The view of George Town’s anchorage at night
Let me tell you, nothing gets your adrenalin pumping like having your engine die in high winds while you’re sandwiched between two coral reefs.
We were in a hurry to get down to George Town before the bad weather arrived and the annual Cruising Regatta started. But we know from experience that being in a hurry pretty much always guarantees something will go wrong. And in this case, that something was our engine.
We watched our ETA on our chart plotter very carefully throughout the day and compared it to the 6:04 pm sunset time, as we made the 50-nautical-mile jump from Black Point to George Town. With 20-knot winds on the nose, though, it was difficult to whittle our ETA down to a reasonable hour, even with full sails up and the engine running at 2200 rpms. I know, I know, sailing should be about the journey rather than the destination; but on this particularly bumpy, rolly day on the Exuma Sound, we were focused on the destination. So we spent a good 11 hours just staring at the time on our chart plotter as we raced the clock towards Elizabeth Harbour.
But just as we managed to get our ETA down to 6:05 pm, and we thought we might just make it in before dark, our engine dropped to idle and, in an instant, we were going nowhere. We were just 10 miles shy of George Town with no engine power and a virtual clock ticking in our ears.
The first thing Ryan did was ask (loudly) if I’d somehow lowered the throttle from where I was (in the head). But, by this point, I’d already emerged from the head to ask why Ryan had suddenly stopped the boat. So once we established there were, in fact, no engine controls in the head and Ryan hadn’t touched the throttle, we pulled off our engine cover and stared blankly at our Universal M-25, then at each other, and back at the engine again while we wondered what exactly it was we were looking for. After all, we couldn’t see anything obviously wrong.
Now, as you probably know, this is when sails come in very handy. But even when we unfurled the sails and fell away from the wind, we could only get the boat up to about 3 knots maximum. Which meant, at this rate, we would never get to George Town before sunset. And coming into an unfamiliar harbor in the dark, without an engine, is never a recommended navigational tactic.
So, as we floated in the sound somewhere near Black Cay, I pulled out our trusty Marine Diesel Engines by Nigel Calder and started running through the troubleshooting chart for what could possibly cause the engine to lose power.
At first, I wondered if maybe we wrapped something around the propeller. But just as I asked the question, the power came back and we were off again. Feeling both relieved and confused, we continued on our course towards George Town while we wondered if the problem would return.
When we lost engine power the second time, it seemed our problem was no longer temporary. So, I pulled out Nigel Calder again and started throwing out diagnostic questions.
“Could we have wrapped something around our prop?”
“It’s possible,” Ryan said. “But why would our power suddenly come back?”
“Good point. Okay. Well, it says here ‘air in fuel lines’ could cause loss of power.”
“Okay. But I don’t see where the air would come from all of a sudden,” Ryan replied.
“Okay. Hmm. Well, it also says “dirty fuel.” Could we have picked up some bad fuel?”
“Maybe?” Ryan said, thinking.
“It also says ‘plugged fuel filters.’ If we got bad fuel, would it show up in the filters?”
“Yes,” Ryan said. “Go check the Racor in the head. It looks like a glass bowl under the sink.”
“Found it! Wait, was there black sludge in this thing the last time you looked?”
“What?!” Ryan asked, as he ran down the companionway to have a look. I took that as a “no.”
We weren’t sure if this was definitely the problem, but crap in our fuel filter seemed like an indicator of some sort. Maybe we picked up a bad batch of fuel in Staniel Cay? Maybe some dirt in our tank got knocked loose and clogged up our filters? Either way, our filters were tricky to change and probably couldn’t be changed while we were under way, so we didn’t have much choice but to carry on towards George Town with our fingers crossed that we didn’t lose power just as we squeezed Hideaway between the two reefs flanking the entrance to Elizabeth Harbour.
But then we lost power just as we squeezed Hideaway between the two reefs flanking the entrance to Elizabeth Harbour.
The result? A lot of panicked shouting to unfurl the jib and fall away from the wind. We had no choice but to sail and tack our way out of the narrow cut. And as we made our way past the reefs in the dark and towards what looked like the world’s largest planetarium, with over 300 anchor lights shining like low-lying stars, Ryan and I exhaled a tense breath of relief.
What seemed certain upon our dramatic arrival to George Town was that we had a major problem. But, for now, we were safely anchored in the harbor and could seek a little much-needed stress relief at Chat-n-Chill for a few days while we watched the Cruising Regatta kick off. After all, with 300 boats in the harbor, 99 per cent of whom had oodles more experience than we do, we were bound to meet someone who could help us figure out if clogged fuel filters was the only problem we were dealing with.
But we’d deal with that later. For now, we were just glad to be here.
Chat-n-Chill, the cruisers’ hangout in George Town
rely cool looking forward to reading more thank you
tried to enter my email to follow, but it will not accept.
Like the blog very much.
Hey Captain Dan, Professional Dock Bum,
Thanks so much for reading! Stay in touch!
Tasha
Sorry you had issues on your run from Black Point to GT. It was blowing on the nose for us too on that trip last year. Sounds like you diagnosed the issue…glad you eeked by the reefs and made it safely. Well done. Enjoy Cruiser’s Regatta! So fun! What is the theme this year? Gotta enter the coconut run with your dink or someone elses….Take care and good luck changing out the filters…
Thanks, Gretchen! I have no idea what the theme is this year, but we’ve done our share of playing volleyball, socializing and attending the local “rake and scrapes.” If we have any more fun I’m going to need a week to let my liver recover!
Wow, how scary! These are just the things I hope we don’t have to deal with. Doesn’t it seem that things go wrong at the worst time … right when you’re going through those reefs?! Glad ya’ll made it through safely, and now you know ya’ll can handle it! Hope you find out the problem easily, and that the solution is easy too!
Georgetown has always sounded like a blast to us … have fun!
George Town is a blast so far! On the days we spend doing boat work, it’s less fun, but we all have to do our time getting our hands dirty, right?!
Anytime a diesel loses power the first thing to check is filters. While in Chicken Harbor find someone to give you basic engine lessons. If you rely on a device you don’t understand you’re gonna have a bad time!
So we’ve changed the filters and motored for about 2 hours with no problems yet. We’re still concerned about what we saw in our primary fuel filter (black sludge) and so we’re now on the job of cleaning out our fuel tank to see if that’s the source of the problem. It’s all a learning experience…we all start somewhere, right?
Getting saltier all the time.
I hate going through a cut at night… even when all is running correctly and I know it well.
Really enjoying your writing as we just sit on the boat in Palm Beach. Well done.
And THANK YOU for all the weather updates! Yeah, we try not to sail in the dark either! I wouldn’t even consider it without our Garmin chart plotter…that thing has been spot-on accurate this entire trip
It is essential to get familiar with the fuel system of your diesel. You need to find out whether it’s possible to change filters underway. Learn to do it, so it[s not a mystery every time. Rough motion can stir up sludge from the bottom of the tanks. Get them cleaned and fuel polished. Don’ wait until you’re in a dangerous situation to check filters. Have plenty of spares handy. You might also install a second set of filters so you can just switch over and keep running while clogged filter is changed. It sounds like you took a big chance trying to enter with unreliable engine. Maybe better to stand off to wait for daylight or anchor on the banks rather than risk wrecking.
Hi Steve,
Good advice. We had recently changed our filters, so didn’t suspect a problem. Now we’re planning to filter all our fuel before it goes into the tank. Having now cleaned out our tank, the tank doesn’t seem dirty, however, and neither does the fuel. Wondering if there’s another problem we need to find?
We are now home in comfy and cold Pennsylvania after a month at our daughters home on Normans Cay. Great fishing and relaxation for the month of February. We will follow you guys and hope you have the trip you envisioned.
Hi Bob,
I should’ve hit you up for some fishing lessons when you were down here!
Tasha
Not sure if I am late to the party, but here is what we did to remedy bad fuel. When we bought our boat she had been on the hard for two years and previous to that had barely left the dock in seven years. She had about 150 gallons of diesel in her. After several harrowing experiences like yours (and having to call SeaTow) we initially polished the fuel. Still didn’t touch the problem. Our ’76 Morgan has no hole in the tank other than the fill. We met a fellow cruiser who is also a welder and has the tools on board. He and my hubby removed all the fuel with a fuel pump and lots of 5 gallon containers and then Silvio (the welder/cruiser) cut a hole in the tank. All the unbelievable crud (sand, grit, cottage cheese, gelatinous stuff) was removed by hand, with rags, scrapers, and the like. The entire interior of the tank was cleaned with fresh diesel and the new plate welded on. The previously pumped out diesel was reinstalled (less about 20 gallons that was full of crud). And that is how we cleaned our fuel tank.
Well done!!! Luckily, just cleaning our fuel did the trick this time!
Xx
Tasha
Holy crap, what an ordeal! Our problem seems to be fixed with less trouble, thank goodness
Tasha