IS THIS 21ST CROSSING OUR LAST?????

We woke early on Saturday, finished packing our last gear, and boarded Feeding Frenzy III for our 21st Gulfstream crossing.  Even though this was to be our 21st crossing you never quite get used to the idea of motoring through the Bermuda Triangle :)  We had waited and watched ALL week and THIS DAY looked like the ONLY day for a period of time that would be suitable for a somewhat comfortable crossing.  Well, "somewhat" it ended up being.  When I checked early on Saturday, the wind Gods had changed their minds and the conditions were not going to be "ideal." :(  And...to top it off there were storms all around :(  We looked at each other and said, "Let's go anyway!"  We were on our way shortly after 7:00.  We idled out of the canal and put the pedal to the metal.  We were not even out of our basin when the RPM's on the port engine dropped but came right back up.  We looked at each other with a "what the hell was that?" look but didn't say anything.  Probably just a fluke....NOT!!!!  This continued off and on for the next hour or so.  CTM decided to change one of the fuel filters.  He crawled into the basement and 30 minutes later we were on our way.  That kinda sorta seemed to fix the problem....wishful thinking on our part I guess :(  We decided to take the intercoastal  waterway to Biscayne Bay and if the problem persisted we would stop over in Miami and seek help.  Well, I think we just wanted to be in Bimini so bad that we ignored a couple of minor drops in the RPM's and attributed it to maybe air in the lines after changing the fuel filter.  So...that being said, once we got to Biscayne Bay we made the turn east and headed across the Gulfstream.  About 10 miles off the coast the engine acted up majorly again.  To make a long story short.....it continued to misbehave the entire crossing and got worse as we approached Bimini.  Needless to say we were thankful when our beloved Bimini came into view....

So when I say, "Is this 21st crossing our last????"  I might not be kidding.  We are in Bimini with engine issues so we may be permanent residents.  The engines are fine as long as we don't try to go full throttle.  We were even able to go fishing yesterday and trolled for grouper, mahi, and wahoo.  We caught a barracuda and had a few grouper bites. We can troll all day long....just not go fast.  We are taking the day off today so CTM can make a few phone calls to the U.S. and pull out the Yanmar manuals.  It appears to be some sort of fuel issue....it will run all day at 10 knots but when we try to open it up it bogs down.  I am not panicked yet......I keep going back to that Mother's Day five years ago when CTM crawled into the basement and figured out why our holding tank wouldn't pump out so I didn't have to be a girl scout the rest of the trip!  CTM is my hero!  As my good friends Leann and Jeannie would say....."I'm not skert yet!" 

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM