I Go To Come Back
6/21/2016 Kristi writes:
When I lived in the Virgin Islands back between 2004-2009, I learned from locals the value of a warm greeting. In the Caribbean, your best chance at obtaining mutual respect (and good karma) is to begin all interactions with “good mornin,” “afternoon,” or “good night!” You won’t get very far or make many friends in the islands without a positive demeanor and a little common courtesy.
West Indians love to cut their greetings into little quips too. One of my favorites parting phrases was, “I go to come back!” This phrase came to mind yesterday after we threw off the lines, stowed the fenders, cleared the deck and began to make way north. We waved goodbye to the giant water towers of the JAX Naval Airspace and all shouted “Hurray! Here we go,” in one form or another.
Not two minutes out of the harbor we realized something was wrong. The transmission would not push past idle in the forward position. RPM’s would rev up fine in neutral and reverse, but we couldn’t get any forward throttle. Bummer! So, we turned around and took her right back to the dock to start digging into the issue.
The good news is we had a very smooth practice leaving the dock and returning in moderate wind. The bad news is we’re still stumped on this throttle puzzle. Making the best of the situation, I joked to Brad that we “go to come back!” Seemed fitting. He just gave me this look (half laughing, half sad face):
Currently, John is in dive gear working under the boat to clean off the critters that might have accumulated on the prop over the last month while Brad is in the water too, scrubbing algae and barnacles from the hull.
John and Lisa brought Sensei into this slip a month ago and haven’t moved her since we set out yesterday. She was fine when she came here, so we’re hopeful that a little bottom cleaning will do the trick. John has pretty much tried everything else. We’ll see…
“Ships and seamen rot in harbor: a glib phrase but a true one.” -Dudley Pope