Another year, another journey...or not!

Hi all! It's been a while since our last post detailing our journeys.  It has been a quiet summer here in Stuart, dimmed by the loss of a fellow boater. Life on the docks will not be the same with out Jen, but life goes on.

 Summertime in Florida is warm, but tempered by the daily sea breeze.Plans were to head to the Bahamas again this year, but we discovered plans are not what sailors have! Things have a way of really messing with them, as we found out this past week.

We left Lake Worth inlet around 5 pm, Mar. 10, with Carolina Moon (Mike & Bejay Grackin & grandson Zseth) expecting a bouncy ride at first. All was as predicted and I went below and heard chain rattling. The the anchor decided to break loose around 7:30-ish: 100 ft. of chain and 150 ft of rode were hanging off the bow in 3-4 ft seas and 15-17 kt. winds. Elden went forward and I had the helm. It took 3 hours in bouncy seas to haul the anchor and rode up using the winches in the cockpit. Several other lines, hooks and sore muscles later, we decide to continue on to the Bahamas. It was around 10:30 pm. Carolina Moon stuck with us the whole time, circling around. Bejay said there were times she thought we were going to broach it was so rough, but Soteria held up fine. Better than us as we were extremely tired and overdosed with adrenaline .

Then the mainsail decided to get stuck halfway up. Elden sat on the dinghy and managed to straighten out the mess. Seems the double reef line was the cause.

Finally we thought we were on our way, but then the engine decided to quit around midnight. We tried sailing, but due to the winds direction we were unable to tack using only the jib, We decided to call TowboatUS and head back to Lake Worth. They were responding when we tried to start the engine, which started running again. But wisdom prevailed and we asked TowboatUS to escort us in. Good thing as the engine quit just outside the three mile limit. The towboat tied on and towed us to our previous anchorage in Lake Worth were we rafted up with Carolina Moon at 3:30 am. By 4 am we were all zonked out, and didn't get up till late.

That morning (Tuesday) we called Loggerhead Stuart, our home marina, and made reciprocity arrangements with Loggerhead Palm Beach Gardens for a slip and American Marine Tech, Inc. to have a mechanic work on the engine. TowboatUS was called again to tow us to the marina. Gotta love unlimited towing insurance! We were able to get through the bridges on demand, instead of waiting for their opening times! Carolina Moon even benefited from that!

The mechanic couldn't come till Wednesday. He spent 2 1/2 hours searching and cleaning the fuel system. He was able to clean out the lines and pump and get the engine running.  Diagnosis: dirt in lines from rough bouncing and we had and an old, tired fuel pump, Tried to find one, but Yanmar said our engine is "obsolete" and no parts are being made or kept for it. That was the bad news. Good news is that our fuel pump can be rebuilt! So Shearwater Marine in Stuart is going to help out with that project.

Now our intentions are to go back to Lake Worth anchorage with Carolina Moon for a few more days, visit the Palm Beach boat show and head back to Stuart. Then the fuel pump project begins.

We can never express enough appreciation to Mike and Bejay for sticking with us the whole time and changing their plans. True boating buddies like them are hard to find, and we are very thankful they are our friends!