Update to Trial by Sail

Trial by Sail
Since I have posted on the blog we have been through a little bit of an ordeal. We left Zihuatanejo and headed north the 180 miles to Barra de Navidad we were stopped by the Mexican Navy. We have been boarded before and there has never been a problem and there wasn’t a problem with them this time but Jim stopped the engine while they were on board and after they were done when we tried to start the engine it would not start. The starter for the motor would not turn the engine over so we tried to sail the rest of the trip to Barra. With the wind mostly in our face causing us to tack back and forth into the wind we traveled about 250 miles to go the 150 miles to Barra without an engine. Needless to say we were tacking back and forth like a zig-zag. Sometimes we had no wind for half the day and other times we had strong 20+ knot winds and of course the wind was not going in the right direction. They say we could have called the Mexican Navy for help but we’re no wimps and our lives were not in danger too much. One night we had 18+ knot winds and the seas were about 4 feet and hitting us on the side-kind of like a washing machine-not fun. It took 4 days to get here when it should have taken a day and a half. We got very little sleep and when we finally got here last night it was a great relief. I have to say that the cruisers here in the bay were amazing. We had announced on the SSB /Ham radio during a cruiser’s net that we were having problems and the other cruisers like us were alerted of our situation up and down the Mexican Coast. When we came close to our anchorage in Santiago Bay the cruisers were waiting for us and came out to meet us. When we dropped the sails one boat towed us into the bay so we could drop the anchor in a safe location while others circled us in their dinghies to assist if needed. It was amazing. It sure makes us realize that these cruiser people are some of the best in the world. Today one of the other cruisers who is a mechanic came over and helped Jim get the new starter out and put the old one back in. As it turned out the new starter that we put in only four months ago was not an exact fit for the motor and was jammed into place making extremely difficult to remove while bouncing around out at sea. Also the new starter was defective as the lever that activates the bendix had sheared apart preventing the starter gears from properly aligning with the rears on the motor flywheel. Hopefully the flywheel on the motor was not damaged to badly. It is working great now with the old original starter and the starter is turning over the engine. Up until this incident people have asked us what has been our most scary event and we couldn’t come up with anything, now we have a story to tell. I think that we will stay here for awhile just to rest and enjoy this wonderful bay. There is a wreck that we can snorkel and of course we can swim to shore. All is well again in paradise.