Dec 7 – The wind starting coming back down early in the pre-dawn hours and as the sun came up, we were all exhausted but we had survived. Sam was probably in the worst shape of all of us due to his sea sickness and inability to keep any food down. The sun coming up became warm in short order and spirits rose and to boost our hopes even more, Steve was able to re-seal our temporary fix to the steering reservoir so we were holding pressure without having to pump up the sytem further. Yay Steve!
As the morning progressed, the wind dropped to 5 knots and we were no longer able to make significant progress so we started the diesel again and kept moving south. Our plan now was to get to an inlet between Daytona Beach and Fort Pierce so we could stop and see about getting a longer term fix on the steering. We continued to motor sail south along the coast and enjoyed a fairly nice day with comfortable temperatures and sea state.
With encouragement from everyone, I put out the hand line for the first test and we all starting dreaming of fresh fish (except Sam of course). Well as the day wore on, we were contemplating how our schedule looked with the weather forecast and we figured that even with our delay, we could make the Bahamas still and have a few days to enjoy it although Michael’s schedule was getting tight meaning he might have to jump off early as his flight was scheduled for the 11th.
The engine died again. No problem, we knew what the issue was and had plenty of fuel filters. We had enough wind to make about 4.5 knots so after the engine room cooled down a bit, I went below to start the process of changing filter and bleeding system. I popped my head up after I got the filter changed and we had a fish on! It was not much of a fight as it had probably dragged behind the boat for a little while but when we got it on board, we had our first fish of the trip. It was a 3-4 lb Little Tunny tuna. I put off the fuel system work and focused on creating a fresh fish treat. I divided the tuna up and we shared a couple of plates that included tuna sashimi, tuna poke and seared tuna and we enjoyed with a celebratory beer. Sam had considered trying it, but his stomach was in control of his diet and so the other 3 of us devoured it.
I was able to get the motor started after resuming my work and we continued to motor sail through the day as the wind had dropped off again. We also caught another little tuna that went into the fridge.
Our current schedule was now to head in at St Mary’s inlet and spend a night in Ferdinando The rest of the evening was actually pleasant as we took turns driving with 3-4 hour shifts of 2 people at a time and were able to keep going all night.