After haulout, we discovered that the hawser, which fouled our prop near Miami,had ripped the SPURs stator from it's mounting. Some fiberglass repairs were needed to re-bed the mounting points. The hull was painted with two coats of Micron Ultra. All zincs had moderate erosion and were replaced.The prop and rudder had PropSpeed applied. After nearly a year in the water, the prop and rudder were barnacle free, so PropSpeed coating, although expensive, worked for us.
Yesterday we brought our boat from Atlantic Yacht Basin to our marina inside Little Creek Inlet. The weather was perfect; sunny, no wind, 80 degrees and calm seas. We accompanied four large Captain-crewed yachts and a few smaller boats through the Great Bridge lock and Norfolk's bridges. Six months and one day after starting down the ICW, we passed ICW mile-marker Zero at 2:45PM, bringing our long voyage to a close.
Rounding the Norfolk Naval Base, we followed a US Navy submarine and her accompanying US Coast Guard escorts through the Thimble Shoal Channel, keeping 500 yards away from the sub and matching it's speed. Once clear of 1ER buoy near Fort Wool, we were able to leave the channel and the sub's speed restriction. We increased our speed and covered the 7 miles to Little Creek Inlet at 16 knots.
After a six month absence, we noticed many changes in the marinas along Little Creek's shoreline. Willing hands of our marina neighbors had us tied-up quickly. There wasn't enough time to tell all of our cruise tales, but that will come when we're relaxing during evenings in the aft cockpit.
Ebb Tide II ran smoothly and it felt very good to be underway again!
Ebb Tide II underway
