The Party's Over......until next time!

     Our last two weeks in the southern sun went by in a flash, but not without a few 'ups' and 'downs'.  The 'ups' relate to the people and the sun which shone most days on the lovely little village of Hope Town. They far outweigh the 'downs' now that we can look back from the distance of a few weeks.
However, the story of our return trip to Florida would not be complete without including them.
So here goes.

Our engine and starter problems...Dr. Diesel to the rescue.
We were watching the weather carefully using so many weather forecasters that confusion often set in!  Our main 'oracle' was Chris Parker, followed by Marv's Weather, Buoy Weather, Passage Weather, Weather Underground...I could go on! We needed five good days to get ourselves back across the Gulf Stream to Harbortown Marina in Ft. Pierce.  We planned to leave Hope Town on Sunday 1st April....April Fool's Day. On the Thursday, in preparation for our trip, Bill began checking the boat, looking at the electronics, engine and sails. He started with the engine....which refused to start!  So began a saga which travelled with us all the way back!  Would the engine start or leave us stranded.....a particular nightmare was being stranded at our en route anchorage at Great Sale Cay - miles from anywhere and without cell phone coverage!

Our rescue came in the form of our friend, Ron, who has been christened with the name 'Dr. Diesel' by many a grateful sailor.  Ron diagnosed the first problem - dead starter battery. What could we do, bearing in mind this was the beginning of the four day Easter Holiday and everything was closed?  Dr. Diesel had the answer! A word in someone's ear at Captain Jack's pub led to an early morning dinghy ride up the creek to pick up a new battery from  Ron's friend. We were saved!  But not quite. The engine started and we all cheered - we had an anxious audience of Ben & Margaret, 'Diva's' owners, and our travelling companions for the first leg or the trip. Our optimism was short lived as, shortly afterwards, the engine again failed to start. Dr. Diesel to the rescue again! Cleaning the corrosion of the electrical leads seemed to do the trick. Hurray!

      It was April Fool's Day - we were due to cast off at 9 a.m., but again the engine failed to start! When we e-mailed Dr.Diesel he thought it was an April Fool's joke! But soon he was alongside in his dinghy, and coming to our rescue once again.  To cut a long story short, a loose wire in the starter mechanism was the culprit this time. This was fixed and off we went, with a niggling worry at the back of our minds....would the engine keep starting for us.  We told ourselves it just needed to work for five starts! Not much to ask.

     We sailed through the 'Whale', the often impassable inlet to the Sea of Abaco from the Atlantic, without a problem, and anchored for our first night at Manjack Cay - a very pretty anchorage just west of Green Turtle Cay.  'Diva' was already anchored there, and kindly took some great photos of 'Southern Vectis' in full sail. The next two legs of the trip went smoothly - both eight hour days on the Little Bahama Banks with an overnight anchorage at Great Sale Cay.  The engine started perfectly - phew!  We arrived at our jumping-off spot for the Gulf Stream crossing - Old Bahama Bay Marina - early in the afternoon after a pre-dawn start to get us through the rock-strewn Indian Rock channel, which is only passable at half tide and more.  We spent a lovely afternoon on the beach.

Our crossing went well apart from a couple of stray squalls which moved away quickly. After a night at anchor in Lake Worth (Palm Beach) we headed up the ICW to Ft. Pierce.  It was good to tie up to our dock and enjoy the music and food at the  'Harbor Cove Tiki Bar'.

We have left 'Southern Vectis' at her dock in Ft. Pierce as we have decided to sell her.  We bought her in 2008 and she has given us so many good times and good memories, not to mention good friends. We hope her new owners will enjoy her as much as we have.  But our winters in the sun have not come to an end because we have decided to become landlubbers in Hope Town next winter. We have rented a cottage for the months of February and March 2019, and are looking forward to enjoying all the fun of Hope Town from a different perspective.