Oh the stories we have after chartering for many years...

Our first major issue was through BVI Yacht Charters. A thru hull fitting was corroded and basically fell apart in my hands when I was trying to figure out why it was leaking. We basically had a hole in the hull that was spewing water into the boat. None of the wooden plugs would fit but I eventually found a wine cork that worked to stop the flow of water. It was around 8pm but we called the base thinking they would want to send someone out right away. They didn't and actually wanted us to sail back to the base the next day with a wine cork plugging the hole! Needless to say we now always sail with a bottle of wine with a cork in it!

Next issue was in the Spanish Virgins at Culebrita on Christmas Day. We had anchored and I had taken my bearings to make sure we weren't dragging. Everything seemed fine and we were opening up presents when I noticed that we seemed to be really drifting. Low and behold we were! I started up the engine and my husband went up to the windlass to pick up the anchor so we could re-anchor. Come to find out that we had no anchor attached! The line had come unspliced from the anchor chain. Luckily there were some mooring balls and we picked one up. We then got in the dinghy to go look for our lost anchor. We found it but couldn't pull it up as it was too heavy to pull up from the dinghy. We tied a fender to it and brought the boat back to it and my husband and sons were able to lug it back onto the boat. The charter company, Sail Caribe, was super thankful for us recovering the anchor. Lesson learned here was that I would always check the anchor rode before using the anchor. At the time it was only my husband's 2nd charter so he was a bit of a newbie and possibly didn't notice that the splice looked a little frayed.

In the Grenadines we had outboard engine and boat engine issues with the Lagoon we had chartered through Barefoot Yacht Charters out of St. Vincent. We were in Bequia and they sent a new outboard motor to us via ferry which made us have to stay an extra day to wait for the outboard. Once we got the outboard we went to leave and the port engine wouldn't start. We again called the base and they gave us a number of a guy to call. We did and he came and got the engine started but then it would overheat quickly. He finally solved the problem but it caused us to stay in Bequia for a third night which isn't the worst place to be stuck. We had a blast getting to know the locals and celebrating the Christmas season with them. Lesson learned is that Kerry (engine repair guy) is an amazing guy and we have used him again on return trips to Bequia (outboard engine issues on or next trip) and he now owns the floating bar, Bar One, in the bay.

This past trip we were in the BVI's on our family owned Sunsail boat at the same time you were. Even before getting off the dock we had troubles with the port engine showing the RPMs. They sent someone out to fix it which delayed us leaving the dock. When we finally were able to get off the dock I was surprised that the boat was not handling as well as it usually does. It seemed like I was being pushed to the port but there wasn't much wind. I usually steer using the engines in tight spots as I feel like I have more control but the boat didn't seem to respond well and I had to switch to the wheel. We got out of the marina and I looked down at the RPM's for the port engine and even though I had sped up the engines the port RPMs were in the same spot as when the engine was at a lower speed. Came to realize that the port engine had cut out but the RPM indicator was stuck. No wonder I had such trouble using the engines to steer, I was maneuvering off of one engine the whole time! I restarted the engine and it seemed to be working fine but then cut out halfway across to Cooper and I couldn't get it restarted. We had reserved a Boaty Ball since we were so late coming off the dock and once we got to Cooper, of course, there was another boat on our mooring ball. Since I was having to pick up a ball with one engine in the fluky Cooper wind tunnel we took another Boaty Ball just to get us settled. Ended up finding out that the boat that was on our ball had "Just gone in for lunch." UGH! Luckily the boat that was supposed to be on the ball we took was very accommodating and took our originally reserved ball understanding that it was just a little bit trickier to grab a ball with one engine in the wind. Lesson learned was that I can steer a Catamaran only using one engine, it just takes a bit of a different skill set. Sunsail was great and sent a guy within a couple hours to fix the engine.

So basically my philosophy is [censored] happens but I do expect that the charter company deals with it quickly. I learned a long time ago that if something can break on a boat it will. I just try to enjoy the spot we are "stuck" in because it is usually in a beautiful place. Our stop in Bequia allowed us to do so much more on that island than we would have originally been able to do. And we met some great people who we now consider friends!

If you have any desire for an interesting read about how to adapt to things breaking you can read the article below that Chris Doyle wrote about our experience losing our rudder when bringing my childhood home (I grew up living on a boat in the Caribbean) from Florida to St. Thomas to Grenada.

http://www.doyleguides.com/the-traumerei-delivery-sailing-without-a-rudder/