The Sailing Adventures of Lea Scotia

Well we did it. Not the most fun six days of our lives, but it’s now over. Having departed last Saturday it took us a total of 120 hours to travel the 736 miles passage – four full and two partial days at sea. Boy am I glad that’s over with.

The journey was definitely a challenge full of adventures and problems to solve. Our first challenge was overcoming seasickness. Unfortunately just 3 hours out of Bahia Cholon in Colombia, Kiera and I were both getting sick. And it didn’t let up until the following morning. As I mentioned in the previous post, that was a rough night for all three of us. We can be thankful that the seas calmed down a bit and Kiera and I both found our sea legs.

Just as seasickness was abating, the wind and seas picked up again and wreaked havoc on the inside of the boat. A cabinet with a large mirror on it, one which we’ve always struggled to keep closed when on a starboard tack (wind coming across the right side of the boat making us heel over on the port side) came slamming open and shattered glass everywhere. Then shortly after that we realized we had sea water covering the port side of our aft stateroom. This meant that a leaky thru-hull, that we thought we had fixed once and for all in Panama, was once again leaking. This particular thru-hull has, in our opinion, a design flaw. It’s a drain hole for the aft deck locker (we have one on each side) so that rain water can drain out off the deck. It sits above the waterline by about 12 inches and only becomes a problem on a starboard tack. As the boat heels over the thru-hull is submerged. And of course, they didn’t bother to install a ball-valve, so we could, like, actually close the thru hull, because well, it’s not always above the waterline. Duh. This might be an upgrade that is put on our list when we get home.

So with at least three days ahead of us and the fact that we were a few hundred miles off the Central American coast we were a little concerned. We stuffed Play-Doh (it’s gotta be good for something) up the thru-hull from the outside (not easy) which worked for about an hour, making us realize a more permanent solution was in order. So we did the logical thing and stuffed more Play-Doh in and hoped to buy ourselves a little time. The worry was that we needed a LOT of time.

I’m sure you’re asking why we weren’t trying to plug the thru-hull from the inside. Good question. Well we had tried to do just that when it had leaked in the past and water managed to still get past the plug. Not to mention you have to try and get the new hose that Trevor only recently beautifully installed (double clamped, even using a heat gun and silicone) while standing on your head in lumpy seas. Additionally the thru-hull is in one of the hardest places on the boat to reach (isn’t that how it always is?) and the angle was hard to get a plug in to begin with. Good thing Trevor wasn’t seasick. While trying to figure out a solution, we took turns pumping out the leaky locker and cleaning up the salt water. Finally we decided to try plugging the thru-hull from the outside of the boat with a wooden plug. After a little modification with a Leatherman saw (hey, it was handy) – Voila! It appeared to be working. We both assumed the plug would get knocked out by the water rushing by at over 8 knots at some point, but at least for now we were no longer technically sinking. And it was getting dark. Whew!

Just a couple hours into our journey we were able to turn off the engine and enjoyed 60 hours of beautiful Caribbean sailing. We had to run the generator a few times just to keep up with the power hungry autopilot, radar and nav computer but we mostly had a fantastic sail. And fast! So early Tuesday morning, before the sun rose, the wind finally shifted to our stern quarter and dropped to about 10 knots which wasn’t enough to keep the sails happy and the rocking seas from rolling us around like a cork. Time to run the iron genny again. You can imagine that we were a bit bummed to find our next “situation”: the alternator had stopped working. No alternator, no charge in the batteries. There’s nothing worse than having to run BOTH the engine and the generator simultaneously. Plus we had to be aware of our fuel consumption in order to make the mileage to actually get there. Trevor, who’s quite the Mr. fix-it these days (you have to be on a cruise like this; you eventually find your inner Mr. Goodwrench) figured it out in a couple hours time. Back on track, for now.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in a groove. The seas were relatively calm and I was actually able to go below and cook. Crazy! And it seemed that things breaking, crashing and leaking were on hiatus. Now we were able to enjoy the 360 degree view of the vibrant, turquoise blue ocean. The water color was amazing! And the stars at night…brilliant.

But just as were getting cocky and not stowing everything properly again, the wind and sea decided to mess with us early this morning, just after 1am. Our last 7 hours at sea were really rough, rolly and wet. About two hours before dawn our boom vang broke, again. This time is was the actual fancy, heavy duty Lewmar block and tackle that broke. It was only blowing 18-22! Trevor jury rigged something to work in the meantime. Just to bookend things nicely, the seas got rough enough to afford me the pleasure of getting sick again. I think those pregnancy hormones are really messing with my sea legs.

So here we sit, Thursday, February 11th, safely anchored in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. We pulled in a little after 9am with our odd looking wooden plug sticking out our stern quarter. Now we just need to figure out where the port captain is and get ourselves checked into the country. I think a good night’s sleep is in order tonight.

kjm

16 26.43 N
85 53.39 W

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