Sailing Life Day 43: Detour! Emergency on Board while on Passage to Luperon! We sailed back up to Provo, Turks and Caicos

We arrived in South Side Marina at 4pm with an almost overheating engine and almost empty diesel tank and containers! Here’s what Captain Jonathan told me after he found the issue and how he fixed it the next day —>

“Turned out to be leaking out of the inspection plate. Fuel return line was flush on the underside with no barb or pipe to direct fuel down into tank. So when we heeled it ran out of the inspection plate where the seal had failed. Pulled the plate off, found a barb with a pipe thread to extend the return line an inch down into the tank, then resealed the plate, probably permanently! The 2nd leak is a steady drip from the fuel governor, but that’s relatively slow so I’ll find a seal kit for it when we arrive in the DR.”

Jonathan also changed our coolant and checked the other issues we could have on the boat! Glad my husband knows mechanical stuff, loves learning and always thinking outside the box.

Back to the story of that day, we almost run out of fuel in the middle of the ocean, our diesel leak was getting worse and waves weren’t on our favor and no wind, we had to rev the engine up! Using a gallon of diesel per hour aside from the leak, Jonathan tried to fix it while underway but no way we can reach our destination when we’re down to 15 Gal without wind.😌

We’re still 120 NM away from Luperon, Dominican Republic by 11am and decided to detour! Hailed a mega yacht on VHF to tell us where is the nearest marina where we can get fuel since our electronics is pretty limited! 🤪

We turned our boat around, praying we’ll reach the marina without problem.. When we entered the Caicos bank 12NM out from Providenciales we were contacted by ProvoRadio who is in charge wth the Border Control on VHF 16 and asked our intentions, the number of people on board, specs of our boat, the port we were coming from/to, etc.I thought they’ll send a helicopter to board us, I’d ask for a ride and meet Jonathan on land (Kidding!)😎🤩🤞

Caicos banks is shallow and we draw almost 6 feet (our 3/4 keel) and for the first time we run aground just outside the marina while navigating the buoys.. the sand shifted after the Hurricane so it’s not updated on the chartplotter but glad Bob (the owner of southside marina) navigated us! Wooh! What a day full of lessons, still thankful to God for protecting us! 🙏❤️

We arrived and got the last available slip for $50 per day and wifi for $6 per day! Wrapped up the day with a proper hot shower (after almost a month without), icecream and new downloaded videos on Netflix! Haha

Bob contacted the Customs and Immigration and they’d meet us the next day, April 09! Story to continue! 🤣