We had a very good departure with the rising sun at 6am, it felt rather sad leaving our home for the last 3 weeks. Rowan nearly jumped out his skin as this loud noise erupted as we left the dock, it turned out to be Stephanie sounding their horn at the end of the jetty, waving us good bye with her Major! She is such a laugh, and very good fun, I bet the other boaties were a bit shocked to be woken so early by that noise!
Sunrise over Southside Marina, departing our home for the last three weeks.
We had a bit of a worry last night, just before our Beccles friends left, Hugh the owner of the Cat from Aberdeen, came charging over from the other side of the marina where they are now docked, and said he just had to come and tell us some rather bad news in case it affected us. He had been moored at the fuel dock for a couple of days but had to move for us so that we could top up. His generator had given up about a day ago and now his engine has cut out. He is a serious mechanic and had the boat 5 years. He spent all afternoon trying to resolve the issues and has come to the decision the fuel is bad. Apparently if moisture gets into the fuel and it sits for a long time in heat, it grows all sorts of gunge! And as he had seen us fill up he wanted to warn us. Luckily we only took a tiny bit of fuel as we were almost 90% full. Chris from Beccles suggested we run our engine for an hour and that would be enough time to allow for a problem. Poor Hugh is gutted as they were going to leave in a couple of days back to the UK, and if he has bad fuel it will take a while to sort out. He filled up about 80% of his tanks, so will need a tanker to come and drain it out and during this lockdown period it might not be so easy. Anyway our engined purred for nearly an hour and all seemed good. We have some chemicals to add to the diesel to stop the bacteria so we dosed the tanks up again and hope for the best.
Mooring onto the fuel dock the afternoon before departure (photos curtesy of Stephanie)
We set off with both engines purring which was a good start. We headed out the marina and turned left over the banks to do the same journey we did to the Dom Republic. We are very aware of the tide as we do not want to hit a coral head again. It was incredibly choppy and uncomfortable banging into the wind, what a way to get our sea legs back! Luckily Rowan had paid this weather guru to look at our route and he had sent R a message this morning to say he would advise us to go right out the marina over the banks heading north, a bit longer but more comfortable. What great news, we turned around put the sails up and have been sailing comfortably ever since. Accompanied by some dolphins along the way. They are a very small mottled breed, very cute.
Our new route!
So pleased that as we are rounding the island we seem to have signal most of the way and have caught up with a lot of good wishes from everyone following the blog – thank you all, we need it!
The reef stretching far out to sea at the end of the Caicos sand banks.
The day went well and very comfy sailing right into the evening, before the wind died. The fishing lines were out ever since we got off the banks and into the deep water but we haven’t even had a bite! We had a wonderful sunset that we toasted with our pink grapefruit juice and fresh lime……no alcohol for us on this serious sail!
Left over curry for supper and then to bed for me at 9pm as Rowan did the first shift. We are just using one engine to conserve fuel, more comfort and less noise at night for the person trying to sleep. We can’t go too fast or we overshoot our weather window to head South.
We will have to get our Turks & Caicos ensign down as we leave their waters.
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