12.18.2021 Prickly Bay

Our first night on anchor was rougher than anticipated. It remained rolly and very windy throughout. We preemptively took some Dramamine so that we could diagnose and hopefully repair the engine. Mike found that the issue was a broken impeller (photo attached). The engine impeller is a gear that the seawater pump uses to suck in and cool down the engine. With it broken, our engine was at risk of overheating. He was able to replace the impeller and the engine was back to working!

Because of our rough night, we took the dinghy out to do a survey of the rest of the anchorage to look for a new spot. We found one a little more inward of the bay and at a slightly more shallow depth (35 feet). With our second engine back up and running, we were able to re-anchor pretty seamlessly.

We then dinghied ashore to a new local boat store (Budget Marine) to look for more spare parts and some new anchor bridle options. We also stopped at Spice Island Marina (where we first met our boat on the hard) because our friends (Jackie and Brad) boat is being worked on there. We were able to check on it for them and send them some pics. We then took the bus and headed to the store for groceries.

Throughout our boat maintenance projects, we’ve been utilizing the amazing cruising community Facebook groups for advice. One of the members, Jim, has been especially helpful, and him and his wife (Caz) are anchored in Prickly Bay as well. We were invited over for cocktails on their boat (another Lagoon 440 owners). Fun fact (and small world), Caz is a retired veterinary internist and Jim has a background in software engineering! They are far more experienced sailors (Caz has her Captain’s license) and gave us some great ideas of what to do with our boat (e.g. sunset bench, solar panel arrays, new interior salon design, a maintenance room in the forward cabins, where we could fit a dishwasher) and passage tips. We ended up going ashore to dinner with them at Prickly Bay Tiki Bar :)

Our dinghy ride to Jim & Caz's boat!