Green Turtle Cay to Exumas Sail Thwarted

Why Resilience and Humility are Needed Onboard

I returned to Endurance in Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas after a long hiatus for the Christmas Holidays to visit my kids and beautiful grandaughter, Rowan, and help Emma recover from Covid, late January. The plan was to head south however ‘escaping’ Green Turtle Cay is not quite as simple as it may seem. In order to go south, you either attempt to cut across a stretch of shifting sand and shallows with one stretch about 100 feet off of clearly visible rocks. The other option is to go through the Whale Cut, aka ‘The Rage’, to go from the Sea of Abaco into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s called ‘The Rage’ as massive volumes of water go in and out of this shallow, narrow cut based on the tides. Storms thousands of miles away in the North Atlantic can send large ‘rollers’ to this cut creating large breaking waves which make the pass far too dangerous to attempt unless the conditions are just right. The winds preferably are light and from the south with either an ebb tide (water going out to sea) or slack tide (the brief period of time when the tides shift creating virtually no current at all).

Whale Cut on a calm day

After waiting for over a week we finally got a good weather window to make it through the cut. Even though it appeared to be a perfect day there were a few moments when I had to remind myself to breathe as the depth dropped and the swells climbed to 6 feet. Once through the cut the water color turns back to the bright cobalt blue of the North Atlantic ocean and I begin to relax.

It’s now early afternoon as we made our turn east along Great Guana Cay. We rolled out the main sail and motor sailed with the wind 20 degrees off the starboard bow. It was a bright, sunny afternoon so I didn’t notice the drop in voltage with the house batteries until the sun began going down (Endurance has 3 large solar panels over the cockpit). Given that we still had the engine on this was NOT supposed to be happening, i.e. the engine alternator should have been keeping the batteries ‘topped off’. By sundown, we were turning south and heading offshore with the voltage cotinuing to drop. It became clear that we may not have enough power to keep all of the navigation equipment and running lights on for the duration of the over night trip south. We immediately began shutting down non-essential systems and gathering portable, backup emergency lights and batteries. I decided to call for help as the prospect of losing our navigation systems and lights as we head offshore did not sound like a good idea.

We were fortunate to make contact with the Man O War fire department on Elbow Cay who sent someone out to guide us through yet another cut (South Man O War) back into the Sea of Abaco. The charts showed a narrow channel with coral reefs on either side. One of the ‘golden rules’ of offshore sailing is to never attempt passing through a narrow cut without extensive experience and/or local knowledge and definitely not at night! I had neither and was concerned that the electronics could die leaving us navigating blind. Fortunately, we were able to stay close behind our escort. In a way, I was thankful to not be able to see the rocks on the shore as we motored slowly through the cut - at low tide. I could hear the waves breaking close by but couldn’t see them and simply had to trust that our guide would keep us off the coral and rocks.

Once through the cut and back into the Sea of Abaco we had another 90 mins of motoring to reach the marina which agreed to let us come in after hours. We thanked our escort and released him as it looked like we had enough power to make it to the marina. We motored slowly running on instruments only in relatively shallow waters. The visibility was virtually zero. When we finally saw the lights of the marina entrance I began to relax but not completely. We still had to make our way into the marina and secure Endurance to the dock. Thankfully we got in just before the restaurant closed allowing us to have a few hard-earned beers and a burger!

I was grateful to have Capt. Alison on board who agreed to leave her boat in Georgetown and help me with the 36-hour offshore passage. She kept calm, helped discuss options, drive the boat while I attempted to trouble shoot the problem, and get us safely tied to the dock. Thanks, Alison!

I was unable to find the source of the problem so asked a technician to help trouble shoot the alternator. He found a loose connection which I’d missed which proved to be a quick fix. That’s the humbling part. Despite doing lots of reading about alternators I missed a relatively simple fix which I may have been able to do offshore. I still have a LOT to learn!

Our little side trip meant I lost our weather window and crew as she needed to get back to her boat. While disappointing I suppose there are worse places to be ‘stuck’ than the Abaco Beach Resort and Marina.

I then decided to move to Marsh Harbour to a little less luxurious (and expensive) marina stopping for one or two nights at anchor to be sure the power situation was resolved. I left at high tide dodging a few squalls along the way and arrived in Marsh Harbour under a beautiful sunny sky. I found a perfect spot to ‘drop the hook’ and went forward to deploy the anchor. The windlass (motor used to drop the 65 lb anchor and chain) didn’t budge. Great! I hustled back to check the circuit breaker, all good, so I knew power was getting to the motor. I could hear the switch clicking but no movement. As I drifted slowly toward shore (thankfully the winds were light) I decided it was time to go directly to the marina. Once securely tied up I started trouble shooting my windlass issue. Long story short I got it working again using one of my most trusty tools - a hammer. The brushes in the electric motor were ‘stuck’. Gently hammering the motor broke them free and the windlass now works fine, for now. I’ve ordered another electric motor to insure consistent operation proving once again that the definition of a BOAT is ‘break out another thousand’.

February marks the one year anniversary of another, and substantially more challenging, problem to overcome. In January, 2021 my routine cardiology check up turned out to be not so routine. I was told that I was on ‘borrowed time’ and needed my aortic valve replaced asap. I was ordered to minimize all activity until they could perform open heart surgery. It’s hard to believe that it’s been exactly one year since that surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. Dr. Landolfo and the amazing team at the Mayo Clinic essentially saved my life. Since then and with the help of great crew, friends, and a loving and supportive wife I’ve managed to sail roughly 1500 ocean miles.

This is what I looked like as they wheeled me into the ICU from the Operating Room. Not a pretty picture. The scars have mostly healed and with the help of physical therapy my strength has returned to pre-surgery levels allowing me to once again climb around Endurance like a monkey.

This is where resilience enters the picture. Resilience is defined as the ability to recover quickly from difficulties. Quickly is of course a relative term! I’d add that part of being resilient is not dwelling on mistakes or oversights, picking yourself up, and moving on. It’s about staying calm when things don’t go well analyzing to the best of your ability the cause (or causes) of problems and developing options to deal with them. It’s about being open to seemingly incongrous solutions evaluating options from everything and everyone around you as sources of ideas, inspiration, and hope. And finally and perhaps most important, it’s about forgiving yourself when you make mistakes seeing them instead as an opportunity to learn and grow.

And that’s part of why I love offshore sailing. Cuts and bruises heal. Lessons learned in the process are priceless and result in experiencing distant shores, meeting new people, and lead you to have a much deeper appreciation for the simple beauties God’s given us…..like this sunset.

As Freidrich Nietzsche said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger”.