Orkia finally sails

I had a tough time sleeping because I was too eager to get out on the water. Dad and I left around 8:30 with the plan being to put in at Turner's Creek and pick up the girl's at Thunderbolt Marina around 10. Then finish up and take out around 2 so that I could leave for Greenville.

...That didn't happen.

The Turner Creek ramp ended up to be a great place to put in. We just had many a struggle. It started with raising the mast under the bridge. While raising the mast was too tall and hit the bottom of the bridge. While bringing the mast back down, I slipped and hit my shin. I banged it up pretty badly. Lesson one learned.

Next we moved the boat out into the open and successfully raised the mast.

With the mast raised, we were ready to launch. Dad successfully backed the boat down the ramp. We were ready to go, just the engine wouldn't start. This was my new to me 2003 Mercury 9.9 motor with reverse. About a month a go Dad and I got this engine to start after sitting for three years by spraying the carburetor with carb cleaner. We pulled the boat back out. Sprayed the engine with carb cleaner, then we tried again. This time we got the engine started and backed Orkia off the trailer. It was not too successful as the motor lack enough power to pull me away from the ramp. After struggling i finally launched Orkia and maneuvered around bystanding boats into the open water. My plan was to turn back around and pick Dad up. It only took about 10 tries. I was never able to get enough power and the wind and the current would eventually push me back in the direction from which I came. When I finally docked 45 minutes later. Dad asked if we still wanted to go out. This was the chance a smarter man would have taken to back out. I was not a smarter man.

We decided to go out. It had taken so long to pick Dad up that we told the girls to skip this trip today. Dad and I went down Turner Creek toward the Wilmington River. Heading downstream, the boat appeared to do fine. We had a great day of sailing.

Once in the Wilmington River, we raised the Genoa. After sailing for a little bit we seemed to betting the hang of it. Orkia handled nicely in the 10 knot winds.

I tried to lower the swing keel, but were unsuccessful. This is a problem I will need to look into in the future.

We continued to motor sail and had a great day. We sailed out to the Landings Marina and headed back. We were averaging between 4-6 knots and were getting the hang of Orkia in the water.

Coming back in we had our next set of challenges. We could not get back into Turner's Creek. The wind and current was against us. For some reason, this caused the outboard to raise out of the water. The cavitation plate was exposed and the outboard struggled to get us any traction. We tried 10 times to get into Turner's Creek unsuccessfully. We eventually decided to give up and head to Thunderbolt.

To make a long story short, Orkia did fine until we were 5 minutes from the Thunderbolt ramp. Then the wind and the current worked against us and we had the same problem we had had in Turner's Creek. I was able to make it to Sea Ray were I dropped Dad off with the Jeep keys to go with Kim to get the Jeep and the trailer. I fought for the next 30 minutes trying to make it 100 yards only to get now where.

I eventually hailed a passing boat that was nice enough to pull me in. That was struggle as well. In the end the tied Orkia off on their side and brought me in to place Orkia on the trailer. What a day. What another adventure. It was 4:00 and I still had to unload the boat and get to Greenville!

I was a little scared for the journey. Orkia held up well through many close calls. Lesson learned was purchase and outboard motor mount to lower the outboard and get more ability to steer the outboard as well.