A 247 mile loop and we are back where we started.

“19:11.680N 69:21.31W”

6126 Miles since leaving Sandwich.

25th April 2023

I finished the last chapter with firm plans to either go to the Bahamas or to the Turks and Caicos but here we are 5 days later back in Marina Bahai, Samana on the beautiful island of The Dominican Republic. Why? Our engine broke is the simple answer.

We slipped our mooring at 0930 on Friday the 21^st of April and headed Northwest for the Silver bank passage and what a glorious sail it was. With a steady force 4 wind from ESE and all sail set we barrelled along at 6-7 knots for hour after hour thoroughly trouncing a couple of modern sailing boats on the way. Starlink was working well, and we even had video calls with our children as we sailed along, life was indeed sweet. As night approached the wind picked up and heavy clouds complete with rain and lightening closed in on us. Indeed, it was a very dark night, and we could only see the front of the boat when the lightening flashed, all very spooky. This went on until about 2200 when the wind died away and shifted onto our nose, we started the engine to push into the light breeze and 2 hours later just past midnight the engine suddenly stopped. I did the usual checks and found black gunk coming out of the primary filter. I cleaned it up but couldn’t get the engine to restart, a Plan B was needed. The bottom end of the Bahamas is pretty much Marlborough country and the chances of locating a town with good (any) engine repair facilities are pretty much nil until you reach George Town and even then, they are not extensive. I checked the charts and found Ocean World marina 40 miles behind us on the Dominican Republic which seemed to have a fully functioning repair and haul out facility. After a quick conflab we decided to turn around and head back, galling that those type of decisions are it was the wise move.

By 0900 the following morning we were 10 miles from Ocean World with the wind on our nose again and communicating with the marina via email on good old Starlink. I requested help to get us over the final hurdle from the marina entrance onto a berth to which the marina replied that we could not enter under sail, and they had no facility to help us manoeuvre the boat. I did say surely you have a RIB but the answer was no we would need a tow from the Navy which we then requested. Eventually the Navy responded that they could tow us, but they couldn’t get there for a day and a half. Next, the marina offered to get for a quote from a towing company which we again requested. The quote came back at $4000 USD to tow us from the entrance to a berth, talk about one man’s problems being another man’s opportunity. Of course, we told the marina just how ridiculous that quote was, and they immediately reduced it to $3,500 USD which was equally scandalous. While this was going on Norma had contacted Marina Bahai via WhatsApp, where we had come from originally, and they said of course we can help you in and we will organise a mechanic to meet you. She asked them how much they would charge, they seemed a bit shocked by the question to be honest. “You are a customer in need, we will help for no charge this is part of the service”, they said.  Again, decision made we turned left and headed back to whence we had come. 15 minutes later Ocean World were back on the email saying a local angling boat had agreed to tow us for $600 USD. To be honest by this time I had lost all faith in Ocean World and still strongly suspect that if we had agreed and slogged our way up to the marina entrance the Angling boat would probably have decided that it couldn’t tow us, and we would have been back to the rip off merchants in the Towing company. The dye was set, we were heading the 70 miles back Samana way.

Samana national park

The sail back was actually quite pleasant, and we maintained over 6 knots right through to the early hours of the morning when 15 mile short of the marina the wind died completely leaving us adrift. It took 4 hours to make 4 miles and neither of us had had any proper sleep for 48 hours by this time. We where now in 30 meters of water which was still 10 meters too deep to comfortably anchor and the little wind that we had was heading us again, bugger was the watch word of the morning. I inflated the old dinghy and strapped it to the side of Spectra hoping that pathetic though our little outboard is it would at least give us steerage way. I’m still not sure how feasible that plan was but it didn’t work anyway, especially as the outboard decided that now was the time to start having idling problems. Seeing a yacht doing strange things with their dinghy at the head of the bay a local open topped fishing boat diverted its course and came over to see what was occurring. Deploying my best Spanish and waving my hands around a lot I managed to convey the message that we were very broken and needed a tow to the marina. The two fishermen were absolute stars and without a second’s hesitation took our tow rope and began trying to pull us. With only an 8 HP engine and with 17 tonnes of Spectra hanging off the back of it this was not going to be an easy or quick task. Luckily the sea was flat calm and after a bit of jiggling they managed to settle on a course and soon had Spectra up to 2.5 knots, Woo, Woo!

Joel and Daniel our two fishermen in shining armour – well jackets but you get my meaning

Wrapping coats around their heads to keep the sun at bay they settled in for the long haul and we plodded along for a couple of hours. As we progressed Norma passed them some bottles of beer to keep them happy and we were visited by a steady stream of other fishermen who came over to say hello. Find out what was going on and no doubt congratulate Joel and Daniel on getting a bit of a pay day. Halfway to Bahai marina they pulled into a little bay and again with hand signals got us to drop our anchor. As soon as it had dug in, they powered away to the village to land their catch and then came straight out again to continue the tow. Another two hours went by, and we were finally a couple of miles from Bahai Marina. I radioed them up and they were instantly on the ball. Keep coming they said we will come out in a bigger boat and help you in. 20 minutes late we were under tow by the marina owner’s motorboat which had 6 people on board. The fishermen followed us in and under instructions from Gabbi the on-duty Marina manager they agreed to act as a brake for the maneuverers to come.

Bahai Marina owners private boat takes on the tow.

Two marina staff came aboard to help with ropes and another RIB came out to act as a tugboat while the fishermen continued to act as a brake when the big boat dropped the tow line. I would like to say it was a stress-free process but that would be a lie. On the upside, we didn’t hit anything, with the added help of Toni the bottom cleaner, his pal, plus the on-duty Navy guy who had come across to watch the fun from on shore, we managed to get Spectra into her berth, and all snugged down. We asked Toni to speak to the fishermen and find out how much they wanted, they were actually a bit sheepish but asked for $250 USD and seemed pretty hopeful at that. Via Toni, we asked them to wait while we went to the cash point and withdrew the equivalent in local currency of $200 for each of them which I still think was damn cheap. Over 4 hours they had towed us for in the blistering heat and on a Sunday to boot, but at least they looked very happy as they sped away in their fishing boat.

Now compare that to the response we had from Ocean world, I think we had at least 10 people helping us to moor up and all of them where happy and smiling, I simply cannot recommend Marina Bahai highly enough.

Gabbi soon turned up again after making sure that the bosses boat was parked up properly. He had Wilson the mechanic alongside him just to introduce him and get an idea of what the issue were. I explained via Gabbi, as Wilson has no English and my total vocabulary is, Café con leche and Ola, that I thought we had contaminated diesel and Wilson seemed to think that was the likely cause. Via Gabbi he explained back that he would return first thing in the morning with a pump and tanks and start work. It was now lunchtime and without proper sleep for 48 hours we were both flagging badly. The Navy / customs chap said you are tired come to the office tomorrow and along with everyone else they left us in peace. 30 minutes later we had the boat tidied up, to a degree, and went to bed for a short nap. I woke up about 6pm for a couple of hours and then slept through to 7 am, Norma slept for 15 hours straight which is a decent sleep for Norma but nowhere near a record.

0900 on Monday morning as promised Wilson returned with two helpers to begin draining and cleaning the tanks. Bare foot, no barrier cream and no gloves they worked up to their elbows in rancid diesel all day to get the tanks pumped out, cleaned and then the diesel filtered back in again. All in all, I lost about 250 litres of fuel which was deemed too dirty to filter. The guys worked like troopers lifting handfuls of gunk out of the tanks on rags as they cleaned and polished the insides. The day ran away from them before they could get the engine running, again with the ubiquitous hand signals we agreed to meet up again on Tuesday morning to resume the battle. As we are stuck here and as a thankyou to Toni and his pal for the help coming in, we have employed them to polish all of the stainless steel up top. They started late afternoon yesterday and will finish it up later today after they have completed there days work polishing a big Cat over the way. Norma announced that she would pay for the chrome polishing, $100 USD, as an early birthday present for me, who said romance was dead? I did buy her a kettle for the boat for her birthday present last year, so I guess I’m on pretty thin ice here.

Tanks opened up and pumping the fuel begins.

Wilson being all Churchillian with his victory V sign

Again, spot on 0900 Wilson with only one worker bee this time turned up and after giving me a fist bump (yes, I am that cool) attacked the engine again. No luck, the injectors are blocked, and the electric fuel lift pump is not lifting. Wilson has brought a new electric pump, but the injectors need to go to the capitol Santo Domingo to get cleaned and refurbished and that is the current state of play. Wilson is coming back the day after tomorrow with the refurbished injectors x 4 and hopefully that will get the engine going again. He is also bringing a new air filter, several fuel filters, and some engine oil, in order to do an oil change.

The muck blocking the primary filter.

If that all goes to plan, I think we could be on our way again by Friday…………………………I will let you know how we get on.

And finally, 4 meters deep and we can see star fish on the bottom of the marina.