Day 39! Sailing to the Bahamas

Pete and Tina

Today was a doozy 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 it started when pulling up the anchor I went to put us in forward and the lever came right out lol I screwed it back in and managed to get us back in neutral. The eventfulness just begun … More fog rolled in this morning but was clear enough by 730. Warm morning to start and we were hitting our stride. Except, one oversight. The swing bridge. Around 5 miles out from Charleston we hailed the bridge which we arrive by 8:30. It won’t start opening until 9:30… frustrating we accepted defeat and thought to anchor and wait or get gas. We went back to the nearest marina, decided to hail that we were coming in 5 ish minutes to realize they only sell diesel. So we went .7 miles to the next marina, hailed them and couldn’t find their gas dock. Despite this failed attempt and annoying fussing around, it killed enough time to make our way back to the swing bridge. Just a few minutes to kill and we were through. Another 2 hours goes by and we’re enjoying the cruise in short sleeves!! It was sunny and warm and things were looking up. Until our engine abruptly shut off. We had 1.5 knots of current with us and weirdly a marina was on our left on what felt like a desolate stretch. No one answered the hail but we drifted toward in while Pete went through process of elimination. The engine wouldn’t turn over. Electrical problem. We got our voltage meter out to see where it wasn’t getting power. We thought it could be a damaged coil from the old alternator. A few hundred feet away, as I was preparing the dock lines she did start up. We tied up anyway to do some more analysis and regroup. We carried on in the on again off again rain and fog. And anchored in this beautiful marshy spot to prep for tomorrow’s watts cut, which needs to be timed right due to depths and currents.

Boat & Crew

Sweet Rain

Tartan, 34C

Pete Kinsella (Captain)

Partner, Male

Pete and Tina

Owner