BIMINI to BERRYS ADVENTURE, Winter 2012-13

It’s the last week of January and this past week has been an exciting one. It’s said that “sailing is 95% boredom and 5% stark terror”; we’ve been catching up on the 5% portion recently. On Saturday, January 19, 2013 we left Bimini on a beautiful weather window in anticipation of heading east out over the Great Bahama Banks for two days to the Berry Islands, then immediately sailing southeast down to Nassau, New Providence, roughly a total of 150 nautical miles. That doesn’t sound far in a car, but when your sailing speed only averages out around 5 knots/hour, that’s a long way, requiring one night’s anchorage out in the middle of nowhere on the Banks. At the end of the second day, our route takes us through the Northwest Channel, which is about 10 miles short of Chub Cay on the southern end of the Berry Island chain. Back in 2007, we had a horrible “Bermuda Triangle” experience with the Northwest Channel which included losing our engine just as we exited the cut in huge waves, and we pledged to never go through this cut again. Most of the time this channel is just fine, however, this is where the 10-foot deep Banks abruptly drops off to a 2-mile depth into the Tongue of the Ocean. This can cause some exceptionally violent current conditions due to the tidal rush and winds; it’s a real pinch-point between the Berrys and Andros Island. It caught us badly 6 years ago, so since then, we’ve always gone up around the northern end of the Berry Island just to be safe. The sail across on Saturday and Sunday was going so well and the weather was so perfect, we decided to temp our nemesis and take the shortcut through the Northwest Channel once again. About 2 miles after we exited the cut, we were all excited about the smooth ride and looking forward to anchoring within a couple of hours at either Chub Cay or Frazer Hog Cay for the night. It’s a big ocean out there, but for some reason a couple of large 4-story sports fisherman vessels came blasting by us from behind, within a couple of hundred feet, and “waked” the heck out of us. Dejavu 2007! There goes our engine again. Fortunately we were motorsailing through the cut, so Nan just kept sailing for Chub, while I went down to change the fuel filter which probably sucked up some fuel tank sludge unlodged when we got rolled by the fine yachtsmen. We soon discovered that the filter wasn’t the problem and we started planning our strategy for sailing into the tiny Chub Cay anchorage without an engine. As we approached the coral heads of Mama Rhoda Rock and narrow anchorage entrance, the wind wasn’t cooperating, so we decided to do a dinghy-assist landing, so we strapped the dinghy alongside Summer Breeze and motored her in the last hundred yards, doing a quick anchor drop amidst a few other sailboats. After working on the engine for the next few hours into the night, things were looking really bleak. It was looking like we had a fuel blockage problem at the fuel tank itself, and unless you’re a contortionist or a 2-foot tall mechanic that likes hanging upside down for a few hours, you can’t get access to the Hunter’s fuel tank. Well, according to the weather window, we only had another day and a half left on which we could sail, before a cold front with high winds was going to pound us and make us hide out for a week. We hashed out our options, one of which included sailing 50 miles south into Nassau Harbor, but negotiating Nassau harbor with its cruise ships and tourist boaters with no engine sounded like a date with disaster. Sailing two days back to Bimini was also an option. However, our best option due to anticipated winds and currents ended up being a two-day sail back through the Northwest Channel then northward along the western side of the Berry Island chain to Bullocks Harbor on Great Harbor Cay. Staying at Chub Cay with its poorly protected anchorage was not an option. The next morning, Monday, January 21, we sailed away from Chub westward again for the Northwest Channel. Fortunately, the sailing angles were great and the current in the cut even helped us through it as anticipated. There was some excitement as we exited the cut on the east end when the wind suddenly switched to right-on-the-nose, but we now knew for certain that the Northwest Channel really didn’t like us, so we were already set up to do a fast dinghy-assist again. We weren’t taking anything for granted around this area. The Bermuda Triangle is alive and well. We actually had a nice sailing day on Monday and kept going until dark where we anchored on the banks for the night within 15 miles of our Bullocks destination. Tuesday morning as we pulled anchor, we found that the cold front was messing with the winds a little earlier than forecasted; we now had a north wind right on the nose for our last 15 miles. As the morning progressed so did the wind speed; we ended up sailing over twenty miles to make good the 15 mile rhumline and reached the Bullocks harbor cut through the cliffs in 20-25 knot north winds. It’s good to have a “SAILboat”! Summer Breeze performed like a champ! As we entered the Great Harbor Cay Marina area in hopes of taking a slip, the winds spun us around too uncontrollably even in the protection of the harbor, so we ended up swinging a 180 around into our old anchorage of previous visits and dropping the hook. Whew! We spent the next two nights at anchor waiting for the winds to die enough so we could actually get into a slip in the marina. On Thursday, January 24, we finally docked and started making plans for the future. We were wired tight by this time; there was some serious stress floating around on this boat. After re-evaluating the fuel tank issue, I concluded that the bottom of the fuel supply wand in the bottom of the fuel tank must have collapsed or totally plugged up . . . certainly nobody in their right mind would install a screen on the bottom of the fuel wand that would be inaccessible for cleaning and highly likely to plug up, right? This predicament was compounded by the fact that we had just had our fuel polished when we launched at Indiantown to avoid such an occurrence. Fortunately we knew two other cruising couples from Indiantown that currently happened to be in the Great Harbor Cay Marina with us. One couple used to have a Catalina sailboat; the same thing had happened to them years ago and they actually discovered a screen on the bottom of their fuel tank wand . . . go figure! As it turns out, somebody’s karma was intact (probably not mine), because the other captain we knew happened to be a very experienced marine mechanic & electrician. He wasn’t 2 feet tall, but believe me, he was a contortionist. This chubby old retired senior couldn’t anymore get into our Hunter’s fuel tank than I could climb the Empire State Building, but we are now very indebted to and appreciative of the captain of sailing vessel Kasidah. Within 3 hours, all of which was spent suspended upside down with me sitting on his feet so he could get torque on some fittings and wouldn’t fall on his face, he had managed to get to our fuel tank wand. And guess what? . . . it had a little stainless steel screen on the bottom of it that was totally plugged up. What were they thinking? I’ll be having a conversation about this with the Hunter guys at their Alachua manufacturing plant in the near future. But for now, Summer Breeze again has an engine, and the rest of the winter cruising season looks bright. We’re safe and sound; we have some new good cruising buddies; and we’re just going to hang out here for a few weeks and try to chill out all of the past week’s stress. Feeling a tremendous relief, we took our mechanical savior & wife out for dinner on the beach . . . even the Admiral “pushed the fool button” (Jimmie Buffett) to celebrate. This is a perfect example of the saying “sailing is great, but it’s not all margaritas & sunsets. We’ve got lots of pics to throw up into the blog in the next few weeks. Internet is really poor here, but we’ll keep working on it. If you happen to find some extra “j’s” in this epistle, our soggy laptop has started to display a mind of its own by inserting them here & there. Enjoy. JIM & NANCY, s/v Summer Breeze

20 Sailboats waiting for the weather window at Bimini Sands Marina

Saturday morning departure onto the Bahama Banks

Sunrise in front of us on the Banks

Glassy seas motoring early across the Banks

In 15 feet of water you can see even every blade of grass on the Banks

This is our only shot of the Admiral in "dinghy assist" mode. We really didn't have time for photos when in survival mode.

Chub Cay anchorage

Great Harbor Cay Marina

Note the 3 bonefishing flats boats that are being hoisted onto the upper deck of the megayacht a few slips down from Summer Breeze

Nan watching the megayacht depart

Soooo, here's a closeup of the stern of the megayacht . . . guess who owns the "Sea Bear"? (Hint: think Golden Bear)

Jack leaving us.

Jack in Cub 1.

Jack buzzing Sea Bear in his jet.

Hurricane Sandy damage in the marina

Kasidah Captain saving us with his contortionist act.

Jim sitting on his feet so he could get torque and not fall on his face.

Here is a shot of the problem that left us without an engine for a week. How stupid is it to put an "inaccessible" screen down in the bottom of a fuel tank. I will be having a discussion of this with Hunter who manufactured Summer Breeze. Thank goodness for the kindness & skill of another cruiser; I figured out what it was, but there's no way this old man could get to this problem.