Hi! Just me here — and let me tell you about this day!!!
We left our marina on Stock Island this morning and headed up the Atlantic side, feeling optimistic and ready for a smooth cruising day. The plan was simple: scoot over to the gulf side just before Marathon and find a cozy anchorage for the night midway up Upper Matecumbe Key in Islamorada. Easy day… or so we thought.
Everything was running beautifully at first. The engines sounded happy, the weather cooperated, and aside from playing constant dodge-the-crab-pots (seriously, it felt like an obstacle course), all was well. 4 hours later, we passed under the bridge and entered the gulf side, the crab pots finally thinned out and things relaxed a bit.
And then… yep, you guessed it.
The port engine started acting up again. Same behavior as before. After the mechanic worked on it last Saturday, we had run it for nearly three hours at different speeds and everything sounded perfect. Today? Not so much.
Jeff worked his magic at the helm, trying to finesse it along, when suddenly — as if on cue — the starboard engine quit too. Completely. Silence. Not exactly the sound you want to hear out on the water.
He tried restarting it… nothing. Into the engine room he went, crawling around searching for anything obvious, but nothing looked wrong. Meanwhile, we had just cleared the busiest section of Marathon and now had to turn around and limp back on one engine (and a very dysfunctional one at that)!
Cue me frantically calling marinas. Three calls later, we finally found a spot willing to take us in. Relief doesn’t even begin to describe it.
So now we’re safely tied up at Faro Blanco Marina, waiting to hear back from the mechanic and hoping tomorrow brings better news — and better luck.
Whew. This day definitely did not go according to plan.
Update: the mechanic is showing up at 8am tomorrow. Fingers crossed it’s nothing major🤞🏻
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