After a quick stop at Charleston Harbor Marina to top off the diesel tanks and get outboard gas, we headed out of the channel into the Atlantic. We immediately were rewarded with a following wind of around 10 knots that allowed us to head South on our intended course under both sail and motor. The plan being to travel 5-10 miles off the coast until we got to Lake Worth, Florida and then make the crossing to the Abacos.
Well, after about an hour of this, we heard the sound of the diesel sputtering and then quitting completely. This was not a great start but we figured that it was likely clogged fuel filters due to the wave action on a boat that had sat for a while, stirring up sediment in the tanks. We determined that we would continue on and go on under sail and go into the next convenient port to confirm the issue if we could not fix it ourselves during the sail south.
The second shoe dropped about 30 minutes later as after we started testing the autopilot, the steering started to become erratic at the wheel and disconcerting sounds started coming from the binacle. We were able to steer but this was not a good sign. Sailing on with questionable steering would have been a big risk. With input from Steve and crew, I made the difficult decision to turn us around and head back to Charleston.
We spent the next few hours sailing back to the channel entrance to Charleston Harbor and then after making no progress in the channel as we attempted to enter the harbor under sail, the current and dying wind combined had us calling for a Boat US tow into the harbor.
Overall, a kind of disappointing first day, but we made the right decision to come back in.
