Terror on the high seas.

Bob headed up to the marina office to part with several thousand dollars. Did I say this island was expensive? What cost $150 for a dive in N. Carolina cost $650 for a dive there and that’s not including the $800 to change the shaft. Anyway we’re so glad to get off this island after a 10 day layover.

July 4^th 7:52 AM 692 hours.

It was a beautiful day as the guide boat led us out the cut to open water. Yes, we had a better tide this time and we learned that these buoys move a lot so don’t trust them. While in port, we found out about the free guide boat service and we made sure to use it for this departure. Nevertheless, things got a little tense as the guide boat led us over one spot in the reef where the water under the rudder shallowed out to a scant 2.8 feet. We all had those tense knots in your stomach as we held our breath and finally reached the end of the reef and saw the water depth creep up to 30 feet. As a wave of relief overcame us, Bob and I looked back and remarked “We’ll never see that channel again.”

We slowly spun the diesels up to their running RPMs since this was the first time out with the new shaft and props. I checked the engine room looking for any water leakage and to see if the new shaft was spinning true. Back on the stern, I felt for any abnormal vibrations. Good news, everything was humming along just fine. We made our way to the first waypoint and continued on in the lee of the Caicos for another 28 nautical miles. At the end of the Caicos islands we changed our heading and were on a straight course directly for Ocean World in the Domincan Republic some 145 nautical miles away across open ocean with no way out. This is the part of the trip that we feared most. We would be out of contact with anyone for about 100 nm.

Now that we left the lee, the waves were a bit bigger but certainly nothing unmanageable. A few miles further and we had to slow our speed from 20 knots to 17 knots. Not unusual but the waves seemed to be getting bigger and we were beginning to take a few over the bow. Bobby’s glasses kept getting full of salt spray making it very difficult for him to see so I took over the helm. Little did I know, I would never leave the helm that day until we were in port. It was around 10 AM give or take a Caribbean ½ hour. We held course for another hour or so and the waves stopped growing even though they were still nasty enough that I had to do a little tacking to get through some. At this point we were pretty well committed so we continued onward. If we turned back now we’d have to travel 45 or so miles back to Turtle Cove. The idea of traversing that cut again sent shudders up our spine. The waves seemed to relax a bit urging us further. At about 110 n.miles out from the Dominican and 62 n.miles out from Caicos the wind started to pick up and the waves started to grow again. The wind speed climbed to around a constant 25 knots and the seas were a steady 6 to 8’, some with sharp windward sides causing us to crash downward as the wind continued to pile up the water. The helm was now constantly getting a barrage of water and our homemade computer covering to protect it from the water was in serious danger of failing completely. We decided we needed to protect the computer from further damage since it contained all of our navigational information that we would need to complete this trip. So Bobby, in the roiling seas unplugged the computer and slowly inched his way across the back of my chair trying not to get launched over the railing toward the stairs where he sat down and step by step moved himself and the computer while shielding it from the constant barrage of waves and spray toward the safety of the cabin. Eventually Bobby climbed on his hands and knees back to the bridge and told us that everything was fine, the computer was still working. Another bit of relief. Another hour or so and the wind gusts were incredible. We started to encounter trip sets of waves in the 12 to 15 foot class. As we tried to step over these waves the front corner of the bow and the rear stern of the boat was out of the water and you could faintly hear the diesel rev as the prop left the water. All too many times the boat would simply fall sending a shudder through it that would cause us all to quickly send a glancing look at each other to see if we were ok. Somewhere about now we completely lost power on our starboard side and the RayNav unit I was using for guidance completely shut down. Our first concern was that the engine might could would shut down if the solenoid controlling the flow of fuel to our diesel lost power. If we weren’t so knocked about, we would have had the clarity of mind to remember that the solenoid does need power to remain open although it can be forced open manually. That would have been a moot point anyway in this sea. So, Bob and I just shrugged our shoulders and hoped for the best. Electronically blind, I would have to hold a compass course to our destination some eight hours away. In a sea without current or wind my course would be 155 degrees, in this sea and conditions I rolled the compass back and forth from 120 to 180 degrees in a desperate attempt to kindly cut thru the waves. The seas and wind were so bad now that blue water from a first wave of a set of three would just completely blind me as I held on for the next two waves that were just behind this one. All I could do was pray that the next two wouldn’t cause us to get in a serious situation. The wind was knocking the tops of the waves off so hard that my face was stinging from the spray and I ingested so much salt water that my doctor would have a fit with my sodium intake. The back of my head was beginning to get a really weird feeling and when I reached back to find out why, I found it was covered in serious crust of salt. We were all frozen to our stations as the sea tossed us about like a rag doll in a dog’s mouth. This was the ?third? time we would not eat anything all day. Bathroom breaks were impossible. Although no one talked to each other about our necessity until after our endeavor was over, it was an inevitable. I’m sure as we quite coyly released our first warm relief at our stations, it became easier afterwards. There was so much water on the bridge no one could possibly notice. About every half hour or so, Bobby would brave the elements and descend from the bridge to the cabin to verify our course on the computer. Fearing for Bobby’s safety in what always seemed like an eternity, he would return to the bridge like a little sea lion and announce “Gary, you’re on course!” As we would learn later, Gina was pinned in the front seat on the bridge getting drenched about every ten seconds, praying to every god she could think of when Bobby or I would let out an expletive thinking “Please don’t listen to them listen to me !” Land was nowhere to be seen. A few flying fish, a few dolphins and a couple of humpbacks were all we saw when we could see. I, for one, actually entertained thoughts of “how can we cut that dinghy free quickly, can I tie a fender to that gpirb quickly enough, will I ever see my loved ones again, where are the life jackets, what I wouldn’t do for a big Hatteras with an air conditioned bridge.” Painful seconds turned into painful minutes and more importantly into painful hours. Suddenly Gina called out “Land!” Bob and I quickly started scanning the horizon and around 2 o’clock we could see a mountain in the haze. Bob made his way back to the cabin and checked the computer. Back on the bridge, he told us it was probably Haiti and we had another 20 or so miles to go. Well, it wasn’t such a great sighting since it is the last place we wanted to land but at least it was land. Since we were nearing land our thought that the seas would let up proved to be as much of a dream as a weatherman’s forecast. The sun thru the dense haze was on its’ descent to the horizon. Somewhere out in front of us was Oceanworld. We thought about our friend Kemuel’s warnings. He told us to be very careful because there was a lot of garbage floating downstream from the rivers on the north side of the Dominican. A delivery captain we met in the Turks substantiated that when he told us of a refrigerator that went floating past him just a few days before. We just had to hope that in the low light we would not hit anything. Another obstacle comes from some yarn’s that still abound about pirates but today they weren’t even a thought since who would be foolish enough to be out in this stuff. The waves shrunk back to a steady 6’ to 8’ and the spray over the bridge subsided to every minute or so. Bobby scooched back down to the cabin and when he came back he said we were within a half mile or so of the entrance. Scanning the coast for something that might lead us to Oceanworld we spotted these little beacons of beauty that shone thru the evening darkness. That must be the entrance to Oceanworld ! And that big mausoleum of stone and light must be the marina. We approached the cut thru the reef carefully, guided by the first lit buoys we had seen since the U.S. Turning the seas to our backs, I struggled to keep the push of the sea from pushing us out of the narrow channel. Reaching the end of the channel, we were slightly confused when we saw a fork but we were able to quickly assess the situation and make a navigational correction to bring us into the marina basin. Very weary, I unclenched my fingers from the helm and shuffled my bare feet from the uncomfortable nonskid they had been planted on for the last several hours and handed the helm back to Bobby for docking maneuvers. We had forgotten to make a reservation ahead of time, it was now 8 PM and apparently no one was there, so we attempted to tie to the face dock. That’s when the Navy guy met us with two “dock hands”. He in his best Spanish tried to tell me we couldn’t dock there and me in my best English tried to tell him we needed to tie up just for the evening. Gina to the rescue. She was able to converse with him enough to find out he wanted us to tie up a bit further in the marina. We obliged and made our way toward another slip. The wind was still horrific and we ended up nosing the boat into the slip rather than the usual backing in. We finally got ourselves tied down and Mr. Navy guy wasn’t about to give us a minutes rest. He wanted on the boat now to check us in. We were just finding out now for ourselves how much damage and how much was thrown about the boat but we scrambled to find a couple of lights to put on so we could do business. Palm tree had become a disaster again with loam spilling all over the deck. I cleared a passage so Mr. Navy guy could board as he stepped thru the muck on the deck. The cabin was in total ram shackles beating anything the Jersey coast could have meted out. I guess feeling a bit of our pain, Mr. Navy guy offered to remove his shoes. Bobby exasperated just said “Forget it, just come on in.” Passports and all that paperwork stuff later we gave him a bunch of Diet Cokes and bid him adieu to the morning. We tried to make the power cord reach the power post, nothing doing. The cable just wasn’t long enough. So the heck with it. (ok, that’s polite) We ran the genny for a while knowing that when we shut it off sleeping was going to be anything but comfortable. After cleaning up a bunch of the mess, we toasted a safe landing with wine and feasted on spam sandwiches.

Pictures to follow.

Mary E gets shafted, Bob’s next.

June 27 – July 3. Here is a mishmash of things that happened over the last few days.

The next few days we were going to be stuck in port while we waited for parts to repair Mary E.

We spent some time getting the necessary tools and parts we would need to effect repairs. We also did a grocery shopping at the local IGA. This grocery store was pretty amazing for being on a remote island. The produce was outstanding and the meats were amazing and probably the only thing on this island that’s reasonably priced.

A peculiar thing about this island is none of the roads have street signs making it extremely difficult to find things. For instance, we tried to find this laundry place called US Clean. It took three trips and several inquiries to finally find it. It was tucked away behind a huge cement wall with no sign on the building. Even the most logical entrance into the parking lot wasn’t accessible because of an unfinished roadway. Speaking of unfinished there are literally hundreds of what probably was grandiose plans for condominium complexes gone bust. This laundromat probably got a good deal on rent to locate there since this complex had many things unfinished and it certainly didn’t look like there was any intention to finish them.

There is a huge very nice Beaches Family Resort here on the island. One of the days we were looking for beach access it pointed us down this road which happened to be adjacent to the Beaches resort. It was pretty funny because here were all these nice families climbing this mega waterslide inside the compound and we were on the outside in our eggbeater car in the middle of this parking lot with broken down cars, dilapidated buildings and a huge chain link fence with razor wire and guards at the gates between us and them. I guess we were running with the natives.

Sunday here on the island, everything closes and more than on any other day we found people walking everywhere in the middle of nowhere. I mean there were no houses that we could see for miles and all of a sudden someone would walk out of this dirt roadway and start walking up the main street. We had to see at least 100 people walking aimlessly. Very very strange.

Evening entertainment is also weird here. A few times we ventured out to a bar to enjoy some of the local flavor where a band might be playing but every one of them shut down the music by 9:30 PM.

There is this one bar on the island at the Grace bay Club that boasts the longest bar in the caribbean. It is ninety feet long so we decided to go check it out. The pictures and wording in the advertisement were very misleading. It was nice but not anything like they described. Anyway the surroundings were beautiful and we had a great lunch there with Jermaine our bartender. We heard some radio ads that said this was the happening place and we thought the lighting at night would be spectacular so we got a taxi to take us there. We were so unimpressed that we called the taxi right back and asked him to take us to some fun place. He took us to the Conch Shack on the other end of the island. We had a great time partying with the natives there.

Back to the Mary E, on Monday we finally got Mike to pick up the bent shaft so he could start making the new one. We also contacted Frank and Jimmies again but this time they had a used bronze prop in stock that could be refitted to our dimensions and the price was reasonable. So Bobby ordered that. The shaft was delivered Thursday. Bobby did the necessary prep work to make sure everything would go back together much more easily than it came apart. Crazy came over that afternoon and we put the shaft and rudder back in and installed the one repaired prop on the starboard side. It was certainly a lot of work but things went pretty smoothly all things considered.

The following day Friday, the prop was delivered and crazy stopped by to install it. We fired up Mary E brought her over to the fuel dock and topped her off for the journey to the Dominican Republic tomorrow, Sat July 4^th.

Jermaine at Grace Bay Club bringing Gina her drink.

Turtle Cove Marina from the restaurant Magnolia.

Waiting for our table at Magnolia.

Preparing the rudder for installation.

Retrieving the all important grill cover that was blown into the water during a gust.


Preparing the new shaft for install.



This is what happens when you remove the plug from the dripless.

Handing the prop to Crazy.

Gina and Bob dancing on the beach.

I think I'm dancing.

The infamous eggbeater car.

Crazy George

Infiniti Bar at Grace Bay Club.

Grace Bay club pics..


Bob's three legged friend comes for a visit.

The palm tree is ready in case it decides to jump ship again.

Like our new Tiki Hats?

Mary E is shaftless, propless and rudderless but not rumless !

June 26. We arose early since Crazy was due to stop by and remove the shaft around 7:30 AM. We had already slid the dripless coupling loose and removed the thrubolt on the coupling. We only had two bolts left to free the shaft. Since we were afraid that the shaft may slip out overnight we hadn’t removed the bolts figuring it would only take a few minutes in the morning. Famous last words! Crazy said since we didn’t have the shaft loose right then he’d stop by later, he had another grounding to take care of. Apparently four or five boats had hit the same spot in the channel and were having work done. Anyway, back in the bilge we went. First things first, what size are those two bolts? Let me try a ¾”, nope, a bit bigger. Here’s a 7/8”, nope, still bigger. Fumbling thru the tool boxes and finally spilling them on the floor we had nothing bigger. Looks like we need a wrench and since the bolts are rusty we don’t want to round them off with an adjustable. We really need a 6 point box wrench. Not wanting to buy extra wrenches on this island, we carefully measure for the size we’ll need, 15/16” is agreed. Right about now, it would be really nice if Bob didn’t have his misfortune this past winter in the Marina Bay parking lot when thieves broke into his car and stole all his power tools and good set of sockets and box wrenches. But we have to deal with what is sent our way and so we walk across the marina and speak with Crazy. He checks his tool boxes in the shed and nothing. Crazy tells us there is a Napa Auto Store not too far away up the hill and to the right. I told Bob that we might as well rent a car at Scooter Bob’s in the marina since we’ll be here for a few days. So off we go to Scooter’s. We tell them we need to rent a car for a few days and he asks us if it’s for the two of us cause he’s got a real nice economy car but we tell him no, there will be three of us. Ok he says, I’ve got a Toyota Corolla. Perfect we’ll take that, how much? $59 a day, hmmm a bit steep but not really thinking I tell him ok. I’m more concerned about faring on the roads since they drive on the opposite side. Do you want insurance? After having read some horror stories about not getting insurance and being in a really strange traffic environment I agree to the extra $15 a day. Great, we sign the papers and off we go to the parking lot. There’s our little beauty ! A beat up little egg beater of a car, we’re not in Kansas anymore. At least it’s clean inside. We hop in and welcome the relief from the sweltering heat the air conditioned cabin provides. Since this will be the first time I drive on the opposite side of the road, I check my brain at the door and slide the shifter into reverse. Whining, creaking and groaning the Toyota reluctantly backs up. We pull up to the edge of the road and I double check with Bobby which side I’m suppose to travel on. Looking in both directions I timidly accelerate to the opposite side and climb the hill towards Napa. As we climb, Bobby and I are grateful that we rented the car and didn’t decide to walk there as Crazy suggested. Arriving at the highway intersection, we’re greeted by our first “rotary”. Their rotaries, as we’ll find out, come in many different shapes. Round, oval and shapes that can’t easily be described. We watch a couple of cars negotiate the roundabout and make our stab it, the traffic is heavy and trying to negotiate the turn and watch cars coming from directions you’re not accustomed to is almost overwhelming but we do it and see the Napa just ahead on the left. I could go on with stories about driving on an island that has no traffic lights and hundreds of rotaries built into two lane highways but this is a story about the Mary E. We enter the store and quickly find a 15/16” box wrench, price $80 ! There’s got to be something cheaper. We finally find another 6 point box wrench for $33 and decide we might also need a socket and an extension, another $33 dollars. Working in the bilge as much as we have, we found that the battery powered lamps we’ve been using to illuminate our work area are marginal at best so we look for a drop light. The cheapest drop light, an astonishing $174 dollars! Looking around, we find a clamp on light that would cost 4 bucks in the states for $22 dollars. Beggars can’t be choosers. We pick up a few other needed things and head back to the boat.
Back in the cramped bilge, Bobby and I put our new wrench and socket to the nut and bolt. It’ll take two of us since the spot they are in is extremely difficult to get to. We pull on the wrench and nothing. We pull harder, nothing still. We had soaked the nuts with lubricant but it was obvious we needed a breaker bar that we didn’t have. The one at Napa was an outrageous $100 so we started getting creative and used other wrenches to add leverage to our wrenches. With all our might and soaking in sweat with slippery hands we get our first painful creak as the nut ever so slightly turns. We didn’t know what we were in for. We thought once we broke the bond we’d have a difficult time removing them but at least they’d turn. No dice, for the next 2 and a half hours we took turns struggling to get the tiniest movement from the nuts. Each minute movement was greeted by an awful but welcomed creaking sound. After much slipping of hands and leveraged wrenches coming apart the nuts finally released their tenacious grasp at the final thread. Using a hammer and a couple of screwdrivers we budged the split on the collar to free the shaft or so we thought. Spent and drenched, we emerged victoriously from the bilge. Let’s find Crazy and tell him we’re ready to drop the shaft.
Crazy stops by and asks us if we removed the collar from the shaft, no we reply, we removed the bolts and loosened it. It should slide out from the collar now. Crazy says no way, you must remove the collar from the shaft. “There is no way I can pull it out while in the water from the bottom side of the boat.” Arghh. “We have to remove the six bolts attaching the collar to the engine?” “Yup, and slide the shaft down a little to get the collar off.” Back to the bilge. At least these bolts are stainless. Removing the six bolts was relatively painless but sliding the shaft and removing the coupling was anything but. Another hour and we finally free the collar. Great, let’s get Crazy again. Crazy dons his snuba gear and jumps into the water. He checks the diameter of the plug he brought to jam into the shaft opening after he pulls the shaft but it is too small so with a couple of plastic shopping bags and a bit of duct tape he makes it larger. Bobby and I glance at each other with a disbelieving look but say nothing since we believe in Crazy’s abilities. “That’ll work” Crazy says “let’s pull the shaft.” Bobby heads to the bilge with a few towels to temporarily stop the rush of water into the boat when the shaft is removed. I slide the boat forward with Gina on the bow to take up any slack. Crazy ducks under the boat and gives the shaft a tug. After a bit of struggling, Crazy comes up and says he’ll have to try something different. He ties a timberline hitch to the shaft with a strap and has us back up the boat. From the strap, he ties a rope to the crossbar on the retaining wall at the stern. He tells me I’ll have to pull the boat forward while he turns the shaft. I grab the stern line and when Crazy’s ready I struggle with everything I’ve got to pull the boat forward. After a bit of this, I’m totally spent and nothing seems like it budged. I can hear Crazy working on the bottom of the boat a bit more but I can’t help. He finally comes up and I tell him I can’t pull for that long. I need help. So with Bobby in the bilge, I enlist Gina’s help. We both grab the stern line and Crazy dives under. Struggling with all our might again we’re finally spent and Crazy resurfaces. “Are we making any progress?” Bobby hollers from the bilge “Yes, It’s almost ready to exit the dripless.” After a few more attempts, Crazy tells us we have to drop the rudder, the shaft offset isn’t enough. We sigh exasperated and Crazy sensing our crushed spirit says let’s try turning the rudder. We give this a few more attempts and finally Crazy announces, “No way, the rudder must be dropped.” Despondent, we agree. Bobby tells us we slid the shaft back so far that water is gushing in from the keyway. We have to push the shaft back in. Crazy gives it a shot by hand but the shaft won’t be budged so he spins a nut on the end and with a few taps of the sledge moves it far enough back in that Bobby can slide the dripless collar back on to stop the influx of water. Crazy climbs out of the water and asks for the time. We tell him it’s near 3 PM. He says “Good, we have time. You should be able to drop the rudder within the hour and then we can pull the shaft. In any case, I’m out of the water by five PM.” “Is that when you’re done for the day?” “Nope, I’ve lost three pairs of booties to bull sharks so far this year and I don’t intend to lose another pair.” Astounded we ask him, “Bull sharks here in the marina?” “Yeah, they move in after five PM chasing the bait.” I’m glad it was around 9 AM when I checked the damage the previous day.
Space is really tight in the rudder area, so it’s a one man job. Bobby climbs down, quickly removes the steering knuckle and loosens the retaining collar. He tries to slide the rudder down but nothing doing. I suggest he should loosen the packing nuts. Agreeing, he repositions himself to access the tiny cramped area where the packing nuts are and loosens them. Trying to slide the rudder down again, nothing moves. He asks for the block of wood and a hammer so he can tap the end. Reluctantly the shaft moves down a tiny bit. Are the packing nuts holding it? Nope, he can easily pull the rudder up. The collar is binding. He adds a little grease to the shaft and starts hammering away with the block and hammer. After a half hour of hammering, the rudder shaft suddenly drops from the coupling only to remain poking thru the packing nuts by an inch or so. It’s low tide, is it sitting on the bottom? No matter, let’s find Crazy before time runs out.
Crazy dives under and finds the rudder is hung up on the shaft, he loosens it and it falls to the bottom. Bobby stuffs a few plastic bags into the hole to stop the gushing water. I get in position on the back platform and Crazy dives to retrieve the rudder. Raising it to the surface just barely enough to grab, I pull it up onto the swim platform. Throwing a wad of paper towels into a couple of plastic shopping bags, Crazy stuffs them into the hole from the underside with a screwdriver to pack it. Back to pulling the shaft.
This time Gina heads to the bilge to stop the influx of water, Bobby and I will pull on the boat. Crazy sets himself up and Bobby and I pull. After several attempts, we’re thoroughly exhausted and I’m thinking out loud “I don’t want to be a boater anymore!” but the shaft exited and Gina stuffed the towels in the hole.
Now we had to stuff the hole with the plug Crazy made. Searching for some string to secure it from the inside, Gina finds a couple of shoelaces. Crazy tied the laces onto the eyelet and explained he would tap on the hull when he was ready. That’s when Bobby and Gina would remove the towels from the hole and Crazy would send the string into the rush of water thru the hole to Bobby and Gina waiting on the other side. It worked perfectly with one exception. As Bobby tied the laces to secure the plug, the laces broke. We’d have to remove it and try again. Remembering the monel wire I’d seen in the bilge I suggested that we use that. Cutting off a couple of feet and attaching it to the eyelet we were ready to try it again. This time it worked perfectly.
We only had two struts to pull the shaft thru before our work was done. Time and time again we backed up the boat, reset the lines and with the three of us pulling to exhaustion and Crazy twisting the shaft we seemed to make a little progress. At one point a boat threw a good size wake at us and Crazy George came up screaming and hollering at him. Not only was it dangerous down there with a wake but it also loosens millions of tiny hydra that are acidic and cause burns on your skin. Crazy had gotten badly burned the day before and had to take some antihistamines to counter the reaction.
It was very frustrating with Crazy because we’d ask how we’re doing because we needed encouragement, but he’d just grunt and occasionally give us a bit of info on our progress. I had developed a huge blister that had broken open on my palm from the rope and was causing such pain that I couldn’t pull anymore. At this point Crazy was tying the rope so that the stern of the boat was almost touching the retainer wall. I decided I could push instead of pulling. Getting myself in position I braced my feet against the stern and pushed with all my might, Gina and Bob pulled with all theirs. Finally, after a few times of doing this, Crazy asked for the yellow bag near his truck. We tossed it down to him and he dove filling the bag with air. Wondering what he was doing we finally realized he was lifting the shaft from the bottom with the air. Confirming it we all let out a big sigh of relief. Crazy tied a rope to it and had us pull it up and out.
With the shaft lying on the dock we could roll it like you roll a cue stick and see the end was out of alignment by at least ¾”. We picked up the tools, and then relaxed to a few rum cocktails. No one felt like cooking and I remembered seeing a sign that said tonight was King Crab leg night at the Tiki Hut. Bobby and I were all over that in a flash. We took showers and off to the Tiki Hut we went.After a heaping plate of excellent King Crab and more rum we retired to the boat for a nightcap and bed.
Cap’n Gina is threatening to indenture us into servitude with the amount of money this trip is beginning to cost.

Davy Jones strikes again.

We got up early and prepared for our days cruise. Gary S cleared out his belongings. There was a bit of confusion with the docking and fuel bill but Bobby finally straightened that out. We took a couple of pics with Gary S a couple of hugs and got on the boat. June 25, 8:00 AM 691 hours. We retrieved our lines waved our “See Yaz” to Gary S on the dock and made our way slowly out the inlet. As we wound thru the markers on this beautiful day, I readied the chartplotter with today’s course. That’s when we heard this awful thud. The boat lurched up and then fell forward. I quickly looked up and saw Bobby had split the red and green buoys right down the middle exactly like we were supposed to do. The buoys on our port and starboard were no more than 10 feet away on either side yet we touched earth ! Incredulous, Bobby and I looked at each other and knew this was very bad. We had that real sinking feeling in our stomachs. He tentatively shifted the starboard engine in gear and that seemed fine so he tried the port engine and everything started wobbling. This felt very serious. While Bobby struggled to maintain our position in the channel, I called Gary S who was still at the marina, explained that we touched and asked him to send someone from the marina out to assist us back. The marina boat finally showed up a few minutes later after what felt like hours and I began readying the bridle for the tow. They clearly had no intention of towing us in and asked us if we had lost power and/or couldn’t steer. Bobby gave it a try and decided we could idle in under our own power. The marina boat told us to stay behind them and follow them in. As we passed near the spot that we had just touched we could see there were a couple of large chunks of loose coral scattered about on the bottom.
That was probably what we hit and realized now the thud that we felt on the way in the previous day was not a wave as we suspected but clearly a “soft” touch in the same location. Hobbling into port, they called a diver to come remove the props and assess the damage. While waiting, we were pretty anxious so I dove on the boat and saw we had just tipped one prop and badly bent the second. This wasn’t pretty. The diver showed up, confirmed what I had seen and removed the props. Unfortunately after he removed them, the diver aka Crazy George said he thought our shaft was tipped so he had us start the engines and put them in gear at idle. Yup, the starboard shaft was rotating out of alignment by ¾ of an inch, we needed a new shaft. Crazy also gave us more bad news,

he told us one prop could be fixed by the shop on the island but the other prop was probably too far gone to be repaired by the island shop, Caribbean Marine and Diesel. Things could have been worse. Options on the shaft were a new one from the US or perhaps Caribbean Marine and Diesel could cut us a new one. Options on the badly damaged prop were not as clear but names like Frank and Jimmies Prop Shop in Ft. Lauderdale and Lauderdale Propeller also in Ft. Lauderdale were mentioned. Crazy told us that Caribbean Marine and Diesel’s phone number was in the marina office so I went and retrieved it. We tried calling them several times that morning but nobody was answering the phone. In the meantime, I started searching for phone numbers of shops and suppliers on the internet while Gary S. and Bobby tried calling them to see if they had the needed parts and if they did pricing and expected delivery. All we could find was a new prop at a couple of places and a shaft that the Silverton dealer in Pompano said they had for his 42’ serial number blah blah blah. Bobby thinking that he might have a shaft made by Caribbean Marine asked the dealer how long was the shaft for his 42 and the dealer said 112”. We found new nibral props were $3200 each and a new shaft was $2080, yikes. One guy had twin bronze props that were 25 by 27 but that would lower our speed and may allow the engines to over rev. Not a great solution but at least something considering he was only asking $1,000 a prop. However, we needed a matching set of those and that was before adding international shipping costs. After calling everyone we could find on the internet at $20 for 4 hours of internet time and $2 a minute for phone time and mostly either getting answering machines or finding nothing we were at a standstill. It was near noon and Gary S had to be at the airport by 1:30 so we decided to head up to the Tiki Bar for a bite. While at lunch, Gina suggested we try calling Caribbean Marine and Diesel again. They answered ! They explained to Bobby that they were relocating their shop that day and had just plugged their phone in, he was the first call. Bobby explained the situation and Mike from Caribbean Marine said he’d be down to pick up the props around 1:30. Great, we finished our lunch, bid goodbye to Gary S once again and right about then Mike showed up for the props. Mike gave us some encouraging news, he figured he could fix both props and he even had enough 2 inch shaft stock to cut us a new one but he couldn’t start working on it that day because he was still getting his equipment back in place from the move. Mike also told us he would need the shaft so he could copy it exactly, sans the bend. We contacted Crazy and told him we needed to pull the shaft for Mike and he said if we got it ready for him he’d pull it the next morning. We spent a bit of time figuring out what we needed to do to get the shaft ready to pull and basically licked our wounds putting around on the boat. We lifted our dejected spirits a little when the marinated steaks we BBQ’d from the Farmer’s Market in Milton were awesome.

Three legged dog eyes chicken legs…

We left the Turks and Caicos Yacht Club to head over to Turtle Cove Marina, just a couple of miles away, to clear in at Customs and fuel up for our Dominican trip. Once again, we tried to locate Sellar’s cut, we proceeded to the waypoint we reached the previous day and even in bright daylight we could not locate the entrance markers.
Backtracking and circling around we just couldn’t find them. Gary S called the marina and after a brunt conversation, he attained coordinates for the channel. Plugging them into the computer, Bobby slowly moved the boat toward the coordinates. Finally after much searching we found these little bouys no bigger than a lobster pot marker marking the entrance to the channel.

As we approached them, I stood on the pulpit and helped string the channel together as we spotted one after another leading us through this sometimes very narrow, shallow and very windy entrance. Coming up on two sets of buoys that were very close together, an oncoming boat stood off as we made our way between them. As we proceeded, I felt a little thud from the bow and so did Bob and Gary S. We all thought it must have been a wave slapping the side of the boat. The wind was still howling pretty good and since our next passage was 175 miles across open sea and we were going to get a late start because of fueling and customs, we decided to wait out the weather since it was going to lie down the next day. It took a couple of hours to clear customs and fuel during which time we had to remain on the boat. Bobby and Gina bandaged the broken vase on the palm tree. Finally we were cleared, fueled and docked in our slip. There was a Tiki Hut in the Marina and we decided to get a light bite and a few cocktails as we relaxed from the previous day’s stresses. We found a pretty good cocktail on the menu, an “island smile”. We had the bartender slightly modify it, no grenadine and add a Meyers floater. After a few of those the island wasn’t the only thing smiling. We had the best cracked conch that any of us had ever tasted and the shrimp wrapped in bacon with a BBQ sauce was scrumptious. We headed back to the boat. Just prior to heading up to the Tiki Hut earlier, Bobby had noticed that the charge on the port batteries didn’t seem to be working. The batteries were completely dead. Which explained another story why the CO detectors were beeping when we were trying to clear the shower sump drains earlier. We thought we had reset the charger and had let it charge while we were at the hut only to find that the batteries were still miserably dead. Into the bilge Bobby went. After a bit of investigation, Bobby pronounced the charger kaput. Fortunately, he had a spare on board from his long cold New England winters. He decided to replace it. This charger was in a very difficult location to reach. In the torrid heat it was a very difficult proposition to remove and replace. While Bobby was removing the charger, this three legged dog came along and started barking at him. I was wondering why the dog was barking… well a picture is worth a thousand words. Captain Chicken Legs was busy at work. It was Gary S’s last evening aboard with us since he had previous engagements planned and was flying out the next afternoon. After my American Chop Suey and Gary S’s Chicken Stroganoff there was no way Gary S was about to leave without a meal of Gina’s Gnocchi. We ate drank and made merry, tomorrow the weather was going to be perfect and we needed an early start.