CaribbeanCruisingSt Kitts & NevisWorking on the boat

Mission Impossible – Stranded in the middle of the sea!

By June 22, 2017 No Comments
Melek saves the day
Is that rain coming at Nevis

Is that rain coming at Nevis?

Shane wrote about our engine problem that stopped working half way to Barbuda during our Antigua blogs. Well this time as we while we were in Nevis and motoring towards dock in Charlestown our dinghy engine stopped working! Shane tried a couple of times to get it working but it just wouldn’t work. So, there we were left in the middle of the sea, not close to the shore, or to the boat, or the harbor. [Shane – we were about a quarter mile from each] It was pretty hot and he was trying to get it working, but it wouldn’t work. As we could smell gas, I was having funny suggestions trying to identify the problem which seemed like they were making him more furious. [Shane – she said that the engine was flooded, so we needed to take the cover off so it could get some air, haha]

Bath Hotel 1778 on Nevis

One of the things we saw after fixing the dinghy was Bath Hotel 1778

I was singing and paddling trying to keep us at least towards the land as the wind was pushing us away. [Shane – here I am trying to fix the situation and she is over there with a paddle singing….I was not sure if it was irritating or adorable ????] Shane started saying some not nice words to the engine and that was the first time I have seen him that angry. I guess it could be due to having another engine problem in 2 weeks. I was sure he would find a way to get us to the shore but we spent around half an hour trying the get the engine work. [Shane – it was more like 10 minutes ????] As I was going on about smelling gas and it should be about that he opened the cover off the engine and found out that the gas filter was broken. [Shane – as soon as the cover was off I noticed the internal fuel filter was almost empty and it turns out the housing was cracked]

Hamilton House on Nevis

We also saw that Alexander Hamilton was born in this house on Nevis

I was impressed with his clever solution as I was sure we were gonna look for a mechanic again and our day was going to be spoiled. [Shane – I did not figure we would find a dealer with Tohatsu parts in stock, so I cut off one of the nipples on the useless filter housing and stuck a hose on each end with a clamp. This basically took the filter out of the equation. Not perfect, but since I had an external fuel filter already in place it will work until I can have a part shipped to St Thomas]

As we had arrived to land safely, we started our tour to the Bath Hotel, Nelson Museum, and Botanic Garden, which we’ll be telling you about tomorrow.

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