5/21/10 – Little River, South Carolina

Tram over waterway for golfers

Replacement Props

Offending prop

Waiting for the diver to surface.

Our “Reflection” crew took a relaxed approach to getting started this morning, and First Mate, Pat, was especially moving slowly as she was nursing lots of aches from yesterday’s fall. However, we finally got underway at 9 a.m. for a 27 mile trip to the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club. The journey was very scenic and everything was going along well until we got a call on the radio from a boat from Cinnaminson, New Jersey who wanted to pass us. Boating etiquette dictated that we should slow down and move out of his way slightly and allow him to do so.


However, we forgot that we were in an area known as the “Rock Pile”, a stretch with rock ledges on both sides of the channel. Unfortunately, when we moved over, we bumped a piece of the ledge with our starboard prop – so much for being “Mr. Nice Guys”! After having travelled so many thousands of miles without damage, we were hopeful that “Reflection” would come away from this incident unscathed – but this was not to be the case. When George started up the starboard engine, there was definitely a strong vibration coming from that side. We limped carefully into the marina only a few miles away, and were able to get tied up. We were able to make contact with Rod, a local diver living aboard his boat in the marina, who eventually was able to get the damaged prop off in the water and took it to be repaired at a local prop shop. We decided then to put on the two spare 4 blade props which we had aboard, but as the time was getting late, Rod would have to continue this repair job tomorrow. Since George and Linda were also leaving us tomorrow, we then had a farewell dinner at the marina’s restaurant with hopes that our repair would be quickly completed then.