This was not my first visit to Bermuda. I had sailed here on my own from Cuba via The Bahamas in May of 2017, on my previous boat, Arctic Smoke. Things don't seem to have changed much since then, except that as everywhere over the last few years, inflation had struck. My yardstick - a loaf of standard supermarket - which to my horror - cost $6 in 2017 - now cost $7!
St George's is a place to chill out and relax in, albeit that on a limited budget one has to be careful not to relax the purse strings too much.
This visit was made particularly enjoyable by meeting up again, first, with Jan and Elli on Titti4 and then, the day after they left for Lunnenberg, Nova Scotia, with Gary on Symphony, his gorgeous Hans Christianson.
Before Jan and Elli left for Lunnenberg, the three of us took an excursion; out to island's principal town of Hamilton by bus and from there by ferry to the historic naval dock yard, before returning to Hamilton by bus and then back to Saint George's on another bus. I then spent an enjoyable few days hanging out, both with Jan and Elli and with Rob, whilst we all also tackled our inevitable 'to-do' lists in preparation for the next stage of our planned journeys. In Rob's case that was to the Azores, while for Jan & Elli and I, it's Nova Scotia.
Top of my list of boat jobs, was of course, the engine. As the saying goes.. "every cloud has a silver lining". In this case, the cloud was Rob's broken rib (which forced him to divert to Saint George's) and the silver lining was Rob himself. As soon as I told him about my engine woes, he volunteered to help sort things out. In no time at all he was up to his neck in Bonny's rather odd fuel system - a state of affairs, about which, up to this point, I had been completely oblivious about.
Having, previously 'chatted' on WhatsApp with 'Trimaran Laura', whom Mick and I had met in Bequia, and who was experiencing similar engine issues, and with Mick, I was pretty sure the problem was air in the fuel system. The question, was of course, how was air getting in? Rob tracked down two plausible sources. The fuel pump bleed mechanism had seized up which may have prevented an airtight joint from being made and the rubber gaskets that seal the primary fuel filter in its housing, had lost their elacticity, may therefore, provide a gap through which air was being sucked in. A possibility made even more likely by the fact that an electronic fuel pump had been added AFTER the primary filter, which therefore sucked, rather than pushed fuel through the filter. Air could therefore also be sucked in at the same time!
Another possible problem was that the standard, (but suspect) lift pump, which, despite the electronic pump having being fitted by previous owners, was still part of the fuel supply line, might be causing a partial barrier to the supply of fuel.
So with me acting as the mechanic's assistant, Rob got to work; he freed off the seized bleed screw, replaced the primary filter and all its rubber gaskets, replaced the secondary filter and by-passed the lift pump and bled the air out of fuel lines.
With crossed fingers I then pressed the starter button; the engine started immediately, just as it use to. I then ran for an hour and a half without it faltering.
Job successfully completed thanks to Rob. The next day he resumed his passage to the Azores. I was one very fortunate sailor.
By complete coincidence, Gary on board Symphony had been experiencing very similar problems with his engine. I had hoped that my recent experience in assisting Rob to fix my engine would help the two of us fix Gary's, but so far (30/5), after two days of tinkering and with advice from a professional mechanic over the phone, his engine has refused to return to life. It's beginning to look more and more like his fuel injector pump may be the problem and if so thats going to be an expensive and time consuming job to get completed and will probably force Symphony to stay put in Bermuda for the next couple of months. Quite apart from wrecking his cruising plans, there's the risk of Hurricanes to contend with!
But what of my own plans? Following Mick's forced departure in Saint Martin, I was hopeful that my American pal Tom, would be able to join me for the passage to Nova Scotia, but unfortunately he can't make it due to work commitments. That's left me needing to choose between going alone with a good weather window or waiting for my son son Vince to join me in early June and then go as soon as possible, providing no really nasty weather is in the offing.
The down side to the latter option is that Vince would have to cancel his planned summer holiday, cruising Nova Scotia with me in August. I'm very lucky that his employer is flexible enough to give him the option.
So, over the few days leading up to their departure on Monday (27/5) Jan and I had been watching the weather closely hoping that a good weather window would open up for the 750 mile or so passage up to Lunnenberg. As it turned out, Jan decided there was a window good enough for his slightly faster boat with a crew of two. Bonny would probably arrive 24 hours after Tiit4, just as bad weather was predicted and so I decided it was not worth risking a potentially challenging landfall on my own.
Since then, I've been keeping an eye on the weather whilst hanging out with Gary and helping him with his engine. Oh, and I also spent a very pleasant Wednesday evening on board Tribute, a very impressive Carbon Fibre performance Catarmaran, owned by American OCC members Jeff and Melissa. Nick, also an OCC member and his pal Jonathan, from 'Cruwys' also joined us. Technologically, Tribute is light years ahead of Bonny. To start with, virtually everything is made of carbon fibre making it immensely light and strong. Everything is powered by electricity including all the winches! She cruises comfortably at 13/14 knots and can hit speeds of 18/19 knots when sailed more aggressively. Like Gary's Symphony (a completely different type of boat) Tribute is their home!
As of today (Friday 30/5), I have contradictory weather models to 'help' my decision making. One suggests an OK passage to Nova Scotia could be had with a departure tomorrow (Saturday) evening, the other predicts that if I do leave then, I may encounter a spell of nasty weather!
Vince can take off a maximum of three weeks wef 4th June. If I don't go tomorrow/sunday on my own, the outlook of northerly and then very light winds here in Bermuda for the following few days, means there's little point in leaving before next weekend. In that event Vince would fly out on the 7th.
So, a departure decision hinges on this evening's weather update.....
After another fruitless day fighting Gary's engine, we took some R&R time and went for a walk round to the entrance of St George's Harbour - the 'Town Cut' and went for a refreshing swim....
The update as of Saturday 1st June, is I'm going to wait for Vince to join me on the 7th. I'm still getting a confused weather picture. There is though consensus that the next few days will bring generally northerly winds, which, even if the possible bad weather doesn't materialise would make for a pretty uncomfortable passage.
By the time Vince gets here, we should have more favourable weather.
Stop Press: Gary got a mechanic out this morning who confirmed the injector pump is the problem. He'll remove it next week, but it will be at least a month before it's serviced and reinstalled.
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