In the morning, Dave and Marcy came over for a debrief and her first words were ‘please tell me it’s not always like that’! They had been seasick too. Meanwhile, Nick changed the fuel filter and the port engine is now good. I guess being shaken around for 36 hours can dislodge sediment in the fuel tanks – it has happened before.  He also checked the oil in the port saildrive to discover it seemed to be milky (water in the oil = hauling the boat to replace the seals). This happened last January too and was the reason we got hauled here in February. 

So these are the current considerations:

Need to haul the boat (not good); boatyard we like that can haul us is only a mile away (good); discovered they can’t haul us until 4 January (much less good)!  We also had made arrangements to have the furling gear for the genoa replaced in Fort Lauderdale next week (good); weather not looking good to sail down there (less good); could go down the ICW (intracoastal waterway) as the 18 bridges involved are all bascule (good); need both engines to motor and loathe to use the port side until fixed (much less good again). 

We are stuck here for the time being and will review options and weather. 

Meanwhile Dave and Marcy have decided to go on to Fort Lauderdale as they need to buy some parts (one of their daggerboards is misbehaving) and they have to be in the Bahamas to meet one of their sons in a couple of weeks.  Sad to see them go, but hopefully we will catch up with them over the winter. If we ever get out of Florida ................