October 9, 2009

Buenos Dias,

My apologies for being incommunicado for the last couple of days, but life got a little hectic. Our cell phone is HYPER expensive here so calling is at a minimum and I haven’t had anytime for internet access until right now. As you have garnered from aeon’s brief updates we didn’t make the USA as planned.

All was well and Second Star was making good progress in less than perfect condition. The predicted wind was E to SE at 10 to 15 knots with seas 2 to 4 feet from the SE. The reality was 25 to 30 knots from the N NNE and a solid 4 to 6 beam sea from the east. We were able to hold 7 to 7.5 knots without too much discomfort.

At 0830 aeon woke me to say that she was having difficulty priming the fuel system from the aft main tank. By the time I got to the engine room I barely had enough time to shutdown the Port main engine before the system ran dry and the Starboard engine died. Without way, we were soon laying abeam to the seas and rolling quite heavily, especially when the larger sets came through. Over the next 15 minutes I succeeded in changing both filters out and get sea sick. Both aeon and I were feeling the effects of the motion. Even with new filters the system would not prime. I spent the next hours working for a few minutes on the system, getting nauseated and having to lay down for 15 minutes or so and repeat. I have always considered myself a get it done man no matter what just do it. I had to land my airplane once violently nauseated from a food poisoning, but I discovered Monday that one cannot will against nausea extremis. Even the super meds Phil Waterman had prescribed did not allow me to wrestle the filter assembly off the bulkhead and down to be disassembled for inspection.

During this period I had aeon monitor our drift. We were making Westing at 1.2 knots to the coast of Mexico at Xcalac. I deployed our sea anchor which reduced the set to 1.1 knots. We were at that time 7.3 nautical miles east of the shore. Finally at 1300 hrs I issued a Pan-Pan-Pan to Xcalac Port Authority. It was a hit or miss communication because their equipment is marginal at beat. Most of the their transmissions were so garbled as to be unreadable. Finally I was able to ascertain that they could (would) not respond to the request for assistance, but that they had contacted the Belize Coast Guard who had agreed to come assess the situation.

Just before 1600 hrs the BZE CG showed up in a 25 foot panga with twin Yamaha 150hp. For the next 45 minutes there was multiple communication with Mexico, Belize and us. I declared an emergency due to the nature of our situation and requested a tow to Xcalac. Mexico would accept us, but if the Belizean towed us in they believed they would be arrested. Belize CG Command denied our request for a tow because we were in International waters. The crew on station with us were in a quandary. The vessel commander CPL Edward Laurence knew that if he left us we would end up on the reef off Mexico after dark in surging seas. I offered to buy the fuel for the tow back to San Pedro, Ambergris Cay Belize. To his credit Eddy disobeyed his Commander and decided to take us under tow. Which was very good for us, because my next option was to launch of Hook (a difficult proposition in an iffy situation) and attempt the tow to Xcalac. It was the direction of the wind and sea but it would not have been without significant risk.

At 1630 hrs, the BZE CG took us under tow for San Pedro. Other than rock and roll it was an uneventful 3 hours. In the dark they searched along the reef off Ambergris for the cut to get inside. They had contacted a local pilot to come out and guide them in. For some reason I do not understand they choose the middle cut with is narrow and difficult at best. The passage requires an approach with a dog leg from Port to Starboard to round a long arm of the reef. Right as they made the turn to pull us around the arm their steering failed leaving us adrift. I have to tell you with all honesty that my heart stopped with every scrape and crunch as Second Star drifted onto the reef. During the eternity (3 to 5 minutes) that it took for the CG to get the steering issues under control we drug and scraped along one reef across the channel and onto another reef. Once they had us pulled off I went below to assess damage.

Opening the main bilge we had water coming in! I dropped inside and couldn’t see any holes and could asses the water coming in from the aft. I switched the bilge pumps to manual on and went aft to the engine room. Upon entering the starboard side seemed okay, closing the door and looking to port revealed the issue. The port prop shaft had been pulled aft from the coupling and the shaft seal had been dislodged. This makes for a very large hole and lots of water squirting in. I grabbed a towel and wrapped the shaft and opening and slowed down the flow to a manageable level.

Aeon came in to say that CG had dropped the tow and wanted us to deploy our anchor (with in scope distance of the reef!). I ordered her to not deploy the anchor and to inform the CG that we were taking on water. When aeon went on deck to communicate that information the pilot boat picked up our tow and started to move us away from the reef. The CG boarded a man (William) who aeon brought to engine room to assist me. Between he and I and lots of rigging tape (thanks ShureTape) and several plastic bags were able to staunch the flow to a few drops per minute. A recheck of the bilges, rudders posts, shaft strut support pads assured me we were not going to sink. Now to get the anchor down.

Returning to the foredeck the CG boat was idling beside us saying drop the anchor here and they would be back at 0815 in the morning and if we had any problems they monitored VHF 16- 24/7. And they left. I tried to call them back to help us “set” the anchor but no response. So much for 24-7 radio contact. I had concerns that the anchor would not properly set without some pull, but had no way to execute the maneuver. Those thoughts proved prophetic.

Aeon and I went to bed with anchor/bilge watches set every 30 minutes or so. Water intrusion was under control and we didn’t seem to be dragging much. Not much sleep that night. I dreaded the damage that dawn would reveal.

At almost first light Ernesto was back with his snorkel gear and offered a quick assessment. With great trepidation in my heart I accepted. When he came back to say that they props appeared to be fine, the starboard rudder was okay and the port rudder had a very small nick. The port propeller was jammed against the rudder. Lots of nicks, scrapes and gouged but to his eye it all appeared to be superficial.

The Coast Guard returned mid morning and took me into San Pedro to deal with Customs and Immigrations. Of course, we arrived right at lunch time so had to wait an hour for the offices to reopen. It was four hours before I was returned to Second Star in the Police launch with 5 officials to “inspect” the boat and issue our 30 day courtesy clearance.

Spend the early evening getting the fuel filter system removed from the engine room bulkhead and ready to move to the aft deck. I was looking forward to a good night sleep. Just after 2300 hrs I felt Second Star lurch and bump. I went to deck and we had drug anchor and we sitting on the sand, rolling slightly with the small wavelets about 200 yds off the Costa Maya Resort beach. The rest of the night was spent calling the BZE CG for assistance with no response (remember the 24/7 call if you need anything?) and checking to make sure we weren’t drifting deeper onto the beach.

Again, at near first light Ernesto was back with Estephan in Estephan launch to assist. They attempted a pull but Estephan launch was not up to the task. By that time the Costa Maya manager sent out their big twin 200hp launch but while the boat was up to the task the operator didn’t understand the physics of the situation and while they did move us about 5 feet I could not communicate with them effectively as to technique. At this time Estephan went south along the beach to where a barge and push boat (tug) were sitting. He acquired their assist and within 30 minutes we were free. During this time the manager of the Costa Maya Resort offered us his service dock which I gladly and gratefully accepted. A few more minutes and we were secure at the dock.

The next hour or so was spent setting side anchors fore and aft to take pressure of the dock. A very nice gringa women named Diana came to the dock to make sure we were okay and told us that the tug belong to her husband who had said to assist us in anyway possible at no charge. Next to actually introduce himself on the dock was our gracious host Don Rodrigo, the manager of Costa Maya, who welcomed us warmly and offered the use of the amenities and services of the resort. (I haven’t had time yet to take a swim in the pool, but I am going to this evening after work.)Rodrigo also made several phone calls and arranged for his mechanic to come and look at the fuel system the following morning. The afternoon was spent with Estephan in his launch getting 10 gallons of diesel to have to prime and rinse the system, go to boat yard which I had conflicting reports about whether they could haul us, and check on the other possibilities to get Second Star out of the water for the underwater repairs. There is no joy at this point on getting Second Star out of the water to repair the propshaft. As of now it is going to be an underwater job. I hope I can accomplish this without sinking Second Star in the attempt.

Back to Second Star to meet with the mechanic at 1500 hrs (he actually showed at 1630hrs-time in Belize has a different set of values). Osmin showed up with a couple of helpers. He and I had a lengthy discussion about how to proceed and setup for the following morning to begin the job of transferring fuel from the offending fuel tank (aft main) to the forward main tank.

Yesterday was spent on the fuel system. The aft main tank was found to be polluted and agitation of the seaway had stirred up the sludge which then clogged our fuel system. I know had a culprit and a solution. We carefully pumped the clean diesel off the top of the aft main tank and transferred using a clear hose to forward main. I estimate we were able to recover 290 of the 315 gallons. Once the tank was emptied of the clear fuel I added 64 oz of StarTron tank cleaner and will let it agitate all the way back to Ft. Myers and pump out dregs and rinse with clean diesel. The generator ran almost 4 hours last evening to charge the batteries then failed. I believe the generator head has toasted the capacitor and the diodes again. I had hoped to make it last back to the states for replacement but that is not to be.

Today, Osmin will be here in about 90 minutes and we will disassemble the fuel filter system and find the problem with the fuel valving. I suspect it to be fouled with sludge from the tank. I have been thinking about how to prefilter the fuel before the main filters to extract the larger potentially obstructive debris in a manner that is easy to clean while underway.

After lunch I am going to address the issue of the propshaft and underwater damage. I am hopeful that I can accomplish this in one afternoon.

So now you are up to date on this little Second Star adventure. I have to get going and remove the fuel filter assembly from the engine room bulkhead and get it up on the aftdeck so it can be diagnosed and repaired. I am hoping that this is the end of the fuel issues aboard Second Star (hahaha, somewhat hysterical laughter). This incident has made me aware of several changes that I can make to assure that this type of fuel problem has a redundant backup which requires no pumps.

I will update you in the next day or so with progress. Right now I am hoping to have repairs done for sea trials by Sunday and leave for Ft. Myers on Monday, weather pending. I am going to wait for some calm seas before I subject aeon to that crossing. We do have 28 more days on our visas so at this moment time is not a factor.