So Mary Lee made it almost halfway to Charleston before we ran into trouble. There we were....squeezing past the low water by McClellensberg just a couple hours before low tide. Doing fine...Sloooww...but okay. 3.5 miles south of McClellensberg, the engine suddenly slows like it is throttling down....and quits. Oh Boy!!!  I run forward and drop the anchor.

Guessing we were already blown over into the mud before the anchor hit bottom. So the next step was to gander at the engine. Alternator bracket had broke. Knocked a hole in the oil filter and of course, oil everywhere. Great!!! A couple of weeks before I moved her to Johnson's marina, Georgetown landing had called, someone wanted to buy her. Don't think I never thought of that.
  It is what it is. While waiting for tow boat U.S.

We took a selfy. What else can you do?

While waiting for our two. We watched a storm roll in from the south. Noticed the leading edges swirling a lot.

Our tow boat was a couple hours late. They ended up outrunning a cyclone and beaching the boat.

Eventually we got dropped off at Leeland Marina in McClellenberg.

Vivian made a friend.

Who made sure I tied off correctly.
Turns out we really enjoy the people here. Small town and down to earth.

View off the stern was of the shrimp boat fleet.

Vivian truly is a good sport. Neither one of us has had a lot of boating enjoyment out of Mary Lee yet.
So instead of sailing on July 4th....we drove up to Georgetown and watched the fireworks before going home. We have had quite the heat wave. Working on boat would need to wait a bit.
So...I did a little research. It turns out that Universal engines are notorious for the alternator brackets breaking. The advice given was to replace with better or buy a new engine.
I went back down to clean the oil out of the bilge and while there I changed the filter, refilled the oil and the engine started. Could not run more than a minute or so until all put back together. It was a little rough at cold idle but seemed to smooth out okay when throttled up. I may have got lucky.
While at it...

I get to fix the bilge pump hose. Turns out the previous owner must have found a second hand bilge pump that took 1" inner diameter hose. Hose on boat was 3/4 inch inner. He just shoved the smaller hose into the larger hole and called it good.

That has been all the hold up on Mary Lee. I have found nothing that was not cobbled together on the whole boat. Every single thing worked when I bought her. Every single thing was cobbled together in a way that made the fact that anything worked kind of a miracle.
You have heard the saying about opening up a can of worms? I bought one. Not complaining. I was in much pain and on really strong pain pills when I bought her. It was about fighting to get my life back.
I have come a very long ways. I know quite a lot about the different systems on a boat. Eventually we will move up in size. I will never trust a surveyor again. I have had two surveys. One when I bought her. The other when I got boat U.S. insurance. They both missed several things. But...I did get to see how they do their job.

I will survey myself when we eventually move up in size. My rule. I do not care so much that a boat needs some things freshened up...or even an engine built. The price will reflect that. But if I spot cobbling caused by an owner slapping something together wrong just to save money.....I walk away.

So hopefully I get Mary Lee to Charleston next weekend. One together, I will fire her up. Put in gear and throttle up. She can stay tied to the dock for no less than an hour while running. Hopefully I am not building another engine. Likely have less than a hundred hours on this rebuild. Funny thing is. If I had opted to stay in Baltimore for one last winter, I could have done some sailing right after engine build. Then sailed most of the next summer before heading south.

I would have been sailing...but would not have met Vivian. There is no question that she has filled a hole in my life.

Maybe someday I can take her sailing?? ;-)
In the meantime... Have you ever seen a monkey fist knot?

They are used for tying a weight on the end of a line to help one throw a line up to a ship from the dock. Of course, a lot of people think that using a one inch steel ball in it and a long lanyard is the modern equivelant of a mace. A sap??
 Whatever. I thought they make a nice keychain. Heavy weights wear out ignition switches. I mostly just wanted to learn a new knot.

Learned it. Mine have a rubber ball in them. Well...the big one is a baseball. The larger white one has a ping pong ball. I did a couple with an unbreakable fishing bobber.
 I found these motion activated owls in dollar tree. A box full of obnoxious sounds.

Thought Vivian would distribute them amongst her co-workers. Nothing doing. They are boxed up in closet :-)