So . . . with one engine working with our rigged fuel supply, we started motoring. Luckily, the wind picked up about two hours later. We have been sailing ever since at various rates of speed, often quite fast.

Let’s talk about our route. We had originally planned to go by Socotra (with a possible stopover) on our way to Djibouti. But with two engines not working properly, we were advised to sail to Oman instead. They apparently have competent mechanics who should be able to fix what ails. So that is what we are doing. We *need* two fully working engines to get to Djibouti and up the Red Sea. We don’t know how long we will be in Oman.

We have followed the same night watch schedule the entire trip. Michael takes the helm from 9-12 p.m. I am on duty from midnight to 3 a.m. Jason takes the 3-6 a.m. watch. We are each happy with our schedule. I am concerned about the watch schedule when there will only be two of us. Sleeping is my favorite pastime. . .

We caught another tuna two nights ago. 🙂 We got it on board just as the sun was setting. That was last night’s dinner.

Speaking of dinner, the only “real meal” we eat together is dinner, which typically occurs at about 5:30 p.m. We have had all sorts of stuff: chicken, pulled pork, tuna (five meals so far), pork chops, pasta, veggies (fresh and frozen), fruit (fresh and canned) cheesecake, yummy bread, hamburgers (tonight). We also brought a lot of snacks. Not many of those left. Jason has been making some yummy food for breakfast that he and Michael usually eat before I wake up. I wouldn’t be hungry at the time they eat, even if I were awake. 🙂 In sum, we are eating well and not going hungry.

You are now up to date on our passage, which has had more issues than we ever could have predicted, is taking us to an unplanned location, and will take longer than expected. But all is well. Speaking for myself, I have learned *a lot* over the past several days. I am happy about that.

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When we last left you (which was actually a few days ago – they all run together, so maybe three days ago?), we had no working engines, little wind, a current going in the “wrong” direction, and my hair was so dirty it pretty much stuck to my head. (If you haven’t figured it out yet, I – Cindy – update our blog.)

Michael and Jason did all of the thinking and I did what they told me to do in our attempts to troubleshoot and hopefully fix the engines. As electricians, they are able to fix just about any electrical problem. The problem wasn’t electrical. They determined that. Neither are mechanics or diesel engine experts, but their work has forced them to use mechanical skills as well. In short, we could hardly have been in better hands. They just kept trying different things to isolate the problem.

The problem with the port engine = still unknown. It is thought to be the fuel/water separator. We tried various things on that engine to no avail (including checking the filter from the diesel tank, bypassing the fuel/water separator and feeding diesel directly to the engine, and trying to prime it manually with MANY hand pumps – about 400 by yours truly).

The problem with the starboard engine was that it was not getting fuel. When we placed the fuel line from the motor directly into a jerry can filled with diesel, it worked. Voila!

But, the issue now was that the fuel that wasn’t being used by the engine was being returned to the fuel tank, the very same tank from which the engine was not getting fuel (yes, we had already checked the filter). So, the next step was to drill a second hole in the jerry can cap and put the return fuel line into the jerry can as well.

So, now we had one functioning engine. We still strongly preferred wind because we wouldn’t have to fuss with replacing the jerry can in the engine compartment if we could sail.

Thankfully, the wind picked up.

Here are the highlights of the past few days:

1. Port engine stopped working
2. Starboard engine stopped working
3. Light winds
4. Unfriendly currents
5. I washed my hair (that actually happened this morning)

Okay, here are some details.

Both engines worked when we left the Seychelles. We tried to start the port engine several days into the passage and nothing happened. It attempted to start but never turned over. Not good, but we still had the starboard engine. Plus, we had crossed the Atlantic ocean on another boat with only one working engine (and monohulls only have one engine), so we didn’t worry too much.

But then the starboard engine started having rpm issues. It got progressively worse over a period of two or three days (we cannot recall). First, the rpms would slow down then recover on their own. The next step was that we needed to slow the rpms to keep the engine running. Then it would die even if we reduced the rpms. It gradually got worse, until it wouldn’t run for more than a few minutes.

So now we had no engines, an unfriendly current, and next to no wind. We were still more than 300 nm from Socotra, our first waypoint.

In addition to the problems with the motors, we mentioned before that we sailed far off course in an attempt to avoid a southbound current (we are going north). We never never seemed to avoid the current (?), so we only made about three knots speed over ground (SOG) *even when the starboard engine was still running*.

So, here we were farther east than we had intended to be when we started the journey, no motors, yucky current, and light wind.

More in the next post . . .

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Approximately 5:00 p.m. Seychelles time (UTC +4).

Vegan friends, you might want to skip this post (at least the first three paragraphs). And perhaps ignore the pictures.

We caught a fish! I was sitting at the helm two days ago and heard the fishing line move on the reel. I yelled, “fish!” and Jason grabbed the rod. After reeling in the fish for about five minutes (?) we had a yellowfin tuna on the boat. That was our main course that night and will be again tonight.

We couldn’t find a gaff with a handle in the Seychelles, so we duck-taped a hook to our boat hook. Looks kind of silly but it does the trick.

We caught another fish today, but we accidentally released it. It looked like a bluefin tuna.

The line is back in the water.

Other than fish tales, we have a short bird tale. One lone bird was flying around and around and around the boat and it eventually landed a couple of different places on the boat, presumably to rest. It was having a difficult time balancing though (we rock a lot), so it flew off pretty quickly.

Back to a fish tale that even a vegan can read: we have seen schools of flying fish . . . flying. It looks very odd.

The trip continues to be enjoyable, with a bit of boredom thrown in. The generator didn’t start last night, which was not at all cool, but we made it through the night on the existing battery power by turning off everything except the navigation instruments and auto pilot. There is clearly something wonky, but it started this morning and again this afternoon (but only after running the starboard engine for many minutes the second time).

The lazy jacks on our port side became extremely loose. We hadn’t planned to hoist the mainsail so it wasn’t an issue. It was finally calm enough to check it out today. We discovered that the cleat to which the line had been affixed was broken. We tied the line elsewhere on the mast and now we can raise and lower the mainsail when needed.

We succumed to motoring about two hours ago. The wind dropped and we need to move in a northeasterly (actually an *easterly* direction, but we want to make some progress toward our goal as well, so NE) direction to avoid a current that is flowing the “wrong” way right at us. We want to get out of its way. Hope to be sailing again sometime this evening. Sadly, we are going way out of our way to do this.

That is probably enough for today. For our non-sailor friends, you might have a few terms to look up. Enjoy!
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It is Sept. 16 at about 9:00 a.m. Seychelles time (we think we are still UTC +4).
For those of you who have been following our position on seahike.com, you know that we have been underway since about 2:30 p.m. on the 14th.

We had a fair amount of rain and squall activity the first night, which made for bad sleeping and comfort conditions. Well, I (Cindy) slept like a baby, but I always do, so that might not count. We think the seas were about four meters the first night. They were predicted to be 2.2 meters at seven second intervals yesterday, which is probably about right.

The first 24-hour period we measured, we sailed 133 nautical miles (nm). We have reached the point where the winds will be a bit lighter (10-15 kts) for a couple of days.
We have been sailing to the wind, so our track to the east side of Socotra, our first waypoint, is not straight. All by design. 🙂

As for sailing conditions thus far, the boat is a rockin’ and a rollin’ and one needs to hold on tight when walking. We even have to secure items as we would on a monohull so they don’t end up on the floor in the saloon and galley.

We finally mounted the radar to the mast the day we left. Spike, the skipper on the boat next to us, helped out quite a bit. Jason mounted the bracket, which was probably the hardest part.

I went to the top of the mast to check things out and take pictures of the current state. I also helped to run a pull string through the mast at the level of the spreaders to facilitate pulling cables through the mast in the future.

Michael went to town to buy a fishing rod on the 14th. Cost 4,800 rupees. The three of us combined efforts to load the fishing line onto the reel yesterday. Jason has been in charge of fishing. We will let you know when he catches something. (See the “when” not “if” – positive thinking.)

Speaking of fish, we’ve found six or seven flying fish on our boat. I guess they want to join us.

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Cindy had an opportunity (poor Michael had to meet a guy who was working on the boat) to see a few of the other islands in the Seychelles. Here are a few pictures.

We have been encouraging our friends and family members to follow our blog, but they patiently (?) reminded us that there is no current content. We are about to recify that.

We have a boat! Her name is Seahike. She is a 2016 Leopard 40 catamaran. We bought her in the Seychelles, where she had just come out of charter. We’ve sailed on this model before and knew that we liked it and could easily manage it between the two of us.

So, here we are in the Seychelles. We initially came out in late May to see the boat, be here for the survey and take her out for a sea trial. We’ve been here this time since September 1. We’d hoped to leave for our next destination tomorrow but we have a few more boat repairs that need to be completed, we need to install the radar, and we still need to obtain clearance from the Seychelles government.

Our friend, Jason Kuhlman, will arrive later today and will be joining us on our first passage. More on that later, but suffice it to say that our initial destination is the Med.

So now you are up to date on our current situation. We plan to submit several posts talking about how we got to this point. Watch for those to drizzle in as we find signal.

We arrived at the marina on a Thursday. Arriving at a marina is always a happy day, no matter the day, month, or hour. In this case, we were embarking on a four-day sail.

We (Michael’s daughter and fiance, and Michael’s sister and her long-time friend) had an adult beverage, put our supplies on the boat, and ate dinner at the marina. We then played Cards Against Humanity and drank some more adult beverages before retiring on 37′ Clear Air.

The last time Michael and I sailed alone together was on a 23’ Hunter on the St. Croix River in 2015. Since then, we’ve been sailing with groups as crew or as captain (Michael) and admiral (me). We love sailing with others, but we were nearing the end of the 2018 sailing season with no further sailing plans. (Recall that we do not own a boat at this time.) I suggested that the two of us sail for a weekend on the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior.

Michael & Cindy with 2014 “Bliss” 34′ Jeanneau Sailboat

If you’ve been reading our blog, you know that Michael and I have nearly identical sailing experience and training. Early on, we agreed that he would take the role of captain so that we could charter bigger and bigger boats. Having done that for the past three years (and achieving our goal of chartering the types of boats we want to sail in the places we want to go), we agreed that it was my turn. Continue reading →

Our most recent adventure in the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior, consisted of sailing with three Katies (plus me, Cindy, made four) and their partners. For those who don’t know, a “Katie” is an individual who works at St. Catherine University (St. Kate’s), or is a current for former student of the same.

Six of the eight of us boarded Chat Eau, a 2010 Lagoon 380 catamaran, Thursday night. We chartered Chat Eau from Superior Charters, Bayfield, Wisconsin. (This was the second time Michael and I had sailed Chat Eau. We sailed in September 2015 with two fabulous women.) The other two crew members were scheduled to join us the next morning.

2010 Lagoon 380 “Chat Eau”

Toward the end of our first happy hour on the boat, it was clear that more hard liquor was required. We texted Greg and Claire (the two set to join us Friday morning), asking if they could bring a big bottle of rum with them. They informed us that the liquor stores were already closed. We were therefore quite surprised when they arrived at 8:00 a.m. with a bottle of rum. Apparently it is possible to purchase rum at 7:15 a.m. in Wisconsin. Remember that. Continue reading →