Pushing Northward

May 28th-Current Island, Eleuthra
With all the inclement weather we have been experiencing of late we decided a change of plan was in order. We have wanted to make our return trip take us thru the Berries then across to Bimini but this weather has us returning to Fl by our usual route. An early start has us motorsailing north thru the 40 miles of shallow coral studded waters to Current Island. This is best done in good light and calm seas to make it easier to dodge the coral heads that abound. Caught 2 big Barracuda that we released but no keepers. As we approach Fleming Channel the engine overheat alarm sounds and Chris takes the helm under sail only while I find the problem. A clogged cooling water filter solved the problem for a while but also found intake thru hull partially clogged with weeds after overheating a couple more times. Spent a quiet night at anchor off of Current settlement.

May 29th-Royal Island
Sail north to Spanish Wells for fuel and a few fresh Veggies the on to Royal Island to be ready to head north across the Providence Channel at first light.

May 30th- on to Abacoe-Lynyard Cay

Off at 6:30 to cross the 55 miles of open ocean to Little Harbor cut. No wind has us motoring and right away the engine overheats. After many tries messing around replacing the water pump and checking water flow thru the system finally found some blockage in intake thru-hull that must have been reducing water flow enough to only cause problems at higher engine loads. Would run fine at speeds under 5 kts but I wanted to keep up our speed for this long crossing to enter the reef in daylight. The highlight of the trip was hooking a huge Dolphin(Mahi) on and foughting it for quite a few jumps before it broke my line after stripping nearly all the line off the reel. Even after our engine problems we were still anchored by 5:30 for a quiet night.