A Pivotal Incident on the Way to Bellhaven, NC

On Sunday the 5th of June we pulled anchor, stored the dinghy, and motored out of Oriental. The wind was out of the N at 20-25 kts. On the way in under bouncy conditions, we had some issues with fuel starvation on our diesel when running it to charge batteries/cool down the engine-driven freezer. I was able to get the starvation issue resolved (I thought). That’s what the vacuum gauge said anyway.

We were motoring into the wind on a long fetch and the engine as we rounded into the ICW again about 12 Mi N of Oriental. The engine died and I decided we should sail back and go into Oriental for a professional check.

I contacted TowBoat US and they said they would be standing by to intercept us at the harbor entrance as we sailed back into Oriental. A couple of hours later we got close to the harbor and called for the tow and the response was that they were on another call. We will have to wait.

So we set up the anchor and sailed into the harbor, rounding up just out of the standing chop. The boat settled at anchor and I went down to the engine compartment and made another assessment of the situation. It appeared there was an issue in the Racor module. The 20micron filter was pretty clean with a few bits. I had about 10′ of fuel line so I just bypassed the Racor and restarted the engine. It took right off and the vacuum gauge stayed well within tolerance.

We pulled anchor and headed into the Oriental Town Free dock to tie up and look for a mechanic.

As we approached the dock, the wind caught us dragging the bow away from the dock. We went around again and approached slowly. Karen stepped outside the lifelines holding a beam-cleated dockline in one hand. The boat was moving slowly if at all. As she stepped back her leg twisted and she fell on the dock. She managed to cleat off the line and then about passed out.

Long story short….. She broke her Tibial Plateau at that moment.

We got her to the hospital via ambulance. At the time she/we thought she had dislocated her knee. Once in the ER and after an X-Ray, we saw what the damage was.

She had a temporary surgery on Monday to straighten the leg and stabilize it till we could get her to a trauma Orthopaedic surgeon.

She was discharged from the hospital on Thursday and we stayed in a local hotel “The Oriental Inn and Marina” till Saturday. Linda Griffin picked us up and brought us home to HHI.

Stu and Howard have been a great help in this ordeal. Howard lent his truck to me for the week. Stu helped me dock the boat in a short-term slip nearby and is checking on the boat while we recover. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends.
Thank you all!

Now we recover at home till Wednesday when Karen will have her Tibia repaired and we can start the 8 week recovery period.