Captain Riggs says "Let's go sailing guys!"
We left new friends behind when we left Great Harbor Cay Marina on Monday, January 6 for a night sail to Freeport where we had an appointment at Knowles Marine Yard. Why, you may ask did we have an appointment with a marine repair yard? We needed a new exhaust manifold on our engine and they could get one from FL and install it. We debated doing the exhaust manifold ourselves since we normally do our own repairs, but decided to make the trip since they could get the manifold and any additional parts that might be needed more quickly than we can. Plus David continues to nurse a sore wrist and engine work entails lots of reaching, turning and lifting heavy things at odd angles.
After spending 15 days at Great Harbor Cay marina, we finally were on the move. We had done a temporary epoxy fix on the engine so we very slowly motored out of the marina and through the narrow rock lined cut. A marina friend escorted us in his dinghy in case our repair let go and our engine overheated and we needed to shut it down quickly. Luckily no issues, so we exited the cut, waved goodbye and dropped an anchor for a few hours. We had a 65 mile sail north ahead of us and were trying to time our arrival to coincide with high tide so we could get through the shallow channel into the boatyard where our engine would be repaired.
We were both so glad to be back on an anchor! The sun was shining, the seas calm. But our contentment didn’t last for long….
David had noticed that the oil level in the engine had been rising, and the only thing he could think that might do this is water getting into the oil. This would be very bad! After pondering this for a day or two he decided we really needed to know what was going on, so soon after we anchored, he extracted some of the oil to see what it looked like. It came out an odd milky beige color – very bad news – there was ALOT of water in our oil. His memory from working on small engines as a kid is that water in the oil usually means the engine is toast!
We racked our brains and studied the engine diagrams and could not think of how water could get in the oil unless something else has failed. We thought we might have cascading engine failures which would be a very grim indeed. One earlier clue that we had a water issue that we missed was that the engine had recently been very hard to start, i.e., the starter was struggling to turn it over. This is a symptom of water in the cylinders because water as a liquid is incompressible so the starter and starting battery have to work really hard to start the engine (hydrolock).
Our first step was to call our NC boat consultant/friend Bill Z - our go-to guy for hard boat problems which we don’t know how to fix. It turns out that diesel engines, at least Yanmar boat engines, are pretty forgiving when it comes to water in the cylinders. He told us to change the oil, run the engine for 30 min, then change the oil again and run the engine for 30 min again, then change it once more and it should be fine, assuming we did not have a new failure. Bill also said that the exhaust manifold hole could cause water to get into the cylinders and the oil. This was a huge relief because we thought we had two major problems to fix and now we were probably back to only one!
After changing the oil it was time to head out so we raised the mainsail while still at anchor. Another crisis…we discovered two large 6-8 inch tears in our sail. We think it probably happened when we got caught in a squall on our way down to Great Harbor Cay after escaping drifting onto the rocks ( blogpost "The Cruise From Hell"). A squall with rain and sudden high winds came out of nowhere. We were able to quickly roll in the headsail, but by the time we got that sail doused, we didn’t feel like it was safe to go on deck to get the mainsail down. It was reefed already and we had tied the folds of the sail to the boom because the sustained 30-35 knot winds kept catching the folded sail and billowing it out. Sigh...so we got out the sail repair tape and taped the sail back together. This is a temporary repair but we knew we were going to have light winds so we figured the sail would hold together ok. We pulled up the anchor and started sailing north as the sun was beginning to set. At least we were treated to a spectacular sunset and a beautiful evening.
For the crossing to Freeport, we picked a night where the wind was predicted to be from the right direction to get from Great Harbor Cay to Freeport The forecast predicted light but steady winds most of the way across with the wind dropping to almost nothing around 4am. If we missed this weather window to get to Freeport, we would be in the Great Harbor Cay Marina for another week waiting for the next weather window giving us favorable conditions to sail to Freeport.
We were able to make reasonable progress through the night - mostly in the right direction for most of the night, but it was slow going. Sailing in light wind in the dark is hard for me (David). There isn’t much feel on the wheel because there is not much force on the rudder, and you can’t judge the set of the sails by eye since it is dark. I’m still not as good a “feel” sailor as I would like to be, but I am improving.
The route we were sailing crosses some shipping lanes so cruise ships, freighters, local boats, and large pleasure yachts were everywhere. We can see the boats that use AIS – a satellite based system that monitors boat positions and nearby boats - but we see only those who have bought the hardware and are subscribed to the AIS service. Most of the local boats in the Bahamas do not have it. Many pleasure/recreational boats do not have it either so we do not see these boats on our electronics and have to rely on their navigation lights. We were on the radio a lot overnight making sure people saw us and letting them know that we were under sail. Boats under sail with no engine running have right of way over boats under power, so we made sure to point out that we were a sailboat that was actually sailing.
After a chat with a commercial fisherman when we were in Ft Pierce FL who said he would not go on the water without radar we are thinking about it again. He said most of the boats he sees on radar are not on AIS and the radar also allows him to see objects in the water (like shipping containers). It’s a power drain and obviously expensive so we are still “on the fence”. Out theory is to try to keep the systems on the boat as simple as possible. We already have our hands full with maintaining what we have!
We spent quite a bit of the night making just 2-3 knots of speed in very light winds. A couple times the wind just died completely and we drifted sideways with the current. Luckily as the sun came up the wind came up a bit too and we were able to make our destination.
We arrived outside the harbor at Freeport in morning light, but we had to wait for the next high tide about 6 hours after our arrival to transit the short entrance to the harbor where Knowles Marine is located. We anchored, did our 2nd oil change, took naps, and did some other odds and ends that needed doing before heading into the boatyard and tying up at a dock.
Our repair was taken care of the next day. The mechanic at Knowles seems to have done a good job on the manifold repair and we were also able to restock our oil filter and oil inventory. We are once again waiting for a cold front to move on through and expect to be sailing south again in a couple days.
The old engine exhaust manifold
We decided to take advantage of being near a “big city” while here in Freeport and run some errands and do some shopping (for boat parts of course). We attempted to rent a car and in fact got a confirmation from Thrifty. When we asked one of the boatyard people to give us a ride to the airport to pick up the car, we learned that the airport and the car rental agencies had pretty much been taken out in Hurricane Dorian. So even though we had a reservation, there was no car rental office to go to pick up a car! The guy giving us a ride did what all Bahamians seem to do; they all know someone who can help you with whatever you are looking for. He just pulled his car over to the side of the road and starting calling people to see if they had a car they could rent us. Eventually he found one and off we went to pick it up. The car was fine except that occasionally it let out a horrible loud squawking noise! We finally decided it was a loose wire in the radio or speakers. It drove poor Riggs crazy!
Freeport is on Grand Bahama Island, one of the islands hit the hardest in that storm. The north side of the island saw 23 feet of storm surge, although the south side where our boatyard is located did not have too much damage. Many buildings are devastated or gone. We kept putting places in Google Maps and would get to the address, but no store. The people we met seemed to have pretty good attitudes about it and rebuilding is definitely going on. We stopped at a wonderful grocery store named Sawyers. I complimented the store to the check out lady and she said the original store was wiped out in the hurricane and it had all been rebuilt and enlarged since then. That is some fast work!
A local ice cream shop where we stopped. Christian music or loud preaching is usually playing in stores and the laundromat and it's not unusual to see pictures like this displayed in stores.
People drive on the left hand side in the Bahamas, but most of the cars are American cars with the steering wheel on the left. It can get very confusing, especially in roundabouts. David only almost pulled into head on traffic only once! MB may have screamed.
As you know if you’ve been reading our blogs this has been a tough weather year, and to add insult to injury, as I (David) am typing this I have a tampon up my nose (really, I’m not kidding) to stop a persistent nose bleed. It seems like we just can’t catch a break this season! However, we know people who have been stuck in Florida for more than a month waiting for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas – although now that I think about that, maybe they are the lucky ones! Between the engine problem, the wild weather, the water in the engine oil, the torn sail and David’s nosebleed, we feel like we have paid our dues and are ready for some fun!
So things have to get better, right?!
Thanks for Reading!
David and Mary Beth
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