We pulled away from the welcome center dock at 0745. It was an overcast, chilly morning. We crossed the North Carolina/Virginia line after about three miles. Water depths in the canal ranged from six to nine feet most of the way. That is pretty shallow considering Seascape draws five feet. We felt her hit something on the bottom several times with no apparent problems. About 10 miles north of the welcome center, we felt a heavy thud that shook the boat. We kept motoring but I felt a new vibration. When I increased RPM the vibration intensified.
We went on to the north lock about eight miles away and tied up to a concrete face dock for boats to tie to while waiting for the bridge and lock to open. After we had secured the boat, I dove under Seascape to see want the damage was. I couldn’t see because the water was stained dark brown by the tannic acid from the bark of the juniper, gum and cypress trees. But I could feel a curl on the edge of one of the blades about the size of my hand. The prop is 24 inches in diameter and weighs nearly 60 pounds so it takes a pretty solid object to bend it. We probably hit a sunken log that wedged between the propeller and the hull.
I called around and found a small repair yard a few miles north of the lock that will let us dock and pull the prop. I have all the necessary tools and have done it before. The prop repair service will pick the prop up at the boat yard and return it. The only problem is it might take three to four days. At least it won’t cost too much for us to stay at the boat yard, they don’t have any power.
There was an auto parts store and a grocery across the street from where we tied up. I bought some motor oil and disposed of the used oil we had accumulated. Dora went to the grocery and bought a few things. We cooked hamburgers for lunch.
A boat that we knew from Elizabeth City and the welcome center rafted with us on the sea wall.
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