Fayaway continues sailing southward after ducking the latest powerful cold front emanating from Florida, away from the Exumas, and most popular of the Bahamian cays. Strong northerlies have given in to brisk easterly trades.

Our comrades in the eastern Caribbean are really getting steamrolled with incessant 25-30 knots, while those same winds so far west and south near Cuba have lost some oomph. They’re just right for brisk sailing north or south right now.

The wind remained perfectly just north of east on that sunny morning. It was that time, to pull the hook up from the white sandy shallows, and capture a fantastic beam reach, aiming generally south-west from Black Point, sailing briskly to Coakley Cay for an overnight stopover.

Our general plan this winter is to reach the tippy toes of the Bahamas: Generally known as The Raggeds. And we’ve just arrived, two days ahead of our sloppy loose schedule. Today it’s February 1, and the prominent Trades have seemingly taken a morning break. We turned off the instruments yesterday (saving power at anchor) but have a pretty good gut-sense for our wind velocity – it’s in the range of 10-15. Compared with the last couple weeks, it feels almost like dead calm!

Fortunate to have these steady winds, we’ve easily sailed almost entirely from Staniel Cay, about 125 nm, with a couple lazy overnights: Coakley Cay (Exumas) and Flamingo Cay in the Jumentos. We decided to skip Georgetown entirely, and skirt inside the southern Exumas for a more direct southerly route. Apparently everyone goes via Georgetown so we had rarely seen another boat along our road less traveled.

But we can’t get away completely without drama and excitement. As we approached Flamingo Cay, we could see only one boat anchored – again, a pleasant sight. Conservatively, we start the sail-lowering process, or at least slow the boat if hazards multiply when approaching land. All the signs: approaching shallow water, bommies jutting from the sand, heavy wind, narrowing entry, etc. After furling the genoa and staysail, Kelly goes to the mast and prepares to drop our reefed main, I’ll proceed to start the diesel: First shift the lever back to neutral (having previously locked in gear to feather the prop) then I push the magic ignition button…

Now this time Clunk clunk, bang bang, as the engine started, frightening sounds emanate from underfoot. We look down then up at each other, as thoughts stream through our minds. Is our prop caught on something? Is our transmission broken? Did it fall apart? Did the prop fall off? And so far from civilization! Quick, shut it down! Ok, take a breath and think.

Clunk clunk, bang bang, as the engine started, frightening sounds emanate from underfoot. Is our prop caught on something? Did it fall apart? Is our transmission broken? And so far from civilization!

Less than a half mile to the anchorage, mainsail still up and reefed, we had some power to hold a slower course toward the lee of the island. I unscrew the finger nuts to remove the cockpit engine cover and expose the audible sound from our transmission, drive shaft and cable linkages. Turning the shaft with one foot – it turns freely (a good sign – likely no prop fouling).

Let’s check shifting movement, by clicking the single pedestal lever back and forth, and watching the transmission-mounted linkages. Looks like our transmission and throttle cables are connected; we can shift into forward, but no throttle movement. Hmmm. We’re quickly arriving at our designated anchorage. It’s getting shallower, and we need to do something soon. Ok, let’s just get anchored safely and then continue troubleshooting.

I’m able to shift into forward gear, but only at idle speed, as the lever jams before increasing the throttle (engine speed). Fortunately, at idle speed, our prop remains offering a little thrust. And until we turn upwind to drop the hook, we can keep the sail up. Upon crawling to a comfortable spot, we let the wind set the anchor into shallow sand by pulling the bow sideways. All is good – at least we’re safely anchored now.

After further disassembly, I realized this system is designed so that throttle linkage won’t engage until the transmission is in gear (forward or backward). Seems logical, to prevent engaging gears at high engine speed. After fiddling a bit more, we found that a small plastic piece that locks the throttle cable into position had gone AWOL, allowing the cable to slide, preventing full transmission engagement. We don’t have a 3-D printer aboard, nor a spare shifting kit. We need to figure out another way.