Sun Dec 29 2024 15:58:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

O’Brien left at 5:30am and we prepared the boat this morning including redoing the mast boot which was leaking and fixing the manual bilge pump. We left the west end around 1pm to go to the yatch club for fuel and water. This time we got lucky. Yet again Bahamas just wants all your $. The dock master told me because we weren’t members of the club technically he was supposed to charge me a fee of $1/ foot for getting diesel and water, but he wasn’t going to charge me. He could tell we weren’t the rich people like all the boats in that marina, which was mostly filled with super Yatchs. Finally, a nice guy and he took pity!

We have about 1300 nm to go, depending on weather 9-12 days. Currently we are on a broad reach headed northeast. We have one reef in anticipating the trend of the winds getting higher at night. I’m hoping for a decent first nights sail! 

Mon Dec 30 2024 11:02:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

For the most part last night was a gentle sail with and only a few hours of wind over 15 knots
and minimal annoying waves. Tony went down for a nap just before sun down. At around 5:30pm I noticed the buildings of Nassau on the horizon had one that stood out, so I panned out the chart plotter and sure enough a BMF (big mother fucker, aka- cruise ship, tanker, cargo ship) was coming at an angle toward our course. He was going around 17.5 knots, while we were only going around 5-6 knots. It was a cruise ship and I continued watching, as it seemed he would pass in front of us and I could stand on my course. Then another appeared behind it, and another, and another. The 3rd BMF set off the AIS alarm, and just as Tony was waking from his nap we started the engine and hove to. The 4th BMF seemed to be far anough behind we could gain ground to void collision, so we came out of the hove and motor sailed a slightly different course. It was moving faster than I expected, but we still managed to avoid any too close for comfort calls. It felt like we were being run down by BMF after BMF. I guess they all leave port successively just before dark…

Just after that the winds picked up and we had 18-20 knots for a few hours and picked up speed to 7+ knots. The swell was a bit annoying for a while, but eventually eased and the winds died down. By 10pm we were approaching the channel between the Abacos and Eleuthera. Wind and waves continued to decrease. At around midnight, during my shift, I noticed a white light off the port bow. it was in the same bearing as a lighted marker showing on the chart on Abaco, but that light was supposed to be blinking at 10s intervals. This one was dipping above and below the horizon so it was tough to tell for sure if it was the blinking light or not. I checked the chart plotter, no boats showing on AIS, nothing showing on the radar. A bit later I saw a green light below it, which indicated a boat, but again dipping above and below and tough to see consistently. Just before the end of my shift that light all the sudden seemed closer, the green turned to red and I knew instantly it was a sailboat. Next thing I know I’m changing the autopilot course up into the wind and it passes maybe 200ft at most off our port side. Nothing on AIS, nothing on the radar. Phew…

The rest of the night the wind continued dying. Tony managed to keep about 5 knots during is 1-4am shift, but just as I got up it died. It had been cloudy for the last few days and our battery juice was down, especially after running the autopilot all night. We decided to motor sail for 3 hrs. Dawn brought the most beautiful sunrise I ever saw and the ocean brought comfortable small rollers. The sun came out, finally, first time in days and we are enjoying a very calm, slow sail in the blue abyss.

Tue Dec 31 2024 07:50:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

Wed Jan 01 2025 13:04:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

Yesterday was great sailing and we moved along at 4-6 knots most of the day on a close reach / starboard tack. Because we were headed more up into the wind, we were healing a bit more. As per usual the bilge pump just continued to run, a constant thing while under way and mostly due to the rudder weeping at the packing gland. We turned off the pump for 45 minutes and then manually drained the bilge only to find out it was a bit more water than usual. We began checking all the normal places and they were dry, but just as Tony opened the port cockpit lazzarett he saw water streaming from the hull down into the bilge. Turns out there was a screw hole just adjacent to the engine cooling exhaust thru hull that was weeping a decent amount. Additionally, the thru hull itself was weeping around the flange. This thru hull is just barely above water line when the boat is not healed, so now as it was below the water it was weeping. The hole was streeming enough we stuffed a pencil in there and hove to. Once hove to, we widdled a thru hull bung down to fit the space and covered the flange of the thru hull in sealant. Unfortunately, we had previously used our below water line epoxy stick on the aux diesel tank, so we didn’t have the preferred tool for the job. Regardless, we slowed the weep enough. The strange thing is the hole is not seen on the other side of the hull so I suspect it’s behind the external thru hull flange.

Some messaging with my electrician, sifting through the history in the victron app, reading some old notes and I was just baffled why this was happening. We’ve had so much power with this system and didn’t even plug into shore at all in Marathon because it was that good. Sun down came and went and we decided to idle the engine at 1000 rpm to charge the system. Once the battery voltage hit 13.26v it pretty much stalled and never increased. It took 2 hrs to go 10% higher, but the voltage just stalled. We increased RPM and wouldn’t see an increase in Amps going into the system either. I sifted through the app on my phone and finally noticed one of the two DC to DC controlers was off due to a volt setting that made it think the engine was shut down. Those control the current charging the system while under engine power. The setting was at 13.4v for that one while the other was at 13.2. I changed it to 13.2v and immediately saw a difference. We charged batteries the remainder of the night with the motor at idle while sailing (it uses little diesel this way).

Tony had the midnight shift last night and was the first time in over a decade he was up for new years. Today dawned another sunny day with a nice sea state and decent sailing. It started out a little dead, but the wind has increased enough to make some decent forward motion. As usual we saw more BMF’s today and a few flying fish and that’s about it. The solar is pushing decent current today into the system so I still have no idea why yesterday we had this issue. The engine charge issue was totally separate as the DC controllers are off when the engine is off. So far so good. We’ll see what comes at us next. We will start heading a bit more south late today / tonight.

Thu Jan 02 2025 10:54:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

Some fatigue is setting in, but that’s to be expected given the sleep schedule is challenging. The inital starboard tack allowed a bit of an easier time cooking in the galley due to the direction of heel, now everything is going the other direction and we have to retrain our muscle memory for moving about he boat and have a bit more of a challenge in the galley.

Fri Jan 03 2025 13:52:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

Last night was pretty rolly on and off all night, but we sailed through it. It was the first day we didn’t start the engine at all and made the most power we have so far with the solar. Dawn came and we continued sailing between 4-6 knots.

The wind was forecasted to die and change direction again this afternoon. We were playing with sail trim around 10:30 am and loosened the outhaul on the main sail to see if we could gain more speed and reduce weather helm. Just after Tony loosened it the instruments beeped and the autopilot said it was overpowered. It didn’t make a ton of sense given the lower wind and the fact we probably only went from 4-5 knots when we loosened it. We tightened it back up and tried engaging the auto pilot and I could tell it was not engaging at all. The hydraulic arm was not making the normal noise.

In the stern hole you go! Upon investigation I found the bolt where the hydraulic arm goes through a plate that moves the rudder had sheered off and the arm was no longer attached.

Autopilots are one of the most common instruments to fail, especially on long offshore sails due to the amount of use it gets and force that is put on the system. Additionally, we already knew the hydraulic pump and arm portion of our autopilot was subpar. I bought a retrofit kit from garmin, which would allow me to reuse the original pump (saving $2k+ worth of $) but when we first tested it, we knew the pump likely not going to last for a few reasons. Because of timing and the fact it’s not a simple and quick part to obtain / fix, we ran with it. The pump is probably over 10 years old and it was installed poorly. Additionally fixing the install would not be easy due to the way they installed it and would require removing a lot of bullshit in the process.

Sat Jan 04 2025 14:38:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

Last night was an annoying battle of bobbing around in the sea with zero wind. We motored a bit and eventually the wind shifted to directly behind us. The bobbing motion continued to bad even after that. The swell increased at the morning went on coming at us mostly on one of our stern quarters depending on what jibe we were on. We eventually realized the autopilot cannot navigate the waves and it was creating the majority of the roll and bobbing motion, at least early on.

The hand steering dance then began, the wind increased, the waves heightened and they are not super consistent in direction and form. We reefed the main around 12:30pm when we started seeing 20 knots. One saving grace, we are not beating into them like we did in Florida. It’s rolly and a work out to steer, but we are dry and nothing is crashing on deck and we aren’t pounding the boat.

Unfortunately, it appears this trend will continue for another 24 hrs per the forecast. We have to jibe back and forth to stay on course.

I have a funny feeling the sea shanties will be more consistent tonight given the situation. If I haven’t mentioned yet, Tony is obsessed with sea shanties. We may need to write our own. When Mike was here I had to limit the sea shanty time to 2 hrs a day or we would have just heard them on repeat forever. lol….

Per the chart plotter we have ~592 nm to go, close to half way. We have generally been gaining some miles here and there as the course adjusts per the weather.

Sun Jan 05 2025 12:56:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

Today the swell has improved in form and consistency, but the wind and waves still prevail at our stern. We hove to for a brief rest this morning, but it wasn’t very comfortable due to the swell. We’ve been hand steering all day, and getting a better feel for going down wind in following seas. The forecast claims the wind direction will start changing this afternoon and by tomorrow we may be back to a beam reach. Crossing my fingers we can use the autopilot soon again!

A flying fish landed on the boat last night and I found the poor little guy dead on the deck. :(.

Mon Jan 06 2025 10:38:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

My dinner decided to slide off the counter and onto the floor last night as I was getting a utensil, which resulted in a temper tantrum like that of an over tired child. That’s pretty much how I felt and was unable to contain myself.

We were able to use the autopilot last night, but it kind of creates a rolly ride when it’s dealing with the following swell or large waves coming on the beam. The boat hits a wave and it over compensates and pitches us back and forth as it’s trying to correct. During my 11pm-2am shift the wind decided to play games with us. It’s was jumping up and down between 15 degrees M and 55 degrees M. This was also causing the autopilot to become worse and make the boom bounce around a lot in the waves. I decided to hand steer at 12:30am till the end of my shift. Tony used auto pilot and just adjusted the heading on the autopilot up and down during his entire shift due to the continued steady, but shifty wind. By 5 am the winds were in a more steady direction and have continued out of the northeast at between 10-15 knots all morning.

Another flying fish visited the boat last night during Tony’s shift, but it was right by the cockpit where he was sitting and after some fight trying to grab it to toss it overboard it flopped onto the foresail sheet so he tossed the end of the sheet line overboard and the fish lived on!

We have ~377 nm to go. Assuming we can make between 100-120 nm per day, we should arrive by the 9th. That said the wind is forecasted to die tomorrow and the following day. We still have 1/2 tank of diesel and 20 more gallons on deck so we will likely try to motor sail through it as much as possible for the home stretch.

Tue Jan 07 2025 08:09:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

We had such a great upwind sail most of the day yesterday and made a lot of ground. I ran the weather report again to see if there were any changes in the predicted low winds coming at us and unfortunately it got worse. It revealed low winds and a wind direction at VMG (velocity made good) starting last night and for most of today. VMG basically means it would be coming directly head on to the direction we need to go for our waypoint. Following low winds in another direction would mean going significantly off course and also going nowhere. The most frustrating part is that we should actually be reaping the benefits of the trade winds right now based on our location and instead there’s a blob of trade wind death right now right on our route.

At around 10:15pm last night I awoke to the motor starting. Let the games begin. The sea state started becoming very confused and was still over 2 meters in height making it nearly impossible to be down in the cabin and sleep, or do much of anything. We slept in the cockpit the remainder of the night. I actually slept great given the situation.

This morning the sea state has improved slightly. We are still motoring but can’t get much out of the sails with our apparent wind created by the motor because the wind keeps shifting 30 degrees back and forth across our heading. This would greatly help balance out the boat, making it a more comfortable ride, and also save diesel. I even tried going directly east for a while and it still was no good. So we will zig zag the best we can to improve the way the boat moves through the waves and the mainsail catches wind while the iron horse pushes us forward at 4-5 knots.

Unfortunately, something caused the sat phone to overheat last night. It was plugged in and charging and I went down to check the house battery charge so took a look at the sat phone to ensure it was still charging and it had a red and white blinking light, the screen black and was super hot. I pulled the charging plug and brought it outside. It cooled down and turned on, but it seems it will no longer charge. We have 1 bar of battery left that I will do my best to limp along with but it means larger time intervals between tracking, less weather reporting and eventually no updates if it doesn’t last. Given we have ~266 nm to go I’m hoping it will limp along for a once a day update, but no promises. I cannot use the Starlink until I’m inside the geofence, which is likely much closer to our destination, but I will try it anyway if the sat phone calls it quits. Please don’t be concerned. We have sailed over 1600 nautical miles since we began this journey, faced every challenge that has come at us head on and we will arrive to our destination. It’s just a matter of when. We just need the wind to cooperate and it may just prove to be a challenge we have to deal with on the final push. Challenge accepted!

Wed Jan 08 2025 06:06:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

We managed to get a few hours of peaceful sailing and some reprieve from the roar of the motor yesterday and then los vientos died completely, the autopilot squealed saying “I can no longer steer” and it was time to dump our jerry cans of diesel in the tank. That is not a very fun task as they leak and do not pour well so it requires pig matt to sop to soak it up so it doesn’t drain out the scupper into the ocean.

At sunset, the ocean was an amazing glassy spectacle. I can’t even find words to describe it and all the photos I took likely won’t do it justice. The ocean takes on so many different personalities, from ferocious to tranquil. It has so many shapes, patterns and colors. You spend so much time just staring at it and while it seems odd, it really never gets old. Days are spent staring at the ocean, fighting whatever fire the boat might toss at you, pining over the weather, your course and sail trim, reading, and napping (if you’re Tony).

With an almost full tank of diesel we motored all night. It was another night sleeping in the cockpit, but the temperature was so pleasant it was actually another really good night of rest.

This morning dawns another low wind day. We have a half tank of diesel and won’t run it below 1/4 since we need it to get into Jolly Harbor and don’t want the engine to draw up sludge.

170nm to go, we may have no choice but to bob slowly at the end, but I’m crossing my fingers the wind improves.

Thu Jan 09 2025 05:40:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

The low wind situation continues and has really slowed us down significantly. We did manage to sail for at least 4-5 hrs yesterday at 3-4 knots tacking back and forth across our bearing. It was once again a nice break from the roar of the iron horse.

As per usual, at sun down the wind died again. We tried to motor sail on a zig zag for a bit but los vientos left us completely and all night was spent heading straight for our destination under very low RPMs to save diesell at around 3.5-4 knots. We have managed to limp the diesel along by keeping the RPMs really low and just racing the engine every few hours to burn off the carbon deposits so we keep her healthy. We are just barely under half a tank. We only used at most 1/8 tank in the last 24 hrs.

Dawn brings a glassy sea that has rolling hills and a sunrise with caricature like clouds on the horizon. We are so close you can almost smell it. Just 100 nm to go. It seems if we continue at this speed and can make the fossil fuel last, we will arrive early tomorrow morning.

Fri Jan 10 2025 05:56:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

We couldn’t have our last day out at sea without one more fire drill. I did the dishes after lunch and just got back into the cockpit when I heard the sound of water rushing. I looked in the cabin and in the galley water was gushing out of the cabinet under the sink at an alarming rate. Of course the first thing that comes to your mind is the boat could sink and we have sea water coming in. The only plausible place it could be coming from in that location was the engine exhaust thru hull (which we were already having issues with) or the sink drain thru hull. Luckily, the moment I stepped down there I felt the water temp was hot and knew it was fresh water coming from the hot water heater. The engine heats that water when we run it and it has been extremely hot. Turns out the water line to the hot water faucet just popped off and the pressure built up spewed about a gallon or more of water into the cabinet and galley. We turned the water pressure off, sopped up the mess and fixed the issue promptly.

We had another dead night with no wind, but we managed to limp along our minimal supply of diesel. We passed by Barbuda around midnight and started seeing the lights of Antigua at 2am. Dawn brings 4x BMFs headed for the port at St. John. We were called on the radio by one and asked to alter our course. Good time to take the sails down that we’re doing us no good anyway.

Bound for Jolly Harbor, customs and eventually the marina. A real shower sounds amazing right now!

Mon Jan 13 2025 07:24:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

After arriving in Antigua waters and navigating the multiple BMFs, we limped into Jolly Harbour with our last remaining diesel and anchored just outside so I could go in and clear customs and then grab a jerry can of diesel to get us in the marina. Typically, when you clear in a vessel only the captain is allowed to leave the boat, so I loaded the dinghy and set off to customs alone.

Customs did not like the clearance form that Bahamas had given me. It immediately raised eyebrows and my heart sank thinking they would turn me away. Where would we go? Almost every island requires previous port clearance paperwork. Weirdly enough the US and Bahamas do not even require you to clear out which is part of why I had such an issue getting this paperwork in the Bahamas. I breifly thought that maybe the US Virgin Islands would be our best option and then after some conversation and explanation of everything and them continually pointing to the official customs stamp on the clearance paperwork, they made me add Tony’s information and write a statement that everything was true to my knowledge, sign and date. After about 5 more steps, I had a cruising permit in hand that was 1/10th of the cost of the Bahamas. Phew…

Off to the marina to fill the jerry can and back out to the boat. We were escorted to our slip by the dock guys who get boats in and out of their slips in a somewhat cavelier fashion. We have been in our slip for a few days now, gotten some rest, but also just been working on the boat. Go figure. She got a much needed bath. The salt was so thick you could have scraped it up and filled up a container. Yesterday we removed the engine exhaust thru hull. It appears in needs to be replaced as the rubber gasket is toasted. The marina store here is more stocked than any store I had been to in FL. That’s the good news. Just another boat unit and we’ll be good to go.

We will likely head out for some cruising around the island late in the week before returning and preparing to leave Reverie in her new home port while we head home for a little bit.