21 Dec [Ep. 18] Blue Holes & ENGINE WOES

In this episode we continue to explore the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. We have some ups and downs this time. We make a few mistakes, but quickly figure out how to fix them. 

Our first hiccup, we forgot we had a fishing line out, and as we set our anchor we ran over it, fouling it in the propeller. Kate had to dive on it to untangle it. Luckily the water was warm and calm. Roxy the sailing dog supervised the work 🙂

It is still Christmas time in the Caribbean, so we head out and explore the town near Hatchet Bay, a well known hurricane hole. You could surely weather a storm in that harbor. We found a local bar and after a few beers made some new friends. They took us on a tour of the town for a Boxing Day celebration.

While we were here we did a much needed oil changes to our Yanmar 4JH3-TE 75hp Turbocharged Diesel Engine. 

Next we were off to meet up with out friends aboard SV Sargo for a floating dock party, snorkeling, and sundowners. 

Lastly we were off to Rock Sound. It was a beautiful day for sailing. We tried to get a nice photo shoot in. Sargo found an uncharted blue hole on the way, which we stopped and dove with them. Inside we found sharks! Our first time in the water and swimming with sharks. 

After cooling off we finished the trip by sailing around Rock Sound. We noticed less power and some extra smoke from our Yanmar engine though. It was time to investigate. Finally, after exhausting all the options, we found the issue was a small engine mounted fuel filter. What could have been a 5 minute fix cost us days of downtime.

The downtime was OK though. This gave us a chance to reprovision, relax, and make a YouTube sailing vlog video.

Next we get ready to sail nonstop from the Bahamas to the USVI and BVI. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please subscribe, share, and hit the like button 🙂