Day 140, Saturday November 9th

Day 140, Saturday November 9^th

Land spotted finally

It was a horrible night.  We were tossed about, and no one really slept.  Winds and waves were high.  Daylight was anxiously looked forward to.  We realize we have lost 2 batons, so the main sail does not hold its shape and sail very well.  We will have to get new ones made.  The waves are too high so we cannot go into the Abacos Island as we had planned as the entrance way between the reefs suffers from a “rage” if there have been strong north and north east winds.  A rage is where the waves are breaking in the entranceway and will toss the boat over end to end rolling in the surf.  We decide to head to the next island to the south which is Eleuthra as the passageway remains deep and then you enter from the west and the waves are reduced by the shelter of the land.  This adds about 10 hours of sailing which we did not want, but we do want to be safe.  We had timed landing at the Abacos quite well.   We passed about 20 miles off its entrance at daybreak.

The winds have reduced however we continue to motorsail in order to get to Spanish Wells town or Royal Island off the Eleuthra Island in daylight.  At about 2:00 we spot land and 90 minutes later are reducing sail as we need to head into the wind, when our motor hesitates and dies.  Oh no!  Dawson switches over to the other tank as perhaps our gauge is reading wrong and the tank is empty.  We rev up immediately and continue to start dropping the jib when the motor again sputters.  As we all start brainstorming what the problem could be we realize that both filter systems have been open vs. having a clean filter.  That was unfortunate.  We switch back to the original tank and the engine starts up.  We drop sail, but the sputtering begins again.  Greg man’s the throttle and reduces and accelerates in alternating pattern and the engine keeps running but it is struggling.  To top all this off, the autoprop does not seem to be rotating properly as our headway is next to nothing and dropping to nothing when we are hit by a sequence of waves.  Currently we have 20 knot winds on the nose and seas of about 3 foot coming straight at us.  There also seems to be a bit of a current against us as our knot meter and GPS have a .5 knot variance.  We have only about 2 miles to go, but it is now 4:00 and we only have an hour of daylight to get into an unknown harbour entrance.  Royal Island is the closest with about a 100 foot gap to sneak through.  Dawson is at the helm trying to keep a straight course to minimize the distance.  The engine continues to sputter but keeps running.  Finally by 5:00 we are at the entranceway holding our breath that the engine goes for 5 more minutes.  We just need to get into the bay and drop the anchor.  We are ready on the jib in case she dies.  Yeah, we are in.

Once anchored (in 20 knot winds still, but no waves), Dawson dives the prop to determine if there is anything hung up on it.  He also checks the movement of the rudder and prop.  Everything seems fine.  We have a happy hour to toast our success at reaching the Bahamas.  Our excitement is overcast by the engine troubles which is too bad.  We have done a fabulous job making this passage and should be thrilled with ourselves.  Dawson reads up on the autoprop and digs out engine supplies and the Yanmar books.  We decide to tackle the repair tomorrow.  The four of us have a lovely barbeque dinner and a game of King’s Cribbage and head off to bed knowing we are safe for the night.  We are all exhausted.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson