After a week in Linton Bay, we needed a change, so we pulled up anchor and headed back to the San Blas islands.  It was not an ideal time to leave as the winds were pretty strong, but we needed to go and did not want to get stuck in the doldrums that were forecasted later in the week.

The anchor chain was pretty mucky, so we pressure washed it as it came up which made for slow going.  But, Davey, our hook which is a “spade hook” came up clean.  Get it?  David Spade?  Ya, weird sense of humor, I know.

We made it through the reefs and around the corner with the wind on our nose.  We were going to head north before we headed east as the wind and waves would push us south and we did not want to be pushed into the reefs.  It was going to be a bumpy and uncomfortable ride.  Estimated 45 miles at 5 knots would take 8.5 hours.

Sugar Shack Motoring

Within a few hours, Matt noticed that the batteries were not charging correctly.  The engines should be providing 118 amps and we were only getting 18 amps. Crap!  Matt fussed with the regulator but was not able to get it working properly.  No easy task while under way, in a hot engine compartment, under heavy seas.  Something to fix when we are at anchor.

A few hours later, Matt discovered that our Starboard tank was empty.  WTF!  We turned the watermaker on to fill up Starboard that was at 1/8^th of a tank.  We didn’t want to make water while in Linton Bay as the water was murky and we were toward the back of the anchorage where the trash and debris flowed past us.  With the watermaker running, we should have made 20-30 gallons and yet the indicator showed empty, 0.  Not good.  Matt climbed back in the engine room only to find a bilge full of water.  The pressure from the watermaker caused a hose to pop off giving a new escape route for all of our freshly made water – into the bilge instead of into our tanks.  Matt replaced the hose, and we were back in business, but now it would take over 10 hours to fill just the starboard tank.

Later in the afternoon, I alerted Matt that the wind speed and direction stopped working.  Not again.  It would give us wind direction but no speed or speed and no wind direction or nothing at all.  Crap.  This is our new wind vang that we just put up a few weeks ago.  The data would come and go throughout the rest of the day, all we could do is carry on.  Seems like a day for breakdowns.

Luckily, fairly easy repairs – hopefully.

• Matt fixed the watermaker leak on the starboard tank with a new hose.
• Matt thinks the charging issue is a short or a fuse.
• Wind Vang not diagnosed yet, but I am sure Matt will figure it out!

While Matt was fixing things, I was at the helm most of the day fighting off the urge to get seasick.  We had an average of 33-35 knots of winds with gusts over 40, an average of 4 meter waves (12’) with some peaking 5+ meters (15’) at 5-6 second intervals.  It was a rough passage, but we made it to San Blas before dark.

Sailing Log to San Blas:

• Total Miles 49.2
• Average Speed 5.1 knots
• Max Speed: 9.4 knots (must have been a rogue wave)
• Total Moving Time: 9 hours, 39 minutes