The crew of Stardust is sad to report the loss of one of our own. Our great sea dog and best friend, Ringo, has passed away. I wish I could say that we got him to the animal hospital and they did all they could to save him, but he was just too sick. But unfortunately, we had that option taken away from us...
We've been in Elizabeth City for a while now. We were over at Pelican Marina for a couple of months and during that time, since we hadn't really all that much in the way of resources, Brenda decided to apply to Camden County and got us involved in a program called Work First. The county will provide you with a limited check while you look for work and if you don't find work in a given time, they have you do volunteer work until you do find something, this way you are earning your check. When the dockmaster of Pelican Marina, Josh, found this out, he decided to let us know that even though our slip was paid up for two months, he wasn't happy to have that kind of element at his Marina. When our two months were up, he advised us we had to leave his docks. We ended up having a problem with the starter and rather than let us pay for an extra night so we could get someone to look at it, he towed us over to the public docks. It took a few days to get someone that could look at the engine and fix the problem. Once it was fixed, we moved on to a nearby location called Janette Brothers. This is a food distribution company that allows boaters to tie up as long as they agree to frequent one of the establishments they supply at least once per day that you are tied up. We got our taxes done and got a check from Work First so we were able to do that for a little. When we finally got our refund, we spent a couple of more days at Janette Brothers and then went back over to the town docks to get ready to leave.
We got everything ready to get going and then Leia, our Bengal, jumped off the boat, into the water and after climbing out go herself under the boardwalk at Waterfront Park. It took a couple of hours to finally get her to come back out and by then it was too late to try to head south and cross Albemarle Sound. That night, another boat came in and the nice gentleman that was the skipper of it said he would be happy to cross with us the next day if the weather was right for it. The next day, we ran the engine to charge the batteries and found that they were not charging. This bothered us since we need the batteries to start the engine and need the engine to go down the ICW. Our new friend checked things and determined there was no charge coming from the alternator. After a day of trying to find a replacement in town, I managed to track one down on ebay and get it sent to us. Due to some confusion regarding the method of shipping, it took a week and a half to finally get the part. The weather was really bad as far as causing the boat to rock heavily the next day, so I couldn't try to do work on the engine that day and the next day was raining and I didn't want to get anything with the electrical system wet if I could avoid it. That Thursday, St Patrick's Day, we got the alternator changed out and then found that the real problem was the cable that runs from the ignition to the alternator had been disconnected when the starter was being fixed and not reconnected afterward. We also found that the engine needed an oil change so Brenda and I took care of the that on Friday.
By this point, we had found out that Josh from The Pelican had been going around telling people we had been bad mouthing Elizabeth City every chance we got, that we had been stealing electricity from the Christmas lights they had over at the Marina when we were there, that we were taking advantage and mooching off everyone at the Marina and in the City and pretty much anything else he could come up with to cover for the fact that he had us leave because of our assistance from the County.
Back to having changed the oil. It takes a long time with a Marine Diesel to change the oil. And by the time we were done and had gotten the old oil someplace safe to dispose of it, it was after 2pm. Way too late to try to cross the Sound again. Saturday the winds were too high to try for a crossing, because there are so many crab pots in the sound, that you need to be able to see them, so you need calm seas. On Sunday morning, we were getting ready to go and found that Ringo did not seem to be feeling well. He wasn't really interested in his food and we felt something on his right side. I had to wait for Monday morning to bring him to the Animal Hospital and found that he had Pancreatitis. They kept him overnight and gave him IV fluids. I got contacted the next day by a representative of the Harbormaster of Elizabeth City aka The Chief of Police. He stated that since we had been on the town docks for so long, we had to get off. I went and spoke with him directly, explaining how Ringo was in the Animal Hospital and that I had just talked with them that morning and they wanted him to stick around for the rest of the day, possibly coming home in the afternoon. The Chief said we could just go someplace else and anchor, then come back for him, but why couldn't I just call and see if I could just pick him up right then. After leaving the Chief, I called the Animal Hospital and they said he was doing a little better and I could come get him, they would send some antibiotics home with him. This was on Tuesday, March 22nd.
We anchored out a couple of days and then made our way across the Sound on a very pleasant Friday, March 25th. Ringo had been eating and taking his medicine and seemed to be doing better. We noticed a small bump on his muzzle, between his forehead and his nose, but weren't sure where it came from. After getting across the sound, we dropped anchor, but when we realized it hadn't set right, we went to start our engine to get into a better location. The engine wouldn't start. We decided to get the anchor set properly and then we would worry about trying to fix it in the morning. Ringo was starting to eat less. We tried doing everything we knew how to and nothing seemed to work for getting the engine restarted. We contacted the Coast Guard and they managed to contact a vessel, Propinquity II, that was willing to try helping us get the engine going. We went through a few hours of work and didn't seem any closer to solving the problem. The Coast Guard had a small boat show up to check on us and since it was getting late, after speaking with Sector Command, they decided that they wanted us in a safe harbor so they would tow us to the Alligator River Marina, right across the channel from where we were anchored. The Marina confirmed that they had enough depth for us to make it in, and they had a slip big enough. When the Coast Guard got us over to the side of the channel that they Marina was on, the Marina heard the name "Stardust" and said we were not allowed in their Marina. Apparently, Josh had decided that getting Elizabeth City against us was not enough for him and he called the next few Marinas to tell them not to assist us. This made it so that we couldn't get to shore to get a mechanic friend of ours to get the engine fixed on Sunday. We spent Sunday anchored within sight of the Marina, Ringo getting a little worse, having to wait out a storm. Monday, Propinquity II went into the marina to get fuel and were told by the staff not to get involved with us. Apparently they had been telling anyone else that came to the Marina not to assist us in any way.
Propinquity's crew tried again to solve our problems, but all we could tell was there was air coming into the fuel line somewhere and we couldn't find where. We had the Coast Guard contact our friend Dave, a diesel mechanic and he said he could get down Tuesday morning at 10am to the Marina. The Marina refused to help him get out to us, Ringo was getting even worse. He had spent the two nights prior snuggled up with us in the Quarter Berth, trying to feel better. We were contacted by the Coast Guard the next morning when Dave got to the Marina and we managed to be lucky enough to have a sailboat called Serenity coming by that was willing to get Dave from the fuel dock at the Marina. He brought Dave out and within a couple of hours, he had found the problem and fixed it so our engine was running again. Just before his arrival, Ringo suffered a stroke, but he was still with us. I tried to get us back across the Sound, to Elizabeth City, to get Ringo back to the Animal Hospital. He had three seizures along the way, then went to sleep. A short time later, just after we entered the Sound, our brave sea dog had left us...
Had we been able to get ashore, get our friend to fix our engine on Sunday, we could have had Ringo in the Animal Hospital on Monday. There's no guarantee that they would have been able to save him, but the fact that the possibility was taken from us because of some petty little man with a superiority complex on a power trip really rips me up inside. I took his body up to the Animal Hospital today and said a final goodbye to him. Every one of us keeps just losing it because of how much it hurts to lose him. He wasn't just the family pet, he was family. He was one of us. And now, he is gone...
