We moved from the Marina to the Anchorage in Oriental on December 31st since that’s all we’d paid for. Had a quiet night on anchor and then took our time leaving on the 1st. Since it takes about 6 hours to get from Oriental to the ocean as long as you’re out by noon you can be in the ocean before dark and not. need to worry.

We did notice that the engine was having trouble as we were crossing the Neuse River. So once on the other side we anchored and found a whole lot of growth that had come into the raw water intake, caught by the filter and easily cleared out.

The run through the ICW was without issue, and we were exiting into the ocean on smooth seas before dark.

It was about 7pm when the engine died, there was a large wave that came and rocked the boat. I let it sit for about half and hour and the engine started right up. Again.. And a third time.

It was time to accept what the issue was. We had a diesel bug and had one for some time. We’d sat seven months in Maine in the cold with a half filled tank, then sat four months in a hot Provincetown MA with the same half filled tank. A diesel bug is a colony of bacteria that lives in the condensation water and feeds off the diesel, it produces a thick slime/sludge and I was sure our tank was super full.

Unfortunately we were also only moving about 1 knot in zero wind. Adrift, and drifting into the commercial traffic lane for Beaufort NC, a place where some serious and large commercial traffic comes through. Not a place to get squished if you can’t move.

So about 11pm I went up on deck and got one of our diesel cans, brought it down below and used some spare fuel hose to have the motor pull from this tank instead of the installed and contaminated tank. I then had to cut the fuel return hose and direct it into this tank. Now with the engine running perfectly we turned arround and started to motor back.

We arrived at the entrance by first light and made our way to anchor. Beaufort has what is usually a crowded anchorage on Taylor Creek but with this being January 2nd there were only a couple of other boats there so there was plenty of room for us to anchor. I took a few hours of sleep then started to call around. The first call was to EMD Environmental which is a local company that will polish fuel and clean/inspect tanks.

We were able to secure a spot at the Beaufort Town Docks for five days, and moved the next morning to our spot. Easy and without issues the only hard part was paying the $830 for five days, reminding us of another reason we avoid Beaufort.

The diesel polish truck’s hoses weren’t long enough to reach our spot and they need us to move all the way to the shoreline wall, the tide was up so we would have enough water for a few hours. Time to move. Unfortunately the spot was tricky and the turn was impossible I had noticed the 10 knot breeze but hadn’t noticed the tide had already started moving the current at 4 knots. I ended up swinging our rear end into a docked Gemini Sailboat. The guy living on it was still asleep when he came up and together we were able to keep the boats apart and stop any damage from happening.

Finally in the shoreside slip the fuel polish didn’t take too long, it helped that we only have a 20 gallon tank. The hardest part was clearing space and pulling everything from the aft cabin to take down the bulkhead so they could have access to the tank. About 30 minutes for the polish and about one hour total. Which was good since we draw about six feet and with the tide now going out we had limited time at this spot, at low tide there is only about four feet of water there.

Luckily getting out and back to our assigned slip was easy with no drama. The only pain was needing to pay the $550 for the diesel polish. No more leaning the tank anything other than full and no more forgetting to add in diesel treatment often.

Still I was glad that we’d paid for five days at the dock we had lots to do. We had to put the boat back together. Replace the fuel return line, emotionally recover by eating copious amounts of pizza. But the fist order of business was to walk to town and get a bottle of wine to formally apologize for the docking fiasco. We had been exceptionally lucky. And to compound our luck Ryan had gone over right after the incident to start our apology, which helped, but what I think helped even more was that Ryan shared his love and obsession for the Gemini Catamarans. The wine was a nice way to wrap that loose end up though.

We used those five days well, and on the day it was time to head out we were able to wait for the right tide and hop out easily. It’s a super short run from the city of Beaufort to the Beaufort Inlet. And I was nervous about the engine. Luckily we had an outgoing tide and wind coming in from the ocean. This had us BASHING in four foot waves as we tried to get outside for about 45 minutes.

Normally that is something to be avoided but in this case it was an aggressive way to test the fuel repair, the boat did great. I’d also decided to not even take out the sails for our overnight, the plan was to just motor the whole way to Carolina Beach NC to really get a feel for the engine again.

And all was good, once outside the seas went flat, and we had a clam motor down to the Wrightsville Beach NC inlet by sunrise and then a motor for a few hours to Carolina Beach NC where we picked up a mooring. All was good at last.