Two and a half hours into the crossing I looked down at the helm gauges and watched the pressure on my starboard transmission jump up to over 350 psi, jump around and stay high (occasionally locked hard over!) The port transmission was running at 250psi. Crap....I immediately cut back the throttles to run at 9 knots with minimal change in the transmission pressures. So!.....down in the engine room I go, while Beth took the helm....little did she know she would be at the helm for much more than "just a minute". I could see nothing amiss and the infrared temperature gun read 134 degrees on both transmissions. Needless to say I was worried about blowing a transmission hose or seals in the transmission, so we shut down the stbd motor and ran on one engine until we could get some place where we could work on the problem.
Nauseated and dizzy from rolling around in the engine room and trying to get our navigation system functioning so that Beth could avoid the container ships traveling across in front of us in the shipping lane, I had to lie down. Waves of dizziness and nausea swept over my profusely sweating face as Sophie tried to help by licking my cheek. When the nausea started to pass I would go back up to the helm to help a very nervous Admiral.
Running on one engine caused us to be out in the gulf stream an hour longer but we made it into Cat Cay, tied up at the fuel dock, gathered all the paperwork Beth had painstakingly prepared and rode in a golf cart with the Dock Master to the Customs and Immigration to get cleared in. $440.00 lighter including cruising/fishing permit and "tips", ( but still nauseated) we anchored out just west of the flight path for the air landing field and waited for "Lucky One" to clear and anchor nearby.
They had mechanical problems as well with water and oil leaks from the starboard engine. Huen has attempted repairs on these and had two different mechanics assure him "Everything fixed" but it appears he is going to have to tackle the repairs himself. Nevertheless, he and Linda seem to be in good spirits and accepting of their issues.
The wind came up from the east and all the anchored boats banged, bounced, rolled and hobby-horsed all night long. I was so dizzy in the morning I had to hang on to tables, counter tops, hand holds just to move from the stateroom to the couch.....and the boat wasn't even moving...UGH!
We hauled anchor in the morning and headed to the closest port where we might be able to fix our mechanical problems... Bimini. As we came back out the Gun Cay pass, there sat several yachts and sail boats slowly bobbing on the lee side (down wind side ) of the island. Crap!...first Bahamas lesson learned. For a comfortable night at anchor, get on the downwind side of an island.
The cruise up to Bimini was only about 10 miles but our transmission pressures didn't improve, so we retained a slip at Blue Water Marina for a much needed rest and recovery from sea sickness.
Bimini is a beautiful island from the water side. Calm turquoise water, brightly painted boats and white sand. You sink up to your ankles in the soft sand on the Florida side beach and it is scattered with different colored conch shells. The shallow water slowly swept in and out, but a surge surprised all of us, soaking our shorts and drowning Huen's shoes with wet sand. I couldn't contain my laughter when I saw the surprised look on his face. Unperturbed, he slogged his way down the beach and back to the boat without a whimper.
The girls gleefully picked up conch shells, discarding one when they found a bigger or better colored one. They finally settled on the one they were going to keep and we headed back to the boat.
The Island folk are polite and friendly and the marina is tidy, has clean bathrooms and is a bargain at $1.00/foot. They charge .75 cents/ gallon for water and 7.5% VAT but all in all it is a comparable price to what we paid in Dania Beach. The rest of the town though, is dirty, dilapidated, and obviously not well respected by its inhabitants. There are no side walks along the very narrow streets down which golf carts careen , the drivers concentrating more on their cell phones than on the traffic. The street is littered with plastic cup, straws, paper and garbage. Malodorous fumes waft from the garbage that is piled up on street corners and littered between buildings.
Remnants of a more glorious past exist in the burnt buildings (Hemingway's) and the boarded up hotels and enclaves that line the beaches, but I suspect those times will not return until the island folk clean up their act and show some pride in their island.
I remember when this happened in Antigua. From my childhood, I can remember that Antigua was the winter vacation destination for my Canadian relatives. When the Antiguans began to resent the tourists, treating them with disrespect and having riots, the tourists stopped coming. The Island folks suffered greatly with a depressed economy. Beth and I visited there several years ago and things had changed. We were welcomed with open arms. The Island was clean, tidy and reasonably priced. We will go back there. We will be unlikely to return to Bimini for anything other than a "waiting for good weather stopover."
A call to Justin at Huckins Yacht in Jacksonville led us to the solution of our transmission worries. He suggested we get a mechanical gauge to measure the pressures directly at the transmissions....VOILA! The readings for the pressures were right where they should be. The electrical gauges were incorrect! Now I know the 250 psi rating is actually 325 psi. Cleaning up the electrical connections solved the high pressure reading.
We will be leaving Blue Water marina today to snorkel the wreck Sapona and later anchor out at Honeymoon Harbor ( maybe relive our honeymoon...if I don't get sea sick!!) Tomorrow, its on across the Bahamas Bank to Chub Cay in the Berry Islands.
Really amazing post, thanks for sharing. Holidaying in Majorca is also ideal for those visitors wanting a more cultural stay, and the medieval villages that are still occupied by local craftspeople that to this day carry out their crafts in the centuries old time-honored ways are a delight.Ferienhaus Grächen
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