Out of Great Bridge

**OK, so this is a copy of the email. After all, this is only a test! A little poetic license with the photo too! Current position: Atlantic Yacht Basin, Great Bridge, VA Hello all, Often, beginning is the hardest part of a task. For us casting off the dock lines and actually leaving is one such difficult task. After several weeks of beautiful, fall weather, moderate temps, cooling slightly at night, clear blue skies, mild winds and sunny days, we decided to leave Bay Point Marina on Saturday, Sep 29th. Of course Saturday dawned cold, overcast and rainy! So we waited around a while until we thought the weather was clearing (it wasn’t) and finally cast off the dock lines around 1245. The wind, what little there was, kept the anemometer pointed to the bow of the boat, even when we turned, the wind turned with us. But we motored on and finally made Hospital Point, in downtown Portsmouth, where we dropped the anchor for the night, fixed a nice dinner and went to bed early. Sunday we departed and made for the Elizabeth River bridges, but we were quite lucky and able to time things to arrive just before the scheduled openings. It seemed funny not to stop at Great Bridge, which was empty of moored boats, but we wanted to move on past all the bridges into the North River. There’s a small anchorage just before Pungo Ferry, where we have stopped before and we’re planning on spending the night there. In the course of the travels I had been keeping an eye on the engine and bilges, just in case anything had shaken loose after 4 months of non-use sitting in a marina. We had replaced our transmission and noticed a strong vibration, but put it down to hard growth on the propeller and shaft. A diver cleaned that up before we left, but we thought there may still be a small vibration that hadn’t been there before. I looked down into our bilges and saw a brown, frothy mixture coming out of the front seal on our V drive. Now, the V drive is a device, shaped like a sidewise V that effectively turns the prop shaft through 150 degrees. It also reduces the output with a 2:1 ratio gearing. Now gears, as we know, require oil to keep things running smoothly, not Latte! The housing has a tube which moves raw water from outside the boat, through the V drive where cools the oil as it is thrown into the gears. Ours had begun leaking. Not being in a spot to stop, the ditch can really be just a cut ditch, I filled it full of real oil, and we slowed down and moved slowly on. Once we had the anchor down I cleaned out the old frothy oil and filled it with new. After running for several minutes the oil again took on that latte attitude of salt water in oil, not good. Being only 10 miles from Great Bridge we made the decision to make our way back to Atlantic Yacht Basin to moor so I could trouble shoot and fix the problem. It took us several hours to get back because we were running a low rpm. I was continuously topping off the oil, hoping not to burn out the gears. I never did find where the leak was, but it must have been in the pipe passing through the top of the V drive. The company had a new one in stock and we ordered it shipped overnight to us. The new part is received and installed, and we are waiting for our friend to come and check the vibration issue, before we set out again for warmer climes. Both Holly and I have been suffering with the ‘crud’, so called by one of the locals. Low grade fever, sinus congestion, sore/aching bodies, coughs. Not at all nice and we have been trying to shake it. I have had it for nearly 2 weeks, and it is just now easing up. A propitious start to our newest adventure. Hopefully we will get it behind us, last year we were both sick with similar symptoms whilst in St Augustine, FL. * days without leaving the boat. Take care, Rob and Holly