On Saturday, December 27, 2008, at 06:13PM, "Patrick Roberts" <proberts58@me.com> wrote:
Dear Pattie Toler,
I talked to you earlier today on the telephone about our engine failure on "Eclectic Lady" and asked for your help to try and contact our charter company, Abaco Bahamas Charters (ABC). On your advice (thank you), we contacted Vernon's and asked to contact the ABC, which they happily agreed to do. Unfortunately, we received no response, and are still waiting for contact to determine our next move. Our charter ends on Monday, Dec 29th, but it will be impossible to bring "Eclectic Lady" to her mooring in Hope Town without an engine.
Please announce on the Dec 28th Cruisers Net the following message:
"The charterer of 'Eclectic Lady' requests that anybody who can contact the management of Abaco Bahamas Charters please notify them that our engine failed on Christmas Eve and we are currently anchored without power at Fisher's Bay, Guana Cay. We need assistance and require a discussion about how to return of the boat to Hope Town. We can be reached at Grabber's, Room #4, 365-5133."
To fill you in on our story, we have planned this trip for several years, as I sailed through two seasons in the Caribbean including a couple of crossings in my twenties. My wife learned to sail more recently and after some group bareboat excursions, we finally were ready for a sail with just the two of us.
We got off to a slow start on Christmas eve, in part because the engine battery needed replacement. When we were leaving the Hope Town Harbor, the engine stalled, and we quickly dropped anchor in the entrance to stop our drift. Fortunately, we were able to restart the engine and proceeded under sail to Man-O-War. Because of our concern about the reliability of the engine, we did not attempt to enter the harbor at Man-O-War, but were seeking good anchorage north of Dickie's Cay. The engine stalled on our approach, and would repeatedly fail after restarting, until it would not restart at all, so we anchored exposed to wind and chop for the night. The engine had been able to start cold, but stalled after 10-15 minutes in all throttle positions. The problem may be an overheating problem as possibly indicated by the warning lights.
To find a more secure anchorage with the SW wind, we managed to sail off the anchor and move to Fisher's bay at Guana Cay. There, the entrance is broad enough that we were able to sail to anchor. The engine has not restarted since Christmas eve, and we have lost all electrical power, making it impossible to enter the Hope Town Harbor and pickup a mooring. We have been to trying to contact ABC on Ch 16 through the holidays, and to contact them by email for instructions whenever we are in range of Out Island Inter.Net. The only addresses that we have available are: abacocharters2@aol.com and info@abacocharters.com. We are doing our best to make the most of a difficult situation and we hope that ABC can get assistance to us soon.
Thank you for your assistance, Patrick Roberts