but it soon stopped burbling. Hmm. Check circuit breaker. OK. Check AC boat voltage. None. Damn! Hot water heater switch still on. (Steve’s fault) Draws too much current and made inverter shut down from over heating. (The inverter converts our battery DC voltage to AC voltage.) Go into engine room to reset inverter. All OK. Oh Oh The plastic tank that holds excess engine antifreeze has jumped out of its bracket and has rubbed against the engine pulley. A hole has worn in the tank and the excess antifreeze, about a quart, has drained out. Can’t repair tank. Running water heater from batteries drained batteries too much. Have to run generator to recharge. Watch movie – “The boat that Rocked”. Get to sleep at 1:00 AM.

Sunday: Improvise. Make temporary tank from gallon jug that antifreeze came in. Will work fine until a replacement can be found. The DeFever has left so we (Rolynn) decide to relocate to the prime location. Pull up anchor. Up comes commercial crab trap and a mile of line. Eventually get it all free. No harm done to trap or anchor. Move to new spot. Only 10 feet of water but its low tide. Fine tune location using bow thruster. Damn! No bow thruster! Hear the clutch engage but no thrust. Hmm. Bet pump belt broke. That’s what knocked antifreeze tank out of bracket. Get anchored. Back to engine room. The bow thruster is hydraulic system. Pump is powered by two belts driven off main engine. Belts not broken. Hmm. Belts are tight but slipping. I get it. Antifreeze from broken tank drained all over the belts causing them to slip. Go to aft engine room. Dig out spare belts. Notice bilge pump not pumping properly. Fix that. Notice broken hose clamp. Replace that. Grease shaft wipers. Replace belts on bow thruster pump. Fire up engine. All OK. Crab for dinner.

Monday: Pull anchor at noon for slack current in Beware Passage. Beware Passage is very pretty. Some of the place names on the chart are: Care Rock, Caution Rock, Caution Cove, Beware Rock, Beware Cove and Dead Point. What could possibly go wrong? Actually, there are several twists and turns but its an easy passage especially if you’ve been through before. Three hours later and we are anchored at one of our favorite spots, Laura Cove. As we were anchoring a dinghy came along side. It is our friends David and Edie Pope with their grandson aboard “Our Time”. We invited them over for drinks later and we had fish dinner at their boat the next night. No form of marine life is safe if David is in the area. Nice people. We caught 200 big prawns in two pulls so we are set for awhile. No Crab.

We will go to Pierre's at Echo Bay tomorrow for prime rib dinner.