We had a great day yesterday but this morning we turned
around and headed West back to the East Coast. Yesterday we left Fort Pierce at around
10:30am with friends Jane and Ray waving us goodbye. It was an exciting moment
to be really heading out in to the Atlantic; heading for Bermuda.
We had thought the winds would be light and we could check the engine but after
motoring for one hour to clear the Fort
Pierce seabuoy we started sailing with the full
mainsail and the #2 genoa. We headed NNE to not stray too far from the coast
yet gain some advantage from the Gulf Stream.
By late afternoon we were, at times, going over 10 knots over the ground with 4
of those being from the Stream. We sailed all day and all night though after
midnight the winds lessened some and by early morning we were barely sailing.
By this morning we had traveled a distance of 137 nautical miles from Fort Pierce in about 22
hours. Not a bad first day!
At 6:30 this morning I started the engine and we headed East
towards Bermuda. At 8:30am we turned around
and are now heading back towards the Jacksonville
area. The engine was not overheating but there was significant bluish white
smoke that was, if anything, more than we had previously. With a trip to
Bermuda and from there to the Azores so
dependant on our engine it seemed the prudent thing to do. But I am one unhappy
camper this morning. It’s probably a good job that I won’t get to
talk with any of you until later. I have already snapped at Janet
unnecessarily. We had been planning this trip for a long time and we had worked
hard on our preparations. I knew the engine was a potential problem but I had
not wanted to bite the bullet of replacing it and in our initial tests earlier
this year it had run fine. I guess I will now have a decision to make about
repair or replacement. But that will have to wait. It is now 10:00am and we are
still running the engine in glassy seas with left over swells from the East.
Hopefully it will continue to run all of today. I think it will. Right now my
guess is worn cylinders and piston rings causing the engine to burn oil and
hence the bluish tint. But I really need to get some more advice about this.
So, what are our plans now. Janet had taken a 3 month leave
of absence from work and my business partner, Beverly, had agreed to cover HSH
yachts for this same period. It is now nearly one month in to our leave and we
are heading back to the US
coast. What will we do now. At this point we really have no idea. I had no
contingency plans for this eventuality. But we have all of today to think about
it plus plenty of time once we reach port. Once we decide I will post a blog
entry here but, for now, you all know as much as we do.
Jeremy