Completing the "Carolina Loop"

6/22/14.  Although it was breezier than we had hoped at 5:30 am, we cast off with Dean aboard and started for Norfolk.  Dean had a friend who worked at a marina in the Norfolk area who he said would help him get home.  As we left the Alligator River, winding through the sandbars near the mouth of the river, I began to think we had made a mistake to try the crossing.  The waves were quite high and it looked like it would be a rough ride, however once we cleared the shoal areas the chop subsided to a more tolerable level.  Even though it was rougher than we had hoped, once I found the right trim for the boat it was doable without too much discomfort, so we proceeded with the crossing.

We had decided that we did not want to do the Dismal Swamp Canal again, particularly since we might get caught in there for the night and we did not want to spend the night with a stranger aboard, so we headed for the alternate ICW route to Norfolk, up the North River and through the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal and the Currituck Sound.

Things were going along well with the Albemarle crossing.  The wind was still from the northeast, so the closer we got to the other side the less effect the wind had on the waves and we could pick up speed.  Finally about two miles from the mouth on the North River we were able to get up to full cruising speed.  At almost the same time an intermittent beeping alarm started sounding.  I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from, but I tested the alarm sound on the high bilge water alarm, and it sounded exactly like what I was hearing.  With all of the pounding we had taken from wave action I was quite worried.

I increased our speed and as we entered the mouth of the North River I began calling on the radio for any marina nearby.  No answers.  Apparently there were none, but I knew that the Coinjock Marina was in the land cut farther up the North River, and since I could feel nothing different in the boat handling than normal, I decided to head for Coinjock with all possible haste.  We could not really check the bilge because there is only one small access panel to look into the bilge and it is at the stern of the boat, so I did not want to stop in order to check.  The alarm did stop for a few minutes, but then started up again.

We pulled into Coinjock and I opened the bilge for inspection, it was as bone dry as a bilge ever gets, so that was not the problem.  I then pulled the fuse for the bilge alarm, but the alarm kept sounding.  The Smartcraft throttle control and guages are right beside the high bilge alarm, so I figured that maybe the alarm  was coming from there.  The people at the marina, although very helpful, were baffled.   I then called Mercury for technical assistance.  After 20 minutes on the phone with them they were also not able to help me identify the problem and suggested I take it to a Mercury dealer for diagnosis.  Since the nearest dealer was 40 miles away at Great Bridge, that was out.

I had previously scrolled through all of the readouts on both Smartcraft gauges when the alarm first started going off, and everything came back as normal.  Even so, I thought maybe a low oil alert was what we were hearing and checked the oil.  It was slightly low, but not too low, so I topped it up and started the motor, but the alarm kept sounding.  After putting everything back together I went to was up at the sink, which is right behind the captain's helm seat, and while I was standing there the alarm beeped again.  I thought, "That sounds like it is right here."  and began looking around and realized that the carbon monoxide detector was right there on the sink cabinet immediately behind the helm seat.  And it was beeping!

Of course this made no sense as the boat was wide open to the air and had been for some time.  I tried to reset the alarm, but it would not reset.  I finally decided that the detector was going bad since it was near the end of its useful life.  I went under the sink cabinet and cut the power wire to the detector because there was no other way to silence it.  Finally no beeping!

I have since checked the alarms on all of those devices and found that the sounds of their beeps are virtually identical.  When you have several devices in close proximity to each other this obviously makes it difficult to identify the source of the sound.  It sure would have been helpful if each device had a different sounding alarm!

Finally we were back under way!  The rest of the trip was uneventful and after passing under several draw bridges and through one lock we were back in the Elizabeth River which took us back to Norfolk.  Dean was helpful on the trip, helping me with lines and various tasks while underway.  He was a perfect gentleman as well as a good worker, and I would be happy to have him aboard any time.  We dropped Dean off at the Tidewater Yacht Marina, topped up our fuel and headed for home, which was still 2 hours away.

As we left the marina we passed Mile 0 on the ICW, we had completed the Carolina Loop!

I really did not like navigating through the Elizabeth River in Norfolk.  We had to dodge all manner of boats including tugs, barges, marine police, small sailboats, large sailboats, ferries, wakeboard boats, huge cargo ships, harbor cruise ships, and a Navy ship that was leaving port.  I was glad to finally get away from all of that traffic and into the James River.  After slogging through heavy waves (again!) down the James and around Hampton, we finally made it back to the York River, and from there an easy cruise to home.  We had been on the water for over 12 hours that day, and had covered a total of 550 miles since we had left home.  We were very glad to be home again after that last long day!

Although this is not a picture of Norfolk the day we were there, this is what it felt like navigating through there!