Passage to the Cayman Islands

The distance was to be about 315 NM.  With the usual easterly trade winds it should take 4 days or so?... The first day was uneventful with lighter wind and speed than ideal.  At least we were making progress even if only 2 knots at times.  As I write here we are beginning the second night of our passage to the Cayman Islands.  We are only a third of the way there.  We motored during our second day about 4 hours for lack of wind but we really don't want to stress our engine despite it's apparent repairs.  For example I'm about to sleep now to rest for my 12 am to 4 am shift.  We are moving slowly with a 5 or 6 knot wind at less than 2 knots with some of that likely from the easterly current here.  It's supposed to be 5 knot max wind all night.  

Time to sleep..zzzzz

It's the beginning of our 3rd day.  February 6th... I began the midnight to 4 am shift finding out we were basically drifting in a current heading SSW.  The speed was at times 2.2 knots but usually just over 1 knot.  The light breeze did occasionally fill the main but we'd rolled the genoa in for lack of wind.  During the 3 shifts we actually gained 8 miles closer to our destination thanks to the amount of westing we had.  Of course we haddrifted an actual 15 miles or more but it was mostly south.   I wondered why we had not motored last night and found out that Walter suspects a leaking or blown head gasket as the engine oil level is twice of what it should be as in the coolant leaking into the crankcase?  I was hopeful the engine problems were over but no such luck.  Later I believe he will attempt to suck out the coolant water which should be under the oil to reaffirm his suspicion.  At any rate again we are at the mercy of the wind not wanting to use the engine beyond anchoring.  The wind has improved this morning and we are getting a bit over 3 knots.  And it's allowing us to head right for the Cayman Islands for the first time.  At our current speed we would arrive in 2 days and 4 hours or 52 hours.  Timewise we are not yet halfway?? We were hoping for the 15 to 20 knot typical trade winds ??? (I guess we wanted 10 to 15).. Hahaha.. We are looking at at least 2 more nights assuming the wind doesn't drop off again. 

Update later at 4 pm february 6th..

Walter was perplexed when what was sucked out of the bottom of the crankcase was not water/coolant but just oil?  Though it seemed kind of thin I thought and he seems to be leaning toward the possibility of a cylinder lacking compression, possibly not firing and passing diesel fuel into the engine oil?  Better than a head gasket failure it would seem but I'm no machanic.  It still means minimal engine use I believe and sucking out the extra fuel deluted oil after any engine use.  

At about 4 pm, February 6th, we officially passed the halfway mark distance wise anyway... Despite our 4 hours of motoring at over 7 knots yesterday the bulk of our sailing has been averaging under 3 knots so if the winds pick up the next couple days we might be halfway time wise as well?  Time will tell as it's dropped off now to 5 or 6 knots and our speed is under 2 knots currently. 

Ok it's mid morning of February 7... Last night after the day of light but ok winds we as usual hoped for a better night of wind than the previous one.. The wind began to increase I suppose 2 hours or so from the start of my midnight shift.  I was summoned on deck about 11 to help roll in some of the genoa which is done by hand no dedicated winch... Ouch it was hard.  Once reduced the boat had bad weather helm and wanted to head north of our course.  Obviously again we needed to reef the main but we've learned in the past it's no easy task with wind on the sail. We furled in the rest of the genoa and fired up the engine but could not get it on auto pilot staying into the wind. We made an effort with wind in the sail but it proved futile.  Winds were 17 to 22 at the time.. It would have been good sailing with reefed main and partial genoa or the jib but all we could do was try to reduce stress and head north with our leeway making our course NW toward the little Cayman Islands which are still quite a ways from the Grand Cayman Island.  At one point it began to rain so we went in and let her run north at about 2.2 knots when a reefed main would have likely allowed us 5 knots right on course to our destination.  On our first day we chose to keep the main at the first big reefing point and used the missen.  Light winds caused us to raise the main almost all the way up..  It is now obvious we should have been content with slower speeds the entire way just to be safer concerning the apparent inability to reef or even drop the main once the winds blowing over 15 knots or so.  Its now 10 am... The start of the 4th day which begins at 8:30 am, the time we set out on february 4th. I guess gust are occasionally reaching 30 knots.. We are heading east of the Little Caymans about 8 miles off.  Waiting for the wind to die down so we can begin sailing on our intended course again. It's close to 12 hours now from when the winds began to pick up.  Now if this doesn't sound like fun... Add to this we have no current marine forecast and we set out using Grib files downloaded at the hotel on Monday the 2nd.  Those ended at 2 am this morning and winds were only to be 15 knots from NNE?? 

I see 2 important lessons in this,  both of which are common knowledge and previously known to me.., One is always make sure you can drop and reef your main no matter what the conditions!  Two... have a way or even 2 ways to get a current, up to date marine forecast no matter where you are..  That's the latest.

It's now 1 pm and we are just beyond the Little Caymans.  We are just under 114 NM from our destination and it was about 133 NM when we were trying to reef the main unsuccessfully.  The wind is the same though I never saw it gust over 24 knots while I watched a while.

Now it's dark and we are going to try keeping watch shifts which kind of didn't happen for 5 hours or so last night?  I set a course line now to the northwest corner of the Cayman Island.  Our original course was to be along the south side and where we anchor is closer to the southwest corner but we've been forced to sail so northerly we will be approaching it from the north once the wind allows it.  We are 101 NM from the NW corner then it's another 5 or 6 south to where we anchor out from George Town... Not to be confused with the one in the Bahamas.

After another night of the boat heading NW about 2.2 knots in some of the strongest winds yet 25 to 30 knots it finally was morning.  We were less than 90 miles to the NW corner of the main Cayman Island.  The winds were now down to the usual 17 to 22 knots with occasional gusts to 24.  Walter decided it was time to try hauling down the main using the long extendable boat hook pole.  First we decided to tack using the engine and were now heading south back toward Little Cayman Island.  It worked to haul the sail down to the desired reef point.   With the tack of the reef now secured we used long pieces of webbing to try and pull the extra sail down so we might eventuay reach the clew of our reef.  Walter actually went up in the sail on the windward side to pass a line through the clew reef point.  We used a small block and tackle and hauled the reef clew down and out. We bundled up more bunched sail and rigged another line with one other extra block down to the mast.  Finally after almost 36 hours since the strong wind had us hoelessly sailing slowly about 50 degrees north of our desired course we are able to balance the genoa to the reefed main and sail toward our destination.  Also the winds are down now to 15 to 18 knots.  If we keep our current speed... a bit over 4 knots we will arrive sometime tomorrow morning.  We were getting about 5 before the wind dropped off.  It's still rough but we are at a much preferred angle to the waves and it's improving with the lower winds.  We have agreed to keep the main reefed all the way to Rio Dulce, once we leave Cayman Islands after a couple days rest and repair.  We had a couple luff slides blow out on the main... But that's like a safety relief valve in the situation we subjected the mainsail too.  Better than a ripped sail or damage to standing rigging.  Happy times! 

It's another relaxing slow sailing night.  After we managed to reef the main the winds slowly deminished. We are now sailing only 2 to 3 knots and the winds are 8 to 12 knots.  Depending on the speed of the wind we will arrive sometime during the day I think... Hopefully we can sail faster and reach Grand Cayman Island before dark.  3 knots average would do it.

It's just passed 3 am February 9th.  So much for averaging 3 knots.  We've been floundering in light winds and going so slow it doesn't register speed on Navionics.  It sounds like we may do a bit of motoring once my shift ends at 4 am? And it's raining.  

And the night was calm with little teasing winds that than dropped off.  We basically didn't sail we drifted.  I though we might have motored.. Well as the morning continued to be windless we did begin to motor and did so the remaking 36 miles or so.. The wind of course did begin to blow as we were nearing our destination of the Vayman Island Customs Dock in George Town.. It was tense as the wind and waves seemed to continue having there way with us.  We were lucky to get cleared in and out of the custom's dock area with out boat damage .. Severe boat damage was just a whisker away.  4 miles around the south side and just before sunset the snagging of the mooring buoy was also way more challenging than you hope for.  We were told to moor here by the port security people at customs as a couple days of strong NW wind are forecast..  I should be able to upload this tomorrow but it's on my iPhone so I don't have any photos.  

I wish that wind would hurry and swing NW as it's crazy bouncy right now...and raining.

It's morning now and due to that NW wind a cruise ship is anchored nearby with tenders taking the passengers to shore and buses the 5 miles to George Town.  Another cruise ship is also coming in to anchor.