We could have found a worse place to be stuck

So there we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, two days into our epic voyage of over 3000 miles to the Marquesas Islands.It was fairly late at night and it had been absolutely pouring with rain for hours so we were all completely sodden and not making much progress with flukey winds and therefore having to motor through it all. Then the engine stopped…….. Oh dear! Still, we had some way under us and carried on sailing for a little while using the autopilot powered by the generator running. Then the generator coughed and gave up….Oh double dear!! Nothing for it then but to heave to and drift around for the night as it was virtually impossible to find out what had gone wrong in the dark and during a deluge that eventually continued the whole night.
Next morning found us extremely damp but afloat and with one or two decisions to make. The chances of everything suddenly resolving itself so we could carry on were non existent so we decided to “sail” back to Santa Cruz where we knew there were people who could help. Hmm! Sailing back became quite an ordeal as the winds were mostly from the wrong direction or too light to get us under way. We also had to hand steer the whole way as the autopilot uses up too much battery power and we needed to keep some charge so we could use the radio and various other essential pieces of equipment like the fridge which had to keep going. We were going to need a cold beer when we finally returned to Santa Cruz….Ice Cold in Alex?
We gave our daily position and predicament to the Bluewater rally boats, by now well ahead of us and they were naturally very sympathetic, offering much advice but there was nothing we could do at sea. So on we sailed having to put in numerous long tacks to get us around the southern islands of the Galapagos archipelago. One very small island we had to circumnavigate became our “bête noir” as we climbed into the cockpit for our hand steering watches only to find that we had barely moved at all for hours or even gone backwards on occasion! Very frustrating but we weren’t unduly worried as we had plenty of food etc on board and we knew we would get there in the end which we finally did on day five….. We could have asked for a tow into the anchorage from the authorities but that would have cost $2000….no chance! One or two Bluewater Rally boats were yet to leave Santa Cruz and eventually Aqua Luna came to our rescue, towing us in, in perfect conditions, from about two miles out. Thanks Gabrielle and Jonathan, Allan and Charles!!
So here we are back anchored in virtually the same spot we had last week, waiting for things to be fixed so that we can set off again…… Claudio, an ace electrician/mechanic came to our rescue. We had met him before… !!He was a little surprised to see us but knuckled down to help. The generator was quickly restored to fully working capacity with a little rewiring to bypass the troublesome bits but the engine is proving to be a little trickier to resolve. It seems we need to get spare parts ( a high pressure fuel pump) which is not available locally so we are obliged to wait until it can either be fixed here or a new one can be couriered out from the UK or somewhere, anywhere…… Easter is happening at a most inconvenient time All very frustrating and expensive but I could think of worse places to be stranded!
Ed, our crew member had a decision to make too as he is due to meet up with his wife in Tahiti in early May. We won’t be there by then I expect so he decided to jump ship and join the last rally boat, Roundabout, to leave who is due to depart as I write. Bon Voyage Ed!
We will hopefully get going in a week or so but the other cruising yachts, Troutbridge and Delicado among them and who are not part of the Rally, are expecting to arrive here in about 10 days. It might be a better option to stay here a little longer and rejoin them all so we can sail on in company. I have missed their company anyway so it would be really nice to see them all again.
No decision yet however as we must find out if and when the engine will be sorted out for once and for all now. It just isn’t a good idea to set out on what must be the longest stretch of a circumnavigation, unless things are all in shipshape fashion!!!!!

More updates soon……….