I Can’t believe that our last blog post was in November 2021. It has been so long! Since then, it seems that we have been both constantly evolving and moving while also standing still. We went more introspective and pulled away from social media, for multiple reasons. We’ve definitely had some ups and downs over the past 9 month with the biggest “down” finally resolving, as I type this update, the Engine. We have a 1985 Westerbeke 21 and are are currently in the process of getting a new Beta 25 installed. But before we tell you all the technical details of the repower, I wanted to tell you the story of why we are repowering Nymeria. That brings us back to our last blog post about our 2nd Harvest Moon Regatta 2021 in Nymeria. It was full of excitement, good friends and earned us another win for the logbook. The journey back home, however, was challenging for us individually, as a couple and, ultimately, as sailors.
Justin and I were prepping Nymeria to take the ~150 mile journey from Port Aransas back home to our marina in Kemah while our 2 crew members hopped on the bus to take the ~3.5 hour trip back. We were leaving with the sun Sunday AM and hoping to average around 5 knots, using the engine and sails, to get us home in 25-30 hours by Monday evening. The wind predictions showed that we were supposed to have light winds off the bow/front of the boat and dropping over the night only to increase the next morning. Weather prediction models forecasted a cold front coming down Tuesday night/Wednesday morning with high winds, waves, and possible storms. Looking at the wind forecasts and our weather window, we opted to sail offshore about 3 miles and not take the ICW (Intercoastal WaterWay). This would allow us to use both our sails and our engine to get to Galveston by Monday night. The plan was to sail until the wind died and then motor-sail to maintain speed and better avoid all the oil rigs in our path.
With just the two of us on board, we let our autopilot do the driving and we took turns resting or being “on watch” for oil rigs/boats. Just like during the race, we watched other members of the Regatta pass us by, even though they left the harbor well after us. We were cruising with our full sails out catching the light winds and also running our engine to give us the extra horsepower to reach around 6 knots. We were feeling great, our sails were trimmed perfectly and our engine sounded confident.
Then, around 11:30 AM and roughly 20-25 km out of the marina, Justin spotted a spike on the engine temperature gauge and shut it down fast. Upon opening up the engine compartment, there was the deafening sound of hissing with coolant and steam pouring out of the engine.
Justin began checking the typical culprits of an engine overheating: water pump, water impeller and hoses. The impeller was shot and was replaced. The water pump showed a slow leak but was judged to still be functional and not the main concern at the time. Thinking that we had found the cause of the overheat, Justin started putting things back together and began replacing the coolant. We had some on board but it quickly became apparent that we didn’t have enough to get us up and running again. After hailing the crew of Delta Tango, a catamaran that was sailing by, it was determined that we should just add water to the system, even though it was not ideal. As Justin was pouring water in, it was quickly pouring out. The culprit was a busted metal hose in the back of the engine, a place he didn’t see upon his initial visual inspection. Around 1:30 PM, the crew of Delta Tango continued to circle us as we worked through our issues. It was determined that since we were still able to sail, we would continue on to Matagorda Bay / Port O’Conner and have TowBoat US get us to a safe anchorage for the night.
With our engine out of commission and low winds, we were sailing at around 3 knots. The winds were expected to continue to drop overnight which could leave us adrift and at the mercy of the gulf current with the danger of bumping into oil rigs or running aground. Other Regatta members, Breezing Up and Third Wind were silently monitoring our conversation on VHF and chimed in that we had their support, if needed. The crew of Mayan Mistress, another catamaran, came up alongside us around 2:00 PM and offered to help us contact TowBoat US when they get close to Port O’Connor to let them know of our situation. Since TowBoat doesn’t typically use VHF, they need to be called via cell phone and we were well out of cell range at that point. With Mayan Mistress being a much faster vessel, they were able to make contact and relay our info in preparation for our eventual tow into an anchorage.
Otherwise, the weather was in the 70s, the waves were low and slow, the sails were full and nicely trimmed. All we could hear was the sound of the boat moving gracefully through the water. We had up to 6-10 knots of wind and we were moving between 3-4 knots through the water. On any other day, this would have been a great and relaxing sail. We did our best to enjoy the afternoon/evening sail to safe harbor. We had a nice lunch and started listening to an audiobook to try and relax with the waves.
Around 6:00 PM Sunday we finally were able to get a cell signal and get in touch with TowBoat and relayed our location and estimated arrival time. We were finally at the Matagorda Bay Jetties and towed to our anchorage for the night around 10:00 PM Sunday. Of course we were second guessing this decision since the winds hadn’t died yet, we didn’t have access to a slip/marina until the next afternoon and weather was still moving in on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Though Chuck, our Towboat guy, used to be a diesel mechanic and was confident that he could help us out first thing Monday Morning.
We had a restless sleep that night but woke up knowing that we had made the best decision to anchor since the wind had indeed dropped to 0 overnight which continued well into the morning. We also quickly realized that we were not anchored in a good location and needed to be towed into deeper waters. Our anchor had difficulty coming up and was stuck hard on something on the bottom of the bay. With the engine busted and our anchor now stuck we were both starting to question this whole sailing thing. We were eventually freed and moved to a better anchorage where Chuck from TowBoat US turned everything around for us. He had a friend who welded our busted metal hose and brought us all the coolant we needed to get us going again. It was a success and by around 2:00 PM Monday we had enough confidence in the engine repair to get us back on our way.
Winds were still low and we wanted to get out of the oil rigs in the daylight so we decided to push on motor-sailing to make good time. We kept a close eye on the gauges and did constant visual inspections of the engine bay/bilge to ensure that there were no leaks. We kept strategizing options on how to most safely get back to a marina or an anchorage if the wind died or if the engine failed again. We knew that we had a safe harbor in Freeport, about 60 miles away, and in Galveston after that. If needed, we could safely make it close enough to either of these ports to access TowBoat to come and get us if the engine fails again. We were just focused on pushing forward toward home and beating the weather to the marina.
The wind stayed around 10 knots until and around 45 degrees off our starboard bow for most of the trip back. We really need closer to 15-18 knots to reach our max speed of 6.5 knots. So we made it to the Galveston Jetties around sunrise Tuesday morning after motor-sailing the whole way. Engine still sounded great and the gauges were nominal the entire trip. To get to Kemah, we had to take the Houston Ship Channel. Feeling confident in the old beast of an engine and then having the wind directly behind us as we pointed the boat North, we took down the sails and relied solely on it to get us the rest of the almost 30 KMs home.
We had an uneventful trip up the HSC until we were almost 2 hours from the marina when Justin noticed that the oil pressure gauge jumped up a bit. We then noticed a ticking noise in the engine that hadn’t existed before. Since we were in a place where we could safely exit the channel and sail for a bit, we stopped the engine to try to find a cause. The water pump was leaking a bit more and the oil was milky in color. But we were so close to home! We sailed until we had to take them down to navigate through the channels to get to the marina. The engine reluctantly fired up and got us back into our slip.
Skål to another grand adventure! We celebrated making it back with our health, sanity and our tiny home still floating in the water.
Things of note:
- The decision to turn back to Port Aransas wasn’t mentioned in our conversations with other Regatta members and didn’t even come up between Justin and I. In hindsight, It would have been a much quicker sail to turn around as we were only 4 hours out and we weren’t expected to reach Matagorda Bay / Port O’Conner until sometime in the night. We could have stayed there and waited for the next weather window. We were so focused on getting back “home” and on our weather window that we didn’t even consider that the safest harbor was in fact probably behind us and not in front of us.
- We learned that we, for our own sanity and safety, should have gotten a new engine much sooner. We were always thinking that it was going to fail and were reluctant to push it too hard. We found ourselves turning down trips that heavily relied on motoring places. We were also no longer able to get parts off the shelf and it was difficult finding someone who works on old Westerbeke 1985 engines. We should have just bit the financial bullet and followed our gut earlier.
- Many thanks to Delta Tango, Breezing Up, Third Wind and Mayan Mistress who offered guidance and the many other boats on the water who were probably monitoring the situation via VHF. Sailors and those who love sailors are some of the nicest and helpful people.
- Thank you to Chuck at TowBow US for getting us back on the water and Land & Sea Services for helping us get back to operational status once we made it back to our marina.
- Super thankful for Mockingbird Marine for taking our call and helping us repower Nymeria. We started the process of ordering a new engine, among other things, in November 2021 after we returned. We weren’t able to get anything ordered until February of 2022 due to the amount of clientele on their list. The new Beta engine was delayed multiple times from the factory and was finally able to be installed July 18, 2022. We are still in the tedious process of powering her up and getting away from the pier once more. Like with all things boat related, it is never just plug-and-play with any installation/modification but I’m sure that Justin will go into more about that in a later post
The cure for anything is saltwater — sweat, tears or the sea
Karen Blixen
