Day 5
This was certainly the most interesting day yet. Thank you to everyone who has been reading about our trip and wishing us good luck along our journey.
So day 5 we woke up in the inner inlet of the Boca Grande pass. Still unsure about the motor and why it was billowing white smoke we decided to call a local Yanmar repair shop located on Pine Island in St James City. They advised us to be towed closer to their location, about 16 nautical miles, so they could come look at the boat.
Lucky for us, Chad bought a membership to TowBoatUS which covers up to $2,500 towards a towing incident. So we decided to call right away since traveling 16 NM in the inter-coastal could take a while. The tow boat showed up early around 9am and started pulling us towards the shop. Two hours later, and $900 later (don’t worry, we were covered), we arrived in San Carlos Bay between Pine Island and Sanibel Island. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go directly to where the shop is located cause the depth of our keel.
Once we arrived and said our goodbye to the tow boat we waited on the shop. They finally arrived by boat, started taking the engine apart and found water in 1 of the cylinders. Mind you this is a 3-cylinder engine. So that’s not good at all. They took some engine parts to go be tested and left right before sunset.
We thought they’d be open Friday (Christmas Eve) to perhaps diagnose and fix us up. But they called us after they left and said Monday is the next time they’ll be open. So, with engine parts in their hands, we’re spending Christmas in San Carlos Bay, outside Ft Myers. We have plenty of electricity between the bank of batteries, solar, wind generators, and a 3500W backup generator. And we have plenty of food and fresh water. But with the only way to move now being the sails, we’re unlikely to move. Though this cold front might justify another tow into a more sheltered mooring. We do have a dingy with a motor if we need to go on land. But during the night, the winds topped out the 2 wind power props at 50 mph. So we’re still mulling over driving a dingy in those kind of waters!
The good news is we’ll have plenty of time to get some things done. I always have client work and Chad has many little projects he’s been wanting to start. In my boredom last night, I made a webpage that can detect my iPhone or iPads GPS position, and post the result on the blog without manually updating like I was before. So now we can check in anytime very easily. Though you know where we’ll be until Monday!
