The Wreck of Rhiannon

December 8, 2013 Sunday.  Foggy, murky, 57 degrees, wind NE 10-15.  We talked with Nite Cap and decide to wait until 8:30 to lift the anchor.  This should still give us plently of tide to make Cumberland Island.  The fog is lifting as we enter Saint Simons sound.

As we make the turn into Jekyll Creek, we miss the channel and run into the rock jetty, which is invisible under the water on the red side of the channel.  BANG!  We are up on the jetty and then fall off the starboard.  The rudder is hung up on the rocks and between the engine and the tide, we manage to get off.  The steering is frozen and we can only turn the boat by putting all our weight against the wheel.  We are still afloat!  We are dealing with a 2 knot current, so we drop anchor and call TowBoatUS.  They arrive 45 minutes later and tow us into Brunswick Landing Marina and tie us up in the well of the travel lift.  We sit there until 9:30 the next morning.  No one is hurt, so we are lucky.  We called BoatUS insurance and reported the accident.

Grounding on Jekyll Jetty 31° 05.63’ N  081° 26.48’W  MM680.5  10SM today

December 9, 2013 Monday.  At 9:30 the boat gets hauled.  The damage is less than we expected.  The hull, prop and shaft are undamaged.  The keel is scraped and gouged, but the repairs needed are relatively minor.  There do not appear to be any stress cracks in the hull, stringers or in the joint between the hull and the keel.  The rudder is another story.  The bottom of the rudder is torn open and the shaft is bent.  I worked all afternoon with the yard mechanic Wayne to get the rudder disconnected and out of the boat.  Tomorrow it will go to a local machine shop to see if it can be fixed. 

31° 09.78’ N  081° 30.02’ W

We rent a car and stay in a hotel tonight.  Dinner at Capt. Bill’s Seafood.

December 10, 2013 Tuesday.  This morning, the rudder went to Dominey Machine and Propeller.  These guys do props, shafts, rudders, in addition to other precision machine shop work.  Dominey said they shaft can be repaired and will provide an estimate for our insurance.  I talked to the yard service manager (Jim) and he promised a complete estimate for the insurance as soon as he gets the numbers from the machine shop.  By the end of the day we do not yet have the estimate.  Hopefully tomorrow morning so these guys can get started on the work.

Lisa and I went over the St Simons Island and walked the beach as a cold front approached - see the pictures.  Wayne (mechanic at the boat yard) suggested at seafood restaurant in Darien, so that's where we had dinner - BJ's Steaks and Seafood.  They have a huge trophy for the best fried shrimp in coastal Georgia, so that's what we had - it was great.  The place is a concrete block hole-in-the-wall on Route 17 in Darien, but if you're in the area, it's worth the stop!

Click here for pictures from Brunswick