Epilogue: Bright Eyes Gets A New Engine

We are still here in Ft. Lauderdale working on the engine. After getting a bunch of quotes and talking to mechanics we found that it was just as expensive to swap in a new engine.

So we are now awaiting a fully rebuilt Yanmar 3GM30 with a one year warranty!  It also comes with a new transmission. When it comes in we will get towed to the boat yard and have them do the swap.  I thought about doing the labor myself but it wasn't too expensive and they will do it much faster and correct.

At that point we will put Bright Eyes in a slip somewhere between here and Stuart Florida and leave it with a broker to sell.  

Since we are putting in a fully rebuilt engine with a one year warranty we will be listing Bright Eyes for $35,000.  However, for the next week or two before we contract a broker we are offering her for $31,000 since we would save on the broker fee and slip fees.  

Make us an offer!

Celebrating Bahamas Independence

Like we said before, Nassau isn't the worst place in the world to be stuck.  It is pretty expensive and the beaches are distant and crowded but there is still plenty to enjoy.

July 10th was Bahamas Independence Day so we have been enjoying the celebrations.

Here is that scary dredging barge that we had to sail and anchor next to at night.  It looks like it wants to eat sailboats.   We threw out a second anchor to keep from swinging into it and then it moved to harass other boats.

For $30 we can get 15 Kaliks and a bag of ice. This is how we reward our selves after a few days of blistering heat.

Our friend Francois has been anchored next to us and has been a big help with our engine.  We have been enjoying the city with him.

We went to Atlantis again, this time with Francois showing us how to do it cheaper.  They have complimentary movies in Theater!  So we saw Gnomeo and Juliet, and Just Go With It.  

We also found that you can just walk through the aquarium for free! (Nobody checks for wristbands)  Why did we pay $80 last time, ugh.

Then we enjoyed the gypsy/pirate show.  There were fire dancers, stilt dancers, and a mermaid.  It was a huge carnival party.

The rest of our time here has been hunting down free internet signals.  The Green Parrot, Starbucks, McDonalds, and the side of buildings are our favorite spots.  

Here is Christine being a rebel.

As for our departure plans we have decided to just sail to Florida just the two of us and fix the engine there. Here is the thread we posted on Cruiser Forum which has a lot of advice. We think it is a bad piston ring.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f54/cruiser-stranded-in-need-of-advice-63643.html

 Thank you for all the help and offers to crew but we want to get out of here asap before the weather gets worse. My mom is coming to visit this week and then we will get going.

We hope to sail into Fort Lauderdale, fix the engine and put the boat on dry storage while we are in MD.  So if anyone has any recommendations for a good mechanic or good marina let us know.

How Will Bright Eyes Get Home?

So in our week here, stranded in Nassau, we have had a lot of diagnostic work done on the engine.  

If you don't fancy engine talk then skim down to the page break below to find out what we have decided.

I went through the engine looking for oil leaks and tightened a few bolts and hose clamps that showed signs of leakage.  I checked that the fuel filter was clean of water and that fuel was reaching the cylinders.  There was excess transmission fluid so I removed it all and added new oil.  I resealed a small water leak at the water intake filter. I checked the aft engine zinc which was fine.  

The primary indications of problem were oil coming out of the exhaust when we were going through heavy waves and when trying to get off of a shoal.  The main engine oil leak seems to be between the transmission and the engine block.  The head gasket shows no sign of oil leaking.  I replaced the oil lube pipe before we left and it was still leak free.  The engine does turn over but would still not start.

The first mechanic opened the oil cap and felt a lot of air coming out as we tried to start the engine.  From this he concluded that there was crank case pressure and probably a failed piston. He said they need to remove the engine from the boat and take it apart to find the problem.  But then later he said that our engine did not have a liner on the head gasket and that the head was probably scorched and that they did not have a machine shop to fix it so we would need a new engine: $10,000 estimate

Our friend Francois from George Town just happened to be anchored next to us here and came over to lend his expertise.  He tried switching the compression levers over.  He noticed the air coming out of the oil cap when removed as well as fumes.  He concluded that there could be a faulty valve that might have seized the last time our engine leaked out oil.  Or we could have a failed piston ring in need of replacement.  He advised me to take the valve cover off and find the faulty valve.  He also said I should be able to take the head off and into a mechanics shop to have the valve replaced without removing the whole engine.

The second mechanic tested all the fuel lines for fuel.  There was fuel coming through.  He used starting fluid on the air intake as well as switching the compression levers.  He too noticed the fumes coming from the removed oil cap.  He also put gasoline on a rag and put it over the air intake to try to start it.  It would not.  He concluded that their was a compression problem, probably a failed piston ring.  The only option they gave us was to remove the engine from the boat and take it apart back at their shop to find the problem.  The estimate was at least $3000.

None of these mechanics seemed honest though so we are not paying $1000 to have the engine removed and then getting stuck in a situation where we have to pay $10,000 for a new engine or paying another $2000 to have our engine put back together with nothing solved.

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So that leaves us with few options to get back home.

1) We will attempt to take the engine apart ourselves and find the failed valve or try to take the head to a mechanic for fixing. If the engine starts we will sail to Florida, only using the engine to dock/anchor.

2) We will fly in an experienced sailor to help us sail back to Florida or Maryland (preferably MD) without an engine.  We can't afford to pay anyone but we can cover all your expenses.  We can pay for two people to fly into Nassau to sail to MD or one person to sail to Florida and then we would fly them home.  We estimate the sail to MD to be about 7-10 days straight and the Florida sail to be 2 days straight .  If you are interested in this please email me at jtp1285@hotmail.com to talk details. 

3) Our last option is to sail without an engine to Florida by ourselves.  We do believe we can do this.  Our only concerns are sailing upwind, getting stuck in a storm, and docking.  We can use our Boat US to help with the docking. We also learned a trick from Francois where we can tie up our dinghy to the side of the boat and use the 3.5hp outboard to tow ourselves.

My mom was supposed to fly into Eluethera to spend a week with us but because of our immobility she will just hop off the plane at her Nassau layover.  She will be here later this month so we have until after her visit to make a decision.

Until then we will just hang tight. It's not the worse place in the world to be stuck :)

Bright Eyes in Peril

We enjoyed three calm days at Normans Cay.  We got some grub at the Normans Cay Beach Club.  It was expensive of course but much needed.

We snorkeled a wrecked plane that was really cool.  At high tide you can see the top portion of the plane and it doesn't look like much but under the water it is an entire 75 foot long plane with wings and fish swimming all around it.  We took pics with the disposable under water camera so you will have to wait to see those.

On Tuesday the 28th we left Normas heading for Highborne Cay.  We had to motor around the corals and through some shoals and then our engine decided to quit on us.  We have had a small oil leaking problem for awhile and it finally got worse.  We have been adding oil to the engine pretty consistently to keep it happy.  This time when the engine died we threw out the anchor in shallow water and then added oil and started it back up.  It ran for and bit and then conked out again.

We decided to sail up to Highborne for possible help.  We made it pretty close until one of our turns required us to go upwind.  We are absolutely horrible at sailing upwind.  We can never get more than a perpendicular angle with the wind on either side.  We even broke out the Sailing For Dummies book for help and couldn't get upwind.   So we anchored in a relatively safe area and looked up engine mechanic info.

Our desired destination of Eluethera did not offer much but Nassau had an advertisement.  So that's where we decided to go.

Highborne Cay Marina was supposed to give the weather everyday at 7:30am so we got up then to listen but they said they couldn't get the weather.  That began the longest day ever.

We used our manual windlass to crank up 120ft of anchor rode against the wind. That was no fun.  We then sailed in the direction of Nassau by 8:30am.

We were headed directly down wind which we also have trouble sailing.  We were able to gibe most the way pretty well.  Around 1pm we had to cross the Yellow Banks which is a shallower area with a lot of coral heads scattered around.  On the way down we went around it but this time we decided to go through it because of our slow sailing.

Of course right before we get to the Yellow Banks the sky turns dark and storm clouds loom over us.  We were smart enough to put on our life jackets but not foul weather gear.  As we enter the coral garden chilly winds hit us.  We reduced our sail to slow down as the winds picked up and then it started pouring raining.  Christine laid on the cockpit seat trying to cover up with small pillows while I shivered at the helm.  We were both just wearing our bathing suits and life jackets.

Eventually Christine remembered not all our hatches were closed so she went below to close them.  The only damage was half our bed was soaking wet (my half of the bed).  She came back with jackets for us.  That made it bearable in the cold stinging rain.  The storm lasted an hour and a half as we navigated through the shallow corals.  The corals were much scarier than the storm which was really just uncomfortable compared to the big waves we've been through other times.

And then around 2:30pm the storm finally let up and we came out of the Yellow Banks safely.  However the storm took all the wind with it and soon our sails were luffing and then laying like curtains.  Originally our Garmin told us our arrival time was 5pm, now it was saying 5am the next morning.  When we had only 4 miles to get in the Nassau Harbor we were basically drifting with the water at less than 1 mph.  

We drifted our way into the harbor around 8pm and then the current took a hold of us.  We lowered the Genoa and left up the main sail for direction.  Our goal was to anchor in the first anchorage before the bridges.  However we underestimated the current when we turned into the wind to drop the main sail and by the time we got the anchor down we were swinging close to a charter boat docked.

Night had fallen by now and we had to re-anchor.  Instead of cranking up the anchor one link at a time like before we figured out how to let out some of the Genoa and sail back and forth upwind on the anchor as I pulled it up.  But once we had the anchor up we had our familiar problem of not being able to sail upwind so we couldn't get a better anchorage spot.

That meant we had to try the next anchorage down, on the other side of the two bridges.  So Christine went on the bow with her headset on and a fog horn and I used the half Genoa and the current to take us through the bridges.  It was a lot scarier before than after.  No other boats came and we made it through with ease.  

We then pulled into the next anchorage which was where we anchored the first time we came to Nassau.  However there was a huge barge sitting at the entrance making our life miserable.  We couldn't sail across and anchor right away because the current was still pushing us so we had to cut through the barge and another boat and anchor behind the barge.  We got the anchor down just in time to give us enough distance between us and the boat behind us.  

So at 10pm we could finally get off the boat.  We quickly headed to the Green Parrot, our favorite lodge and now you know the days story.

While we are here we plan to find a mechanic and hopefully get the engine in a better mood.  And then back over to Eluethera.  Wish us luck.

Again sorry for the lack of pics but grabbing the camera was far from our minds most of the day.

I drew this picture to depict us in the storm

High Seas to Leaf Cay

We left George Town on Wednesday June 1st.  The weather was pretty windy but we never let that stop us before.  As we made it out of the harbor the waves got bigger and bigger and were crashing on us.  It just reminded us of some bad days on the Chesapeake so we kept going.

Soon the waves were over our head (i'd guess 10 feet) and the boat was pitching side to side hard.  We had everything inside tied off good so that was no worries but it still didn't feel good on the boat.  I would steer into the bigs waves slightly to prevent the harsh rocking.  Nomy began to cry as the waves crashed on deck and got us wet.

It started raining and Christine, who was reading her e-reader, got up to put it and our camera inside.  Just then a huge wave smacked us on the side and threw Christine to the lifelines.  The force of the jerk sent her e-reader flying out of her hand and into the deep blue sea.  It was a scary moment as I thought she was going over too, but luckily the netting and life lines kept her in.  Christine was very upset about losing her second e-reader, that we just got, as we both held on through the rest of the huge waves.

We made it back to Normans Cay, where we anchored on the way down, but took a left over to Leaf Cay this time.  After much debate we decided we would go back to George Town to get some more books since the e-reader was gone, have another under water camera shipped through dhl this time, and just hang around our town that we missed already.

The ocean had different plans.  The next day as we headed back to GT the waves were somehow bigger.  The narrow channel to enter the ocean had huge waves breaking right on our bow and the boat was shooting to the moon and then crashing down.  We made it through there but after about 5 miles of motoring the engine slowed and then died.  This wasn't a spot to be working on the engine down below as the boat was still pitching with each monster wave (they looked closer to 15 feet now), so we opened up the genoa (our front sail, our favorite sail) and kept moving along.  We couldn't aim south to George Town though because the wind was in our face so we turned around and headed back to Leaf Cay.

This actually turned out pretty nice.  Since we were now sailing about 6-7 knots with just the genoa up instead of motoring we felt more in tune with the waves.  We crashed into less of them and seemed to drift easily over them with the wind.  The scary part of sailing back through the narrow channel and to our anchorage turned out to be a piece of cake and soon we were spinning the boat into the wind to drop the genny and toss out the anchor where we had started a few hours before.

At anchor I found an oil leak and tightened it up and the engine came back alive.  But now we knew we didn't need that dumb engine. The winds are at our backs now heading north...

Friday we decided to rest and check out the Leaf Cay beach.  Back to island living!

We were greeted by the funny green and pink iguanas.  There were only four as opposed to the tons at Allens Cay and these guys were a little more brave.

They came right up to us and we found some near by fruit to feed them.  Soon they were eating a buffet out of our hands.

The beach itself was nice and we did some exploring to look for sea beans.

We wanted to circumnavigate the island but the winds were strong on the other side and it was raining too.  We cut through and then had to do rock hiking to get back to our boat

We found a small beach with the largest conch garden/graveyard we've ever seen.  These are all conch shells and there was more out of camera

At one point I wanted to walk through the water to get back to our dinghy but I'm glad we didn't because we saw a nurse shark swimming around.

This is the tiniest hermit crab we've found!

It's good to be back with nature

Nomy is more of a hotel cat.

Good Bye George Town, Heading Back North

Well we have been here in George Town for just over 6 weeks.  We have made this our temporary home and are quite comfortable.  We haven't been too adventurous lately but we are enjoying ourselves.

We still read a lot.  Christine even wrote a 42,000 word book herself and is working on her second book.  I have been practicing the guitar everyday and play Star Craft 2, an online video game at night.

For exercise we have been swimming laps around the boat.  I can't do many but Christine usually does about 25-30 while I lay out on the pink floaty :)

Our nightly routine has been to go to shore and plug in at a picnic table at the local play ground and play online till 2 am.  We our really gonna miss this view.

We finally had our first engine problem in the Bahamas.  In preparation of our departure, I changed our primary fuel filter, secondary fuel filter, oil filter, and both oils.  Of course after this the engine wouldn't start.  I thought it was a battery problem since our batteries are dead.  So we charged up the starter battery with the solar panels and it still wouldn't work.  Luckily while we were at the park another cruiser asked to use our computer and we got to talking about the engine and he offered to come check it out.

He was a cool Frenchmen named Franswa (sorry if its misspelled) aboard French Summer and after an hour of trying we finally got the engine up and running.  In the process we learned how to use the compression levers, ether starting fluid, and to bleed the fuel injectors.  That's the only good thing about a troublesome engine is we always learn something.  It is rarely the same problem twice.

And as a result of this we had our FIRST boat dinner guest!  We invited Franswa over for spaghetti and garlic bread and he brought over a cheese and bread platter that was much better than the main dish.  He has a fridge and water maker so her even brought over cold water!  Yes that is a luxury on Bright Eyes.

We ate and talked into the night and were glad to finally host someone.  It also gave us a reason to clean up the cockpit some which it needed.

Lastly we'ed like to warn anyone against the use of the Bahamas Post Office.  Before we got here in early April my mom sent us an underwater camera via the Post Office.  Some people warned us that it could take 3 months to get here and I didn't believe them.  Well it's been almost 2 months and we can't wait around any longer so hopefully they will return to sender.

We did have success with Christine's e-reader which was sent through DHL to Top to Bottom (a marina store).  It arrived in 5 days.

So we will just buy a disposable underwater camera in Staniel Cay to take Thunderball Grotto pics.

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  We haven't done anything too impressive recently.  Here's a cool cloud we saw :)

 But it is time to finally start heading back north towards the US.  We plan to spend June revisiting the Exumas.  Then we will meet my mom in Eleuthera in July.  Then we will visit the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama Island on our way back to Florida In August.  So there is still plenty of exploring to do and we are going to try to put our kayaks to use more!

Boat Work and Out of Power

We have been pretty lucky so far keeping our repairs to a minimum.  Mostly we clean after the cats (litter and lots of cat hair).  We tighten up loose bolts and wires as we find them.  Dishes and general cleaning wrap up our boat work.

However during the week of the regatta it rained a lot and our house batteries suffered never getting a full days charge.  Since then our battery monitor showed 10.5 volts at night and 12.0 volts during the day under full sun light.  That is not good.  We couldn't plug anything in like charging our laptops and most electronics wouldn't run except for our led cabin lights.

I decided to test each battery by hooking them up to the solar panels and battery monitor alone for a day and see if it could charge up.  Two of the battery never showed more than 11.5 volts even under the full sun power so I guess they are dead.  One battery would range from 11 volts at night and 14.1 volts during the day.  The last battery ranged from 9 volts at night to 14.1 volts during the day.  But even those two batteries would not hold the charge at night.

During this time we have been trying out different spots around town that we can pick up wifi and power.  It's not the wifi that we need so much but the power.  We don't use too much electricity on the boat so we've been ok with just using some light at night, however Christine is craving music.

It is quite expensive to replace our battery bank here so we are hoping our new plan will work.  We will use the electricity during the day that the solar panels provide and then only use lights at night.  So basically using the two house batteries we have as a funnel for electricity even though they can never hold it.  Luckily it's sunny most days.

Also lucky is that we keep our small starter battery on a separate switch so it has been unaffected by all this and we can still start the boat!

The other major project I have to do is scrubbing the barnacles and growth of the bottom of the boat which can be tough in a choppy current.   Also restitching a lot of our canvas.  Those cats can be a menace sometimes, but at least it will keep me busy.

Sorry for no pictures as this was quite a lame/boring blog, but we thought if we can tell the good side of cruising we can tell the bad as well.  And everyone knows what a 12volt battery looks like...

Why Are The Bahamas So Windy

We are finally losing track of the days which is pretty fun.  And we wear the same couple outfits, bathing suits.

So one of those days we moved down to Gun Cay.  

We passed a really old shipwreck named Sapona

We anchored in Honeymoon Harbor and were able to get really close to the beach!

We explored the island

and found a lot of old shoes...

and plenty of conch! (side note: conch has upset my stomach and is on a temporary ban)

fun in the sand

Our personal postcard

Picnic on the beach.  We were the only people on the island so it was a private beach picnic!

Before we left we found a great deal on cream of mushroom and tomato soup, 25cents a can, so we bought a ton of it!  Then came the problem of how to use it.  We can't make grilled cheeses and have limited french's fried onion for green bean casserole.  Christine discovered if you mix the two it creates a delicious soup broth and then just add veggies of choice.  Two birds, one stone.

We moved down to North Cat Cay but it was private so we couldn't go ashore. Lame.

That night the winds were out of control and we dragged for the first time ever.  The anchor reset itself tho and then we watched the boats around us skeptically to make sure they kept their space.  One boat got really close to us (about 20 feet) but right as I yelled to them they motored away.  We didn't get too much sleep.

The next day since we couldn't go ashore we decide to keep moving and head toward the Berry Islands.  To get there we had to cross the Great Bahama Banks which are about 86 miles long but only 10-15 feet deep.  So the first day we just went about halfway and then pulled over and anchored.  We made sure we anchored far enough off the channel so no other boats would hit us.  It was still scary tho being completely surrounded by darkness.  Plus the waves were bouncing us up and down till our davit hardware snapped.  What was that about cruising just being a fancy word for fixing things in exotic locations...

Again, not much sleep.

Nomy finally got tired of being sick in the cabin while underway and now hangs with us in the cockpit.  Nala was glad to have him.

The last 15 miles of the journey were across more Atlantic and we got to see the pretty deep blue water again.

We arrived at Chub Cay just before a squall came over us.  The beach is private here too and it costs $100 to go to shore, wtf.  However we can still use their Wi-Fi so ha!

The water is even clearer here but since George told us those wildlife horror stories we have been afraid to get in the water. Something we really need to get over.  We have each been in the water once and all we can think about is SHARK SHARK SHARK!!!

Our Miami Vacation

Miami has been a combination of Awe inspiring views and people, lots of sleeping in and relaxing, and pain in the butt repairs.

To get to town we take a 5 min dinghy ride down this canal.

We have to go under this cool lil bridges

The first thing we did was run to the beach!

Apparently they have a man-o-war problem down here.  There sting is worse than jelly fish.  They are full of air and pop when you step on them. Beware!

We finally got chain to keep our dinghy secure.  It makes us feel much better as we roam town.

For my sister Jessie!

We set up our solar shower with curtain.  That 5 gallon bag above had been sitting out in the sun all day and provides warm water.  We set it up at night to reduce our embarrassment.

We spent a day laying out at the beach.  It was pretty crowded.  I prefer just laying out on the bow of our boat.

Miami provides lots of scenic walking

The main strip, Lincoln Rd, is full of shops and restaurants.  The restaurants have outdoor seating so your just walking past ppl eating and hostesses. The people of Miami are very "people watching" worthy!

We accidently ran over one of our lines on the way down but luckily our prop guard cut it.  However there was still some line wrapped around the prop so I had to dive down and cut it off.

Our Miami sunset from our boat at anchor.  We love watching it each night.

When we dinghy to the grocery store we have to park at the dinghy lot where other cruisers are doing the same.  It can get kinda crowded.

Our cats being cats

We had to go to West Marine, which involved an hour walk, 15 min air tran, and 45 min metro ride.

The Miami Boat Show was going on

A doggy with its own dinghy

I finally replaced the on board VHF, pretty fancy!

MY favorite restaurant was Masters, an Italian all you can eat buffet for $8

We also fixed our stern propane grill and celebrated with pork chops and corn.

We found this mess on our anchor when pulling it up, it took away to cut away.

We still need Bahama Charts which we forgot to get at West Marine.  So we will have to take the 2 hour trek again tomorrow.  And then on the way back to our boat one day the dinghy bottomed out and the engine prop stopped working.  Great...

After rowing home, I took it apart and found it had a broken pin, the shear pin.  After calling around to find a replacement we found that our dinghy came with spare pins!  However the old pin that broke was stuck in the drive shaft so we had to find a machine shop.  After visiting a few hardware stores we stopped at an auto repair shop and for $20 a guy got the pin out for us.  Sweet, that could have been a lot harder.

As soon as we get our Bahama Charts we will leave asap!  So this will be our last blog in the US.  

See ya in the Bahamas!