Sunday Summary #51

Transmission Issues & Year End Gratitudes

Hello ,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 51st Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written aboard PIVOT as we’re cruising south on the ICW towards Cumberland Island, Georgia.

Last Week.

We spent two nights on anchor near Beaufort, SC. During that time we visited Low Country Produce for lunch and picked up a tomato pie that one of our viewers recommended. Gwen from SV Acadia baked it the next day and It was delicious! The rest of our time was spent enjoying a much needed rest day where we watched movies, ate popcorn, and did zero work. It was amazing!

The following day, we cruised south towards Hilton Head where we attempted to stop in a dog friendly (read: public access to a dinghy dock) anchorage. Elliot tried to take the boat out of forward gear, into neutral but our boat was stuck in forward. Out of all places, we were in a good place for this to happen because we had a good amount of depth under PIVOT and were not in a place that could easily run aground. Secondly, we were off the main channel of the ICW so we had considerably less boat traffic around us. Thirdly, we were anchoring for the night, not docking, where we use the throttle to bump in and out of gear considerably. Fourthly, we have our buddy boat to bounce ideas off of and troubleshoot the issue. Fifth and lastly, we had plans to go to a marina the following day so we could get replacement parts easily. Elliot brought the boat down to our slowest speed, quickly dropped our anchor and turned off our engine. Elliot and Andy from our buddy boat, SV Acadia, came over to help diagnose the problem. Both Elliot and Andy attributed our problem to the transmission oil cooler. This device brings the outside salt water and cools the transmission oil. Since these old transmission coolers do not have a sacrificial anode (a piece of metal that salt water can corrode instead of the important metal parts, which get changed every few months), the salt water corrodes the device over years of exposure to the salt water. As a result, our transmission oil was a strawberry milkshake color, instead of a red color. This problem was surprising to us since Elliot checked our transmission oil 2 weeks earlier and we saw no oil residue behind the boat indicating an oil leak. Elliot and Andy changed our transmission oil with the hopes of making it to Savannah without any problems so we could get a new transmission cooler (shown below on the left; Ollie for scale).

We had a gorgeous cruise to Savannah and arrived at Thunderbolt Marina. Typically we only spend one day at a marina which is filled of boat chores, but due to these circumstances, we spent two nights at the marina so Elliot and Andy could replace our transmission cooler. Thunderbolt Marina is also known for delivering 6 hot Krispy Kreme donuts to your boat each morning. Things could have been worse 😉🍩 We spent an afternoon exploring Downtown Savannah with

before doing some provisioning, filling water tanks, and getting a pump out.

We switched roles as we left the marina in Savannah, Jenn was at the helm and Elliot was in charge of lines. We began switching roles during our journey north in Elizabeth City as a way for both of us to get comfortable with all of the boat roles and responsibilities incase someone was injured or we were in a precarious situation. We left the dock with a good amount of current against us. Although we didn’t film it, it was our best role switching yet! We were both so happy with the result. Growing is hard, but the end result is worth it. We stopped by two more anchorages including Kilkenny Creek and Frederica River where we explored Fort Frederica during sunset.

“Whatever makes you uncomfortable,is your biggest opportunity for growth.”- Bryant H. McGill

This Week.

We are currently cruising south towards Jekyll Island and Cumberland Island. It’s a foggy morning on the ICW, so we’re cruising inside with our running lights (red and green navigation lights on either side of our boat) on, and horn blasting every two minutes.

Our cruising destinations this week include Cumberland Island, Fernandina Beach, Jacksonville, and finally, St. Augustine, Florida - our final destination to see our family for the holidays.

 Videos. 

Incase you missed it, here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:

From Van Life to Trawler Life, Exploring Crisfield with @Adventures of A+K ​

No more soft decks on our trawler! (finishing our biggest boat project yet)

Preparing to leave the Chesapeake (getting our trawler ready for full time liveaboard cruising)

Next week on YouTube, we leave Crisfield and begin our journey south for the winter. We’re excited to be back cruising and exploring new places. It’s why we began this boat journey in the first place!

The Q&A video will be released in early 2022, so stay tuned for that 😊

 Gratitudes. 

As I mentioned above, we really had an ideal situation and conditions for our transmission cooler to stop working. We really lucked out with good weather conditions, we were in a safe place, had help easily available to us, and so much more. Part of purchasing an old boat, is that we get many opportunities to learn about our boat and how things work on a boat. It’s not until things go wrong, that we learn how things work and how to fix them. We don’t view it as “problems” but instead “opportunities for learning and growth,” and we’ve grown a LOT on this journey south. We hope we’re set up for success as we restart our Great Loop journey in 2022.As the holidays near closer and the year comes to a close, we want to extend our gratitude and deep appreciation to you! We are blown away by the positive comments and encouragement we receive on our videos, Instagram stories, and emails. It’s been so fun connecting with so many people that we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. Thank you for watching our YouTube videos documenting our little adventure, sharing Scho & Jo with your friends and family, and subscribing to our emails. It really means a lot to us. 2021 has been a wonderful year. THANK YOU!

Peace and love,Jenn + Elliot