Georgia! UGH! had to call SeaTow April 8th - 9th

What a glorious morning!  Going to be a hot one may see 90 today.

I'm FREEEEE.......Jim enjoying a ride on the bow.  Thats 5 o'clock up ahead.  Wait! Whose at the helm?

 The Captain of SweetPea for the moment anyway.  Getting ready to enter Hells Gate.  On that note I think I will hand over the helm to Jim.  Good thing I did for what was about to happen next was most definitely unpleasant to say the least.  Just as we were about to take a port turn into Hells Gate all hell broke loose.  Jim saw something in the water ahead and slowed the boat, an instant later into the props went something then pop!  He thought it was line in the water and the pop was the cutters on the prop, we were in idle at that time.  We radioed ahead to Pete that we picked up some line in the water but ...........then the starboard engine shut down.  We moved off the ICW channel on 1 engine and Jim went for a dive to investigate.  Yup, the line rapped around the prop shaft tight.  Due to the current and his lack of breath he was unable to get it off and it was on there tight!  SO.....

 SEATOW to the rescue!  Luckily they had a Diver onboard and were right around the corner they were there in about half an hour or so.  The diver went down and was under the boat for about 20 mins he came up with tow line.  50,000 pound test 1 inch braid.  Exactly what you see in the barrel next to the diver.  Hmmmm we joked about that.
Off in the distance you can see 5 o'clock anchored waiting on us.

 This guy was quite the character.

 A face only a mother could love.

I whole process took about 2 hours and we were on our way.  A little lighter in the wallet but Welcome to boating,  Luckily everything was fine and both engines started right up and we were on our way through Hells Gate and onto .......Isle of Hope.....  well that sounds promising!

Leaving Jacksonville northbound April 6-8th

 It was a beautiful morning to start traveling again low 70's goodbye Jax

 Now this is a mooring ball!

 We hooked up with 5 o'clock (Pete and Jerri) and will be traveling with them to Charleston where we will spend a week.

 This shrimp boat went past us while at anchor just enough room for him to get through with his booms out.

 nice quiet anchorage.

 5 o'clock at anchor another beautiful sunset. Darrien River

Sunrise on the Darrien River Ga.

SweetPea (facelift)

 There she is all wrapped in new canvas. Now the cleaning begins.

 New Black Bottom.

 Going back in the Water.

It is much brighter on the upper helm, as well as drier.  

Southbound?

Saturday morning we hop in our rent a car and head on back south to the boat.1200 miles, we should be there sometime Sunday. 
Certainly can't do that by boat!  But then why would you! 
We enjoyed our 2 weeks home, got ALOT done but we are now ready to return to Jacksonville.  We thought it would be spring here but our 2 weeks here it snowed 3 times.  YUK.... We are excited to get back and see the work that has been done to the boat in our absence.  We will have some pics on the next post.
On another note... when we left Massachusetts in Oct on our first marina stop (CT)  we met up with Denise and Bob Gomes on Liberty also AGLCA members,  we had been e-mailing back and forth as they were leaving RI around the same time.  We traveled south together but on somewhat different schedules.  Well Liberty made it back to RI this week,  congratulations Bob, Denise and Brady too, on your winter trip, it was a longtime goal for them to travel to the Keys and they did it!  However we will miss playing tag with you as we continue on.  Starting our journey together will be a memory I know we will always treasure.  Keep in touch!

Sure doesn't feel like Spring! Brrrrrrr

We had originally planned to leave Ma. on Sunday but we still have things to do and since the boat will not be ready to splash for a few more days we decided to stay an extra day or 2. 
BTW it may be spring according to the calendar by its still COLD here in New England.  We have been here for10 days it has snowed twice!  That sure makes yard clean up more difficult, at least it melts by noon.
Today, we took a trip to Newport RI (20 min ride) as they have the largest West Marine in the country.  At least it was when it opened last year.  Big Sale and since West Marine bucks came in the mail why not, we were looking for a courtesy flag for Canada and a Quarantine Flag, to my amazement they had Cuba, Panama, Honduras and some others but NO Canada very odd.  We had lunch, walked around town window shopping, Jim bought some cigars and we headed out.  We were really surprised at the amount of people there, as it was a windy cold day.  But a trip to Newport is always fun.

Engel USA customer service and a re-test

Well I will say customer service at Engel is prompt in contacting unhappy customers.  After sleeping on my unhappiness with the Engel cooler and posting on the Blog about it.  I decided I should give the company some benefit of doubt.  So this morning I e-mail Engel USA and within 10 mins I received a call from them.  They ask questions as to how I treated the beverages before placing them in the cooler and how I should prep the cooler prior to filling.  They then advised me on how to test for a proper seal as this may be a problem and the cooler should be performing better. 
Since I am home for a week,  when I return, I will test and do another review to my findings.  I will also do a repost.  In the end all I want is a cooler to still have some ice in it after 6 days,  as it is advertised to "keeps ice for 8-10 days" STAY TUNED!
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentines-day-farmers-market-what-is.html

http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2011/03/update-on-engel-cooler-fyi.html

FYI the picture of the cooler on the first post was the ice from the old cooler, the next day I drained the water and refilled the cooler (to the top) with fresh ice.  I say this I am e-mailing this to Engel USA to follow.

Update on Engel cooler and customer service July 4th,2011

Customer service

NONE so much for standing behind their product after doing the suggusted seal test on the Engel 123 a couple of weeks later I again contacted the company and told them the cooler was not performing as advertised "keeps ice for 8-10 days"  in fact it keeps ice for 4 days at BEST! 
Finally after threating them with the BBB I at least got a response.  I told them at this cooler was no better than the cooler I was replacing which was 10 years old and was 1/4 the price and I wanted my money back and an address label sent to my home so I could sent it back.  They said they would send a label and a box to ship it in.  All set, we were returning home for a short visit and hauled the cooler back with us in anticipation of recieving the box to ship the cooler back.  It never came and all my e-mails I got NO response.  After our visit back home we once again hauled the cooler back to the boat and are now STUCK with it.  on top of all this the hinge on the lid keeps slipping out and we need to knock it back into place about once a month. 
So there we are!  I DO NOT RECOMMEND ENGEL coolers and I would suggust if your looking for a high quality cooler to maybe try the YETI.  Or save your money buy a coleman or igloo and take the money saved and buy more ice.

Update on the Engel Cooler FYI

Back in Feb. we broke down and purchased the Engel 123 cooler.  We said we would update to let everyone know if it lived up to the hype of " keeps ice for 8 days".  Though a very nice cooler well built etc. it keeps ice for 4 days just 1 day longer than our old igloo.  I have spoken with another person that has the yeti cooler and they have had similar results.  Cooler filled with beverages then iced (25 pounds) ice is good for 4 days, granted we are in the cooler thoughout the day but no the ice does not last for 8 days.
I thought I would update as someone asked how we made out.  I am comparing it to the Yeti as these are the 2 highest rated coolers.