Our beautiful ‘Mare is undergoing major surgery, akin to replacing her heart. But in this case, she isn’t getting someone else’s heart; she’s getting a brand new one! Uh-oh, we’ll have to gussy up the rest of the engine room so that shiny new engine doesn’t look out of place.

This week, the “open-heart surgery” began, albeit a bit backwards, not from the outside but the inside. We did as much as we could before the pros arrived, like remove everything – pots and pans, cabinetry and drawer items, soft goods, ceiling panels, TV, electronics, you name it.

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Wow, what craftmanship! One end of the peninsula is tightly fitted between two other fixed cabinets, and the other is simply and logically held down with screws to the deck. But this rascal is heavy! With some ingenuity and controlled muscle, the peninsula slid free, to be relocated safely out of the way by the saloon door.

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Next day and next up is the “soft patch,” as it’s called in boats. In our surgery simile, maybe this is the skin? Selene did an excellent job of planning for the unlikely, terrible event of removing the engine by building in a sort of “door” through the roof, or top deck, of the boat. They even branded it and made sure one knows in which direction to reinstall it!

But like our skin, it’s tough! The jack was used just to add some upward pressure as the “caulk/5200 adhesive” sealing it in place was cut with a saw. Whew, what a smelly and messy job!

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Took the better part of two days to get the soft patch free. Next step? Time to lift those heavy, sound-insulated floor panels and cross braces and carefully add them to the growing pile of boat “parts” at the far end of the room.

Now we have good access and light for the engine expert – just have to be careful moving around.

Despite all this progress, the peanut gallery outside is not particularly impressed.

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And we promise, this is the last of the tongue-in-cheek movie title references as headings. Perhaps. 🙂

It’s been more than two weeks since we shared anything about where we are, and folks are starting to inquire. We could fall back on, “Is this really happening?”, but that wouldn’t be very adult of us. So, now that we’ve had time to isolate ourselves and lick our wounds, here’s the upshot on our unexpected situation:

• The Good: We are safely docked in Stuart, Florida. (Thank you, Matt R. from Chubb if you’re reading this.)
• The Bad: The engine has to be replaced. (There was absolutely no warning, and it cannot be salvaged.)
• The Ugly: The process is complicated. (The engine must be lifted through the partially disassembled galley and out the top of the boat via crane.)

Between crying jags, there’s been plenty of time spent on the phone, via email, and in person, with mechanics, surveyors, yard managers, estimators, wood workers, fiberglass specialists, etc. I’m sure we are forgetting someone.

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When not engaged in exploring available options and needing time to mope each in our own way, lo and behold, we both distracted ourselves with mind-numbing, electronic “word” games (word games for goodness sake!?) for more hours than we care to count. Our grandchildren would be shocked to see us sitting in the same room with faces glued to screens for hours. (Or perhaps they would be pleased? Ha!) We’ve also occasionally ventured out for our sanity. Pizza. Bagels. Doughnuts. You know, fattening stateside comfort food.

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Oh, about that rental car in the photo at the end of our May 22 trying-to-maintain-optimism post? We had a flat and had to trade the car on Friday of Memorial Day weekend, when, as you can imagine, they had very few options. We ended up in this cute little guy. And we both fit! And we could carry a few days’ worth of groceries, barely. We did discover we could not unbuckle our seatbelts at the same time. 🙂

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Because life aboard the SaltyMare will simply not be allowed to remain enshrouded in negativity (have you met Susie?), here’s the affirming “all will be well” wrap-up: Journeys, like life, have their ups and downs, good times and bad times, etc. The challenges are called that for a reason. It’s these taxing situations that allow us to truly appreciate the good times. Otherwise, we wouldn’t value smooth sailing when it comes our way. Enough positive reinforcement yet? I’m starting to hear grandparents everywhere in a murmuring chorus of, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Or the ever popular, “This too shall pass.” I know. How about…. we just move on and get ‘er done.

Thanks, everyone, for being there!

What had originally been planned as a 3-step process became a 4-step process due to the distance in the Bahamas and the speed of our tow. Doesn’t look like it, but it’s a long way, 175 nautical miles (nm) or 201 statute miles (land). That’s long. All whilst being towed, not in control….

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Thursday, May 19
Green Turtle to Memory Rock, Plan B) Mangrove Cay

After a quiet night by Green Turtle, Dale and his son, Matthew (both born and raised there), arrived to hook up before sunrise. This leg is a little more than 100 nm! Every inch of it slower than we normally go, but, then again, faster than we can currently go on our own. We ran the little engine to help out.

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The day was, as we’d been experiencing with the approach of summer in the tropics, a little rainy and mostly sunny. We passed the “Center of the World” again. Cute name, sure beats the five different Hog Cays we’ve seen on our trip!

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It was a slog, and as the day wore on, the tropical weather kicked in, always full of variety. It became clear we were not going to make it all the way to Memory Rock unless we continued well into the night. The decision was made to anchor off Mangrove Cay instead and resume at 0300 in order to meet the tug from Florida at 0700.

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Friday, May 20
Mangrove Cay to Memory Rock on the Bahama Bank

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The final leg
Memory Rock, Bahamas to Stuart, Florida

The cavalry is here!

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As we left the Grand Bahama Bank, the seas, driven by constant squalls – some blowing sideways – really picked up. Bobby, the tug captain reckoned 4-6 feet! Unable to run stabilizers, we were a bobbling cork. We got no pictures because we were otherwise occupied, bouncing around inside catching everything that was moving. For ocean crossings we now have a whole new definition of battening down the hatches! Fortunately, nothing was broken. Whew. We spent the first three hours really rocking and rolling before the weather cleared and things kinda smoothed out. Close to Florida, the stormy weather returned, however, with rain blowing sideways! A half hour or so later, around 1630, as we neared the St Lucie inlet, the tow boat paused to shorten the bridle line.

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Once the line was shortened, we were ready to transit between the rock walls of the St Lucie Inlet. It was quite sporty, and we were very surprised when a sport fish passed us in the narrow channel.

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After clearing the inlet, an additional Tow Boat U.S. boat joined us to guide the larger tow boat through the areas with shoaling before attaching to our stern to provide “braking” and control for docking.

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We are so thankful for God’s protection and have a list of people to thank:

• Bahamian captain Sammy, who responded to our Mayday situation when the main engine went out and we were headed for the rocks on the North Bar Channel
• Bahamian tow captains Nicholas, Matthew, and Dale, who got us from Great Guana Cay to Memory Rock (approximately 113 nautical miles)
• Tow Boat U.S. captains Bobby, Joseph, and Jesse, who got us across the gulf stream and docked in Florida (approximately 62 nautical miles)
• From Hinckley Yacht Services, Dave and his wife Mickey, and Andrew, who came out in the rain, after closing, to catch our lines and tie her up
• Family and friends following our progress and praying for our safety
• Last but certainly not least, each other, for tirelessly and calmly handling the situations as they came up (you ever try making a PBJ when the bread won’t even stay on the counter??)

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The only damage was minor – a few fiberglass chips from the tow gear and a ruined starboard bow cleat.

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In the end, the SaltyMare is injured, but we aren’t going to put her down. We will bring her back stronger than ever. As we begin this next unexpected part of our journey, it’s obviously going to look MUCH different – for a while…

After limping into the Conch Inn Marina in Marsh Harbour on Saturday, we spent the weekend licking our wounds, so to speak, in disbelief. Can the “heart” of our ‘Mare really be hurt… bad? Yup, bummer.

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As soon as businesses reopened Monday morning, we got busy researching mechanics, service yards, and as it became clear very quickly, tow companies. As it turns out, our proud SaltyMare needs to be towed back to the U.S. for her engine repair. Between availability, expertise, and our desire to treat her right, to the U.S. we go. Given our little emergency engine is just not suited to go all the way back, towing is the only solution.

Timing for the tow is weather dependent, of course, so once the plan was agreed to by all parties, we returned to wait mode. Surprise! Around 1100 this morning, we got the word that we’d be picked up for the tow at 0700 tomorrow morning near Great Guana Cay. Uh-oh, that’s a couple of hours away at our new speed…. (think slower than a snail), and the tide is dropping. Quick! Check out of the marina (Terrell, thank you very much!), “zoom” (ha) out of there with the last of the needed tide to anchor in deeper water outside of the harbor, so we can splash the dinghy to scoot back into the harbor to get to customs! Plan worked! Quick work at customs, and we are now officially free to leave the country. Whew. Hurry back to the boat, return the dinghy to the top, weigh anchor, and head off at our “speedy” little-engine-that-could, breakneck four knots for Great Guana Cay, the furthest north we can stage without transiting Whale Cay Cut, which we didn’t want to risk on our little engine.

Because of our limitation, we were advised that the tow plan should actually be a three-step process First step, pick us up as soon as we get to Great Guana for the tow through/around Whale Cay Cut late this afternoon. So, we anchored at Guana Cay and waited for the first tow boat.

We found it really odd to be “cruising” along without actually navigating, but as expected, all went smoothly. They hauled us to anchor right by Green Turtle Cay. Actually, very near to where our Bahamian adventure began back in December! Time flies when you’re having fun!

The second step begins very early in the morning (rumored 0400), when we’ll embark on Leg #2, a tow across the Great Bahama Bank to the closest point to Florida, Memory Rock, where we will spend tomorrow night anchored. Then the final step, Leg #3 – an actual tug (we’ve been told) will get us across to Florida Friday.

So far so good.