The Marsh Harbor to West End, Bahamas trip
July 19 to 25, 1999

While the Gypsy Rover was enjoying the summer with the Boy Scout High Seas Adventure camp, the engine decided to "let go" so to speak. The engine had been running quite well for the 363.0 previous hours. After we tore down the engine, we discovered that the #4 oil jet value (bango fitting) failed. The oil jet value sprays oil into the cylinder to lubricate and cool the piston as it moves up and down. Without the cooling oil, the #4 piston stuck in the cylinder, while the engine was running. The piston literally exploded from the heat and pull of the connecting rod. The piston expanded enough from the heat to crack the cylinder liner. And if this wasn't enough, the connecting rod then poked a hole in the side of the engine block!

To make a long story short, it was significantly cheaper to repair the engine in Miami than in the Bahamas. So the decision was to sail the Rover from Marsh Harbor back to Miami, minus a functioning engine. The trip was GPS plotted at 243 NM to Miami's Outer Marker. These pictures tell the story.  Enjoy.

This is the Gypsy Rover tied up at the Marsh Harbor Marina as we prep her for the trip. Prepping included buying supplies and securing the engine. It had been removed from it's mounts and placed on the floor.

Wynthrop and Westley Yerkes

This is Wynthrop Yerkes and his son Westley Yerkes. These two along with myself were to be the lucky crew for the trip.

The trip started off uneventful enough. With a 5 knot breeze, its hard to get excited.

Here is Wyn reading "The Cruising Guide to Abaco 1999". Notice the lack of wind on the water.

Green Turtle Cay off in the far distance. We passed GTC at 1715 on Tuesday. I estimate the next waypoint, Cooper, at 0300 Wednesday morning. It was 11.6 NM away.....

This is a distance photo of a point called Hawksbill Cays. Its only significant in that it came into sight at sun up on Wednesday and was still in sight Wednesday afternoon.... We passed abeam Hawksbill Cays at 1246 Wednesday. We are talking a distance of about 5 NM. Did I mention there was NO wind.

Westley catching up on his sleep.

On Wednesday afternoon, a pod of about 10 dolphins swam by. If you look at the picture, the dolphins are the ripple in the water. Notice that you can also see the bottom in the photo. It is about 10' deep here.

Thursday was pretty much a repeat of Wednesday. In fact, we had to anchor for about 3 hours because the current was pulling us back East. Good time to go swimming.

At 0830 Friday morning, we had been under sail for 72 hours - and covered 82.5 NM. At 1115 with a light south wind on the nose, it became time to throw in the towel. We didn't have battery power to run lights for another night. Time to be towed to West End.

At 1338 Friday afternoon, a trio of Bahaman guys show up in a Boston Whaler to tow us in. Here we are tied up at West End trying to figure out what to do next.

What we did next was call a friend of mine in Miami who owns a towing business. He motored over Saturday night and took us in tow at 0715 Sunday morning. This picture was taken about 40 miles out to sea. Notice that the wind is still not blowing.

Nice cloud formation and still NO wind. Never in the history of the Bahamas has a week gone by in which the wind didn't blow nicely at 10-20 knots from the SE 95% of the time. But then again you know how I am with wind....

For those who have never seen a hole in the side of an engine.