
The first red flag of our trip came the moment I boarded the boat. I noticed 2 generators, spare group 27 batteries stashed in lockers, lithium jump starting batteries, chargers and other odd quantities of battery gear. Something was telling me to expect electrical problems. I would not be disappointed.
The follow morning we provisioned the boat with food for the 3 of us to last 8 days. St. We loaded up on lots of fresh fruit, veggies, eggs, and snacks. We planned for cold cuts for lunches and pasta dishes for dinners. Tony was generous to ensure his crew was happy.
We needed to be off the dock at Porto Cupecoy Marina by 3pm sharp in order to pass through 2 swing bridges during their limited opening schedule.
The second red flag came when I noticed that the 2 bow and 1 stern navigation lights were wrapped in saran wrap. I thought I had seen everything but this was a new one. I forgot to get a photo, but yes, each fixture was wrapped with a few layers of that wrap. Apparently the lights were loose and leaked as the wrap kept them secured in place and protected them from potential waves splashing up on the pulpits. I also learned that the navigation lights used 75 watts (3 x 25 watt bulbs) of power and the boat's electrical system didn’t have the capacity to run the lights all night without our autopilot eventually shutting down when power got low. So ... we ran the engine. All night long. And ... in order to start the engine, we had to start one of the 2 generators first to provide enough cranking power to turn the 75hp engine over. If neither generator started, we had the lithium jump start batteries and other backup options. Now things started to get interesting.
Around day 4 we suddenly had all sorts of power issues. My suspicions about electrical issues continued to come to fruition. We had no power to start the engine and even after starting a generator, we could not start the engine. Obviously, the only reason for the generators was to get the engine going. Tony relied on the engine to charge the system and he relied on the generators to start the engine. However, even with the generators running, running, the engine would not turn over. So, we ended up wiping out spare batteries and jump start batteries only to not start the engine anyway. Sweat dripping everywhere from anxiously working in the cabin, we took a break to gather our thoughts. An hour later Tony worked his magic as he connected batteries directly to the engine with a remote starter switch. The engine fired up. We were about 200 miles from Bermuda.
We slowed our progress to time our entry through the cut at Saint George harbor perfectly. We arrived at the Spit buoy at 6am as the sun began to rise. I motored our craft through and to the concrete wall to tie up at the immigration building at about 7am. In just a little over 6 full days, we arrived in record time to beautiful Bermuda.