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Griffin Update #16: Underway Again - Yahoo!
Saturday, 2:50pm, May 23, Underway in the Chesapeake Bay abeam Point No Point, Onboard Griffin.

Griffin looking spiffy with freshly waxed hull and topsides.

The best laid plans of mice and men don't always come off without a hitch. We hit our first little setback on I-95 long before we even got to Griffin. Beach Traffic! It is memorial day weekend, and we were on the only road from Washington and Richmond to Virginia Beach. Traffic alternated between a crawl and steady slow progress. Our 4:30 arrival time slipped by an hour.

When we got to Salt Ponds there was a note waiting for us. Hampton Marine, Joe's company, uses two facilities. Salt ponds Marina is the nice, clean side. Around the corner, maybe 10 miles by car or boat is their working boatyard, Belle Isle. Joe had hoped to have Griffin launched and waiting at Salt Ponds for us. Too much to do, not enough time. Meet me at Belle Isle said Joe's note.

As we drove over, I expressed my concerns to Andrew and Steve. "I bet it's the starboard shaft coupling. I've had problems with that one before and I bet he is having a hard time with the alignment." I was half right as it turned out.

We pulled into the parking lot at Belle Isle and quickly spotted Griffin lying to a floating dock. She looked great with her fiberglass gleaming like new. We walked up to her and a greasy, grimy, hot, sweaty, cursing Joe appeared out of the bowels of the boat. He politely declined to shake hands with his filthy mitts, and after a few choice curses directed toward the shaft couplings, brought us up to date.

She really is a good looking boat despite her 13 years of age.

The starboard coupling went together relatively easily, Joe told us. The port was kicking his butt, and he was kicking back. A broken 10 pound sledge hammer lay next to the engine hatch, as stark testimony to Joe's determination. The oak handle was snapped off right were it entered the head. A new hammer with a fiberglass handle lay next to the snapped wooden sledge. It reminded me of Joe's and my old Navy days. The phrase used in Navy engine rooms for problem solving is, "If a hammer doesn't work, get a bigger hammer." Joe was going to make this coupling work.

Joe had just finished getting two of the 4 bolts on that held the coupling together, linking the engine to the new propellers. He told me the props looked great and went on without a hitch, bringing closure to that part of our saga. Joe was out of parts for the coupling, having beat the pulp out of several nuts trying to get things together. He proposed that Andrew and I drive Griffin around to Salt Ponds while he and Steve drove the cars over, and went out for more parts. He cautioned me not to exceed 1,500 rpm with the Starboard Engine with the coupling as it was.

Andrew and I got underway. We headed out of the boatyard basin at idle. We got to where we could kick it up a little and so opened the throttle to 1,000 rpm. The boat shook with that all too familiar vibration. I pulled the throttles back. Advancing one at a time. I proved to myself that the port side wouldn't take more than about 900 rpm without vibration. We left the port engine at idle setting, in gear, and kicked up the starboard engine. We picked up speed to our trawler mode of 8.6 knots and motored the hour or so around to Salt Ponds.

Steve met us at the fuel dock. We topped off both tanks and moved to our overnight slip. Joe was still off looking for parts and taking care of some other waterway unfortunate. We used the time to prepare Griffin for the jaunt northward up the bay.

Joe showed up at the boat with the news than he wasn't able to get the parts he needed on Friday night but he would be at the parts store first thing when they opened on Saturday, and we should be underway by 10:00.

I ran up to the Buckroe Bar and Grill to catch up with Andrew and Steve who had headed off in search of dinner while Joe and I worked on the boat. The three of us had a nice dinner, enjoying the ambiance of the Salt Ponds boating fraternity celebrations of the start of summer. We retired to Griffin for the night, happy and looking forward to today's cruise.

Joe showed up on time, and worked his magic on the coupling. It came together in the end, and we were underway by 10:55am.

As we cleared the breakwater, we hit the seas that weren't supposed to be there. Pounding directly into the waves, Andrew, the GPS Navigator, reassured us that the ride would calm down as soon as we made the first turn in 3.4 miles. We made the turn, but the ride stayed the same. We braced ourselves, gritted our teeth and pressed on towards Annapolis.

After two hours of slamming, the waves subsided. The wind dropped, and the sun started to try and break out. We are steaming along on a perfectly flat bay, in bright sunshine now, getting ready to have a late lunch. Life is good, the props are good, we are almost home. Couldn't ask for more.

Warm Regards,

The Griffin Crew,
Jon, Andrew and Steve

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