Got in last night, Port St. Lucie north of Miami, about 8:30 after leaving at 1 in the morning. Long 18 hour day and 6 miles out of here my rudder bracket broke and had to get towed in here. It could of happened earlier in the day and I might then of been floating on the Gulf Stream towards England. Not exactly how I envisioned going there. Just kidding if it would of broke out there I still could of gotten to help with the radio and gotten towed in but that would of been a long slow tow and for sure I was glad it didn't happen in the Bahamas. I'll repair it when I get home and make it better than factory. I think I jinxed myself as earlier in the day I wrote that I wouldn't make this trip without a second rudder aboard but as it was the rudder is fine just not useable at the moment as it is on 1/2 the bracket that attaches to the post and bent up at 60 deg. and at the water line.
I was thinking of coming in the last bit with the outboard for steering but the boat clocked around with the port side to the wind and substantial waves and the dingy was trapped on that side with the lines wrapped around the rudder and outboard. I tried for about 30 minutes to get all that mess straightened out but lost the boat hook in that ordeal, almost went overboard and finally said "I've paid for tow insurance for 6 years so why not use it" and called TowBoat U.S.. Captain Scott was there in 30 minutes and in all of this time I had floated in about a mile towards shore. He hooked on and I found out that it is hard to tow a sailboat that doesn't have a functioning rudder. I tried to help a bit with the outboard as once he got there I got the dinghy straightened out and the rudder tied up out of the way and the outboard down. I was putting too much pressure on the outboard tiller trying to help so abandoned that and he got me into Manatee Pocket just past the ICW and I'm on anchor here until tomorrow.
Scott, my friend at the boat yard, is going to come over tomorrow with the Suburban and the trailer and I'll use the outboard to motor down about 1/2 mile to a public boat ramp and meet him there.
Then back to the yard and get things ready to head back to Utah, so the ICW going north is going to have to wait. I have a followup dr. appointment on the 15 to check out the pacemaker and will see if I can get that moved up otherwise head west on the 16th probably sleeping in the boat on the 2200 mile 4 day trip home.
So the trip didn't exactly end how I had planned it but other than that is was a great trip and will remember all of that and put the last couple hours in another compartment. Anyone planning a trip like this with a small boat needs to remember we are pushing them past the limits they were designed for and consider the possible consequences both to the boat and ourselves. I'd hate to know that this trip encouraged someone else to make a similar one and they weren't prepared for the potential danger inherit to it. I realized that going in and accepted it.
I'll continue the trip blog with pictures and such on my web site as time permits and will come back and post when there are updates to it here.
Sumner
P.S. All told the trip from the boatyard on Florida's west coast to the Bahamas and back was 1294 miles and just 4 days short of 3 months and between Black Point in the Exumas to West End (Grand Bahama) was 403 miles and I sailed all of that except for about 10 miles either motoring or motor-sailing and sailed about another 100+ miles before that stretch so feel real good about that.
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2015 to The Bahamas and back -- I hope
Our Endeavour 37
Our MacGregor 26-S Pages
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
), and yes using the auto-tack isn't critical for sure,
