This morning, we slept in.
There was no rush to raise anchor or set sail as we were peacefully tied up in Deltaville.
We cooked a proper breakfast and then I decided to stop waiting around for someone else to fix the prop. I didn't want to get in the water as there had been a series of shark attacks lately and the attacks seemed to be moving north. I was concerned that the sharks might have come into the bay and therefore didn't want to go in.
While I was eating breakfast, I watched some kids playing in the waters just next to the marina. They were thrashing around, kicking the water, doing all the right things to attract a shark, but none came. I figured that if they are ok, I'll be fine.
I lashed my GoPro to the boat hook and stuck it down around the area of the prop to see why the drifter sheet wouldn't come free. I could see that it was leading to the propeller, but on the starboard side. Somehow, the sheet dragged through the water, went behind the rudder and forward into the propeller. I have no idea how this could have happened, but that is the situation as it presented itself.
I donned my dive gear and went in to take a closer look. The sheet was lightly wrapped around the propeller, but the cotter pin at the end of the shaft had pierced the drifter sheet. My original intentions were to remove the sheet from the prop without cutting anything, but this whole section of line was chewed up and worthless.
I cut the line in two and easily pulled the ends off of the propeller. Later I long spliced the two ends so that we would once again have our fully functional drifter sheet.
Once that was completed, we spent some time in the pool at the Deltaville Marina. There was a gorgeous Fallmouth Cutter tied up near the pool. While Maddie was swimming around relaxing, I was admiring the beauty of its lines. There is something very stunning about a sailboat with a long bowsprit and boomkin. They seem to be a forgotten part of the design on modern sailboats. It really was a gorgeous sight!
Later that day I figured out why my housebank was not able to run the fridge, the whole bank was dead! Rightfully so, as it consisted of batteries from 2007! To not put too much of a dent in our cruising kiddie we, we decided to only install one battery for now and then worry about the rest of the bank once we have returned. So I signed up to use the courtesy car in the marina and when my turn came, the car would not start. I wasn't too disheartened, as I figured I would just load the battery in a cart and walk the mile to West Marine.
This is where the hospitality of the people in Deltaville really showed. Sketch, the dockmaster said "Don't worry, I'll drive you after I finish work." Being from Baltimore, I first thought these were empty promises, but when he got off from work, he knocked on our hull and off we went!
Out with a dead battery, in with a new Group 31 AGM, giving us 105Ah. We figure it would run the fridge for about a day, and then we could recharge it from the motor bank as needed.
We spent the rest of that afternoon walking through the maritime museum next to the marina and then settled in for another relaxing night. as the next day, we would be back to the old routine.
