Now or Never!: OUT OF THE STREAM AND OUTTA STEAM!

The time came when we had to call an end to our visit to Cat Island. Kind seas and a beautiful Southeast breeze made for a wonderful run downwind to Little San Salvador. We used the whisker pole for the first but not the last time. The anchorage at Little San was the rolliest, most uncomfortable anchorages ever. We got up and got out as soon as possible and headed for Davis Harbor on Eleuthera. We had been without it for over a week and needed ice badly.

The morning after arriving at the marina, we woke to find one of our tomatoes on the cabin sole, nibbles taken from it. What kind of critter would nibble at a tomato? A mystery not unlike the one in January when we embarked on this journey! We never solved that one. We set out a sticky trap left over from the previous mystery, placed a bit of tomato on it and hoped for the best. The next morning, the trap was upside down but empty. Afterwards, like the incident in January, there was no further sign of a stowaway.

We loaded up with ice at Davis Harbor and set sail for West Bay and Bimini. On the way, all the ice melted and we discovered that the fridge had stopped working. Another mystery. We later learned that this mystery was related to the nibbled tomato incident. It seems that something had nibbled more than a tomato, it had also nibbled at the wires going to the fridge compressor! Oh well, we’d been without ice before and at one time didn’t even have a fridge. Besides, we’d be in Bimini soon. When we arrived at Bimini, by American standards a backwater for sure, we felt like we were back in civilization. There were grocery stores where common things like milk, butter and cheese were available. Frozen meats could be found, etc. Restaurants when you don’t feel like cooking. On the other hand, water is a scarce commodity. Blue Water Maruna has a desalinization plant and many of the islanders buy water from them. I am reminded of the public wells in Senegal. The water spigot at Blue Water and the wells provide central points for socializing.

The weather provided us with an excellent opportunity to head to Ft Pierce 117 nautical miles away. We planned on a 20-24 hour passage and timed our departure so we’d arrive there in the daylight on an incoming tide. Again, we were headed downwind and were making good time under sail. Of course, we also had a nice boost from the 1 ½ to 3knot northbound current in the Gulf Stream. Instead of the 20-24 hours we allotted for the trip, it looked like we would do it in 15 hours or so—5 AM arrival and an outgoing tide. Not the best but . . .

At about 2 AM, 18 miles from Ft Pierce, we were finally out of the Stream and about 3 miles offshore. The wind, still behind us had died to a whisper and we had slowed way down. Not bad since it would put us into Ft Pierce when we wanted to get there. Then, inexplicably, the wind turned to the Northwest and picked up a bit. Nothing to do but roll up the jib and turn on the motor. Alas, no cooling water. So now, can’t sail, can’t motor. Out of the stream and outta steam. Thank goodness for Towboat US. By the time the tow was on its way, the wind had turned back around to the Southeast, but the ball was already in motion. We got towed into the St Lucie Inlet where we anchored until morning, 3 hours later. Then we were towed up the ICW and finally Harbortown at Ft Pierce. Our journey from Bimini actually took a little over 26 hours, just a couple of hours longer than originally planned.

When I got around to investigating the problem, I found that the belt that drives the cooling water pump was loose. An easy fix except for the fact that it involved removing everything including the batteries from both access lockers and nearly standing on my head in order to remove the pump and the belt.

Then it was time to investigate the problem with the refrigeration. Product support at the manufacturer walked me through the trouble shooting and we determined that I had a bad power supply. We drove down to Jupiter to get a replacement. The technician there showed me exactly how to replace the unit. It was easy enough when everything was on a work bench, another thing entirely in the confines of the locker. At any rate, when I finally got the unit out far enough to remove the power supply, I discovered that the control wire had been nibbled through. So, whatever the critter was, his diet was not limited to tomatoes. I spliced the wire and everything worked again. We returned the power supply and took advantage of being at the dealership and bought a small fridge/freezer. Now we can keep frozen foods on the boat!