The evening trip for Fritz to the abandoned cabin across the little channel was uneventful.  But as we started across the channel first thing this morning Dennis does a 90 degree dinghy turn and whispers “there’s a guy on the dock.”  Fritz had to settle for a shell bank down river.

Doboy Channel presented a new challenge, almost a crisis.  It was our typical ride with the current going out and the wind coming in.  The breeze was so good we put up both sails.  The captain then decided we don’t need “no stinking motor” and shuts it down.  Unfortunately, the wind was more on the nose and not enough to keep us going against the waves.  So the captain turns the key to start the engine, NOTHING HAPPENS!  Now what?  Waves are pushing us towards the shoals with frothing water, the boat speed in the water is slowed to, ah, zero. 

“There is no battery,” says the admiral. 

“There is nothing wrong with the batteries,” shouts the captain. 

“Let’s start the generator,” says the admiral. 

“It won’t do any good,” shouts the captain, “but okay, try it.” 

Generator starts but it does not help, still nothing happens when the key is turned.  Well, after almost tacking in the channel because we were getting close to the frothing water Dennis was able to slowly coach the boat to the deeper water.  Shirla then took the helm while Dennis went below to trouble shoot the problem.  Meanwhile down below Dennis finds the wire that has come off the starter solenoid but before he can fix it Shirla yells, “Help, I don’t know what to do, we are headed for a shrimp boat!”  The captain temporary attaches the wire, jumps up to the cockpit and starts the engine, crisis avoided.

The rest of the day was very calm as we motored slowly to catch the current and tide going into Wassaw Sound, GA.  We did have a challenge finding the buoys to the Wassaw Channel but a call to Boat US was helpful and we eventually found our way in.  The anchorage we were going to stay at did not appeal to us so we motored into Thunderhead Marina and plan to spend two nights here as we explore Savannah.  A diver is scheduled to clean the boat bottom tomorrow morning.