Tuesday 12/26: Today was not our day

We got up on time with hopes of getting down river to effect some repairs. Well the hydraulic pump threw its belts, Minor problem we replaced and tensioned the belts and proceeded to haul the anchor, about half way up the windless quits. After checking belts, filters, fluid levels and such we still don't know what the problem is. We now have to retrieve the anchor (185#) plus approx 70' of 3/4 “chain by hand. We got the hook up at 10:45 and started down river.

Shortly after Breakfast/lunch Patrick came running into the wheel house saying the generator had sprung a leak and it wouldn't shut down. I ran below to find the engine room engulfed in thick oily smoke, and the generator would not shut down. We finally pinched a fuel line with a pair of vise grips, it stopped.

Pat and Victor proceeded to replace two blown hoses and restart the gen. only to find it was not passing water. Again it wouldn't stop. Pinch, stop. By now we are on down the river and Mair has contacted some facilities. Pat and victor have opened the raw water pump and discovered not only a bad impeller but also a collapsed hose.

Night is falling. We get a call from a Gentleman named Mike with a tow co. at Point Pleasant W.V. Mair had spoken to him earlier in the day and he informed her that they were a commercial yard and could not help us directly but he gave her a list of names and numbers. Well she started calling around and just about all that she called said they only worked on TOW BOATS and BARGES. With the exception of one Gentleman at Two Rivers marina, A fairly new facility who said he would call us back.

As the day wore on we started to be concerned; our anchor windless was kaput. No Boiler. No generator. No water. No Battery Charger. We had been running our navigation lights all day and starting the engines the next day was a concern. When out of the blue or should I say Gray comes a call from Mike. He was worried about us and wanted to know if we had contacted anyone. We told him we hadn't and updated him about the generator. He said he would call us back and hung up. We were all a bit grim when the phone rang again it was Mike, he had a place for us to tie up for the night and he would wait for us to arrive. He talked us in to his facility, tied us up behind one of the biggest tugs I have ever seen and started to work on the generator. I can’t say enough about this man but alas it's past midnight I'll finish tomorrow.

Capt. Bob