The only thing that works on a boat....

They say the only thing that works on a boat is the owner, and I must say that for most of our travels over the last five years, we have not found this to be true. We have had great luck with this old boat and we haven't had too many catastrophes - especially ones that come one right after another.

But recently, we have started tossing around the idea of selling the boat and moving back to dry land. Although nothing is set in stone, I'm convinced that she has heard us talking and has decided to revolt. Ever since we got back to the States, it seems that we cannot stay on top of the problems that arise. So why should today be any different?!

We actually had a really nice motor up from Cumberland Island to St. Simon's Island. We made it past the submarine base (which is spectacularly large!!) with no issues and made good time getting up the ditch. We had the anchor down just after lunch and decided to head in and get some fresh local seafood. Ever since entering Georgia waters, we have seen an endless stream of shrimp boats and I was just dying to get my hands on some fresh local shrimp! We were not disappointed - they were fabulous!

After an evening on shore, we rushed back to the boat to close all our hatches before the impending storm we could see quickly approaching in the distance. Once we had battened down and settled in, Brad decided to check our sea strainer. This is where the sea water comes in to cool the engine while we are underway; the filter is there to keep any debris from coming in and clogging up the pipes. We have been inundated with jellyfish down here and sometimes they can clog the filters, so we just wanted to make sure that we were all clear.

Everything checked out and we only had a few pieces of sea grass in the filter. But then, as Brad went to screw the bolts back in place to secure the lid on the strainer, the bolt sheared off. **Insert expletive here**

So, without the lid securely on the filter, if we turned on the engine the water that was supposed to be filtered through the strainer and into the engine would instead just come pouring out of the top of the strainer and into the bilge - at an alarming rate. Well, we can't exactly go very far when our boat is taking on gallons of water.

So, here we sit, waiting for a part to come in (hopefully tomorrow). Although we are safe here as long as we don't run the engine, this is definitely slowing down our forward progress and putting us even farther behind schedule. And although we don't actually have a set schedule, we do have the impending summer heat creeping up on us and we were hoping to make it up to the Bay before we were sweltering in the summer sun. *Sigh*

At least we get to enjoy beautiful St Simons today and most of tomorrow before we get our part and high tail it up to Savannah. Hopefully this is the end of our streak of bad boat luck for a bit!