Just thought I’d mention it seems very hot here. I guess we’re just not used to the intense 32 degrees and direct sun, even though we usually have a breeze. We both got more sun than we intended and have slight burns here and there.

Today we’ll motor over to Spice Island Marine to go on the hard. It’s a pretty short trip, maybe 2.5 nms? George comes by in the morning with a couple of mooring buoys so all we have to do is untie is ropes and drop them when we’re ready to go.

We nail everything down and get ready to go, we’re ready for departure at 9:15 am or so. We’ll check the windlass and bow thrusters as soon as the engine is running too.

We’ve got our handy-dandy bluetooth headsets on and Christy starts the engine while I go forward to test the windlass and eventually untie us. Meanwhile she tries the bow thrusters.

She’s got nothing on the bow thrusters, I’ve got nothing on the windlass. Oh, probably the breakers are off. I dip down below and check. Sure enough the windlass breaker was off, but the bow thrusters were on. She tries again, nothing. I go forward to the windlass. Nothing.

This is not good.

It gets worse.

Christy can here some weird noises down below and I come back to where she is and yes, there are weird noises and yes, there is white smoke billowing out of the cabin. Kill switch won’t work of course so I run down below and access the starboard access panel where the manual kill switch is. Don’t have a flashlight and there is a ton of acrid white smoke but I know where the lever is and I find it in the clouds and shut down the engine. Don’t want to be breathing this burning-plastic-smelling smoke so open the companionway stairs and all hatches and let the smoke dissipate.

Houston, we’re going to be late at Spice Island.

After the smoke clears we try to start it again (not really sure why) but there is no sign of life. We call Spice Island, tell them we’re going to be late and ask if they have any way to tow us in. “Sure, just drive around to the mouth of Prickly Bay and we’ll tow you in with a dinghy.” Uh, small problem there. They can’t help us if we’re not inside the bay. Somehow gotta get this boat into Prickly Bay and it sure isn’t going to be by using our dinghy with a 9.9 HP outboard. That’s ocean between our bay and Prickly.

Christy thinks she sees the Calvigny Island launch at the Secret Harbour dock (it comes there quite a few times per day) so we jump in the dinghy and dash in. It’s not there but there are other power boats around. There’s a big trawler and Carlos says he can do it if he can get some help around noon. That’s a worst case scenario right now. We go back to the dinghy landing and Christy asks Johnny Random Guy (turns out his name is Keiran, I think he may be the Secret Island Dock Master) if he knows anyone who can tow us over to Spice Island.

He does. He calls Allan on WhatsApp and we arrange for him to tow us into Spice Island for US$250 (I even haggled with him Christy). He’ll come around noon. OK, all is not lost. We go back to Milu and tell Spice Island we’re going to be towed over and they are cool, say they may be able to fit us in this afternoon. I’ll call them on VHF 16 when we’re close.

Allan and his friend Amos show up right on time with a good size launch. We tie up to his bridle, we cast off from George’s mooring and away we go.

Pretty smooth day, even out in the Atlantic and we’re going with the wind so a bit easier. We cruise on in to Prickly Bay no problem. I call the dock as we get in the bay and they say to come right into the lift bay. That’s great. Would be a challenge to tie up to the pier then move it again. Allan gives us some momentum and we coast right in, Christy at the helm. The guys on the dock grab our lines and we’re solid.

Whew.

Christy and I jump in Son of Milu and move out to where Allan and Amos wait for us. We pay them and give great thanks – they were terrific and we are very grateful. We park the dinghy and while the crew is getting Milu out of the water and chocked up, we go and check in to our apartment at Cool Runnings, just around the corner on the Dusty Highway. They’re all ready for us there and immediately we love the room – simple but the AC is soooo nice. We’ll be back soon.

Head back to Spice Island where we meet the other Allan who runs the yard. He gives us the run of how things work and tells us Milu will be blocked up soon. We decide to go for a pizza lunch at One Love. Good thing we wanted pizza cuz that’s all they have. Something broken in the kitchen. The pizza is very good and soon we head back to Milu. She’s thankfully very near the lift and so gets a bit of breeze and a small view of the ocean.

We pack up our stuff and lock up Milu, head back to the apartment for a much needed shower.