A 10 Hour Tour

Ever had one of those days, when everything goes wrong? Captain Dick has, owner of Keeper a 65’ sailing vessel bound for Miami with 5 souls aboard (Dick, his first mate Lynn and a crew of 3). Things started off well, a Saturday 7 a.m. departure right on schedule. Winds were favourable, sky clear. We set off, not suspecting that we would be boarded just a few miles out and things would begin to fail and/or break.

Dick & Lynn, Rainier, Oregon-->
Missy, Lynn, Sophia

I’m not sure which happened first – an unexpected guest, the water pump failing, the smashing of oil and vinegar when we heeled over (the salon had a lovely salad smell the rest of the trip, and was rather slippery), or the engine failing, but fail it did and Poopeye the Sailor Bird joined the crew (he was aptly named). About 15 miles out of Freeport the engine died and try as he might the valiant captain could not restart it but we were a sailing vessel, so on we sailed. A problem with the fuel was suspected and the spare filters seemed to have disappeared. The boat had recently been serviced by a well known Bahamian pirate and he, we suspect, is the reason the engine ceased to function.

Poopeye soon became our entertainment, he was banded and quite tame. He hopped around the cockpit (and on Gerry) munching on crackers and Fritos, sipping from his bowl of water while Dick thought murderous thoughts about a certain mechanic.

Despite the loss of the engine we were still traveling at 5+ knots so all was well – or so we thought. The winds have been blowing here almost non-stop for 4 months so of course when we needed them they failed and we were soon down to 1.3 knots and going nowhere fast. Around this time the chart plotter stopped working, it wasn’t receiving the GPS signal. I jokingly said maybe it was a lose wire and guess what? – it was. So the plotter was back on line and we could see exactly how quickly we were not sailing. The combination of no wind and the Gulf stream meant we weren’t getting any closer to land. Dick has unlimited towing insurance so we started calling for assistance and although we could hear everyone on the radio, no one could hear us. The radio had inadvertently been set to transmit on 1 watt instead of 25. Eventually this was discovered, reset and voila we were talking to Tow Boat US.

I have to say this is a great company. They promised to rescue us in 2.5 hours and they were there in 2.5 hours. Of course Murphy’s Law came into play and as soon as they arrived the wind picked up and continued to pick up as we were being dragged through the water. Since we were being towed all the sails were down but perhaps if we’d put at least the main back up the boat would not have rocked wildly from side to side causing more havoc down below (things flying about). We were towed 40 miles, took about 6 hours. The roughest 6 hours I have ever spent on a boat. Missy managed to wedge into her bunk and not get tossed too much by stretching across it, one hand firmly against one side, one foot against the other. I tucked myself in beside some luggage which helped a little, I don’t know where Lynn ended up but her mattress was on the other side of the cabin by morning. I really wanted to see how high the waves were but lacked the bravery to crawl through the companionway to the cockpit (I was way way back in one of the aft cabins).

We were towed to a fuel dock near Tow Boat US’s office and then eventually to a marina where a mechanic was hired to fix the engine.

A 10 hour trip became a 24 hour one but the boat gods were still against Captain Dick. By the time we reached land the bilge pump was on its last legs and by Wednesday had ceased entirely; moving from the marina on Thursday to his permanent slip he ran aground (had to be towed off); a few minutes later the engine died once again and they had to be towed the rest of the way. We stopped in on our way to the airport to say goodbye, Lynn was emptying the bilge pail by pail and there were old batteries on the dock – I didn’t ask why!

Missy, Dick, Gerry, Lynn, Sophia