Seabbatical Adventures: Day 163, Monday December 2

Day 163, Monday December 2 – A Time to Move

Searcher lost in the swells

We head out at 9 for the Whales Cut. This is where we have to leave the Sea of Abaco for the Atlantic and re-enter via the Logger Head Pass. We will be beam to the Atlantic swell for about 2 miles so it is important to go on a mild day. We had been waiting for the right conditions for the last few days. There are 4 of us heading to Marsh Harbour. The swells are not too high which is nice, much less than the day we used it last time. As we are re-entering the Abacos Sea through Logger Head Pass our engine once again starts to act up. We have been running it at 2900 rpm’s as suggested by the manufacturer and the autoprop rep. Normally we have only been running it at 23-2600 RPMs. We put out the jib as a back up as the winds had picked up enough to sail. The engine never stalled and at 2200rpms ran ok, however we need to do some more investigation and cleaning. We suspect the fuel filter is clogged again. We are using the tank that Glenn the previous owner did not use as much. A job for the next day. Prior to the excitement we get some pictures of Steve and his boat Searcher transiting the Whale Cut. You can see that most of Searcher is lost in the swell.

We get in safely to harbour after about 4 hours and have been chased by a black sky for the last two hours. The weather forecast had been for light winds and some cloud, but we were gusting up to 30 knots and put a reef in the jib. We did not even have the main sail out and we were doing 7 knots.

The afternoon was used to resupply in town where we bumped into all the other boaters we have been travelling with. We decide to host a potluck on the boat tonight. Everyone can attend which is great.

As we are taking our groceries back to the boat at around 4 a storm comes up and we are soaked by the time we get to Jazzebelle, a combination of fresh and salt water. Oh well, clean anyways.

Appetizers in the Cockpit of Jazzebelle

Our guests start arriving at 6:00. Steve from the 28 foot O’day who is from Dallas, Rosemary and John from Kingston, and Lorraine and Julian from Vancouver. Everyone brings stuff so it is very easy to entertain. We play some pigs after dinner. None of our guests have ever played. Rosemary is the champ. We do nothing but pig out it seems. Everyone leaves by 10:30 so we clean up and head to bed. A wonderful evening by all.