Well, Enchantress IS a sailboat after all!! (Posted 6/1/09)

Although Enchantress is a sailboat, we do motor when in narrow channels, into and out of harbors, when the wind is too light (patience is not one of my shining virtues!!), etc. Like everyone we become too dependent on the damn motor and, I really hate to admit, are sometimes just too lazy to put up the sails.

Well, when we were leaving our little "hurricane hole" anchorage described in the previous posting, the engine overheated and stopped! Damn! We quickly turn around and coast back in and drop the anchor. Try the motor again and NO water coming out the discharge. (Insert additional cuss words from me here...).

My first thought is we will have to be towed by the towing company to a marina. Much nashing of teeth! :-( Although we have towing insurance I am loath to use it.

Sailing back to our harbor requires sailing out a very narrow private channel to reach the narrow Intracoastal Waterway channel and four miles of narrow channel with shoals only a foot deep on either side! (We need 4 feet of water!). The wind is only marginally favorable and very light.

Well, Enchantress IS a sailboat afterall, and I know how to sail so we decide to give it a try. The motor can be run for 30 seconds at a time before it overhears and shuts down so we have to use it a few times when the wind quits and we are drifting towards a shoal but we sail all the way back and anchor in our usual spot.

The next day I call the marina in the harbor and they say come on in. This is only a half mile but it requires sailing up a winding narrow channel and docking under sail. The wind is very light to non-existant but I hoist the anchor and we sail, drift, I get in the dinghy which is tied alongside and paddle, and we make it into the marina and dock without mishap.

Of course, they then find out it will be three days before they can get the needed parts!! Since we don't like staying in marinas (too hot, too many bugs, too many people, etc.), we decide to sail back out to anchor again in the harbor and do it all over again when the parts come in!

So, as I said, Enchantress IS a sailboat and we are supposedly sailors and not powerboaters, so we were inordinately proud of ourselves for sailing her in difficult circumstances instead of having to be towed. :-)