We left Bimini, Bahamas for a 75 nautical mile crossing to Palm Beach, FL - a slow trip with just one engine, but we would get a bit of a speed boost from the Gulf Stream which was running about 3 knots.  We departed early with the sun, enjoying a beautiful dawn sky.

It was a nice day to travel on the ocean and the seas were pretty easy.  About two hours out of Bimini we heard a loud engine alarm go off - it was the high temperature alarm.  We monitor the engine gauges closely, but the temp spiked very quickly in just a few moments.  We shut the engine down and Jim found that the vee-belt had broken.  Rather than just drift in the Gulf Stream we decided to fire up the "bad" engine to maintain steering and keep us steady in the waves while Jim was in the very hot engine room replacing the broken belt.  It didn't take him long to make the repair and as soon as we fired up the hot engine and the cooling pump was running again she cooled down to normal quickly.  Crisis averted, we shut the "bad" engine back down and continued our passage.  We've certainly have had a lot of little adventures on this cruise.
At the Lake Worth inlet we turned our cell phones back on, cleared US Customs with a phone call, and anchored for the night with a lot more boats, cars, trains, and lights than we've been accustomed to for a while.
The next day we went back out in the ocean to run up to Ft. Pierce - a perfect glassy day on the water.  We even saw a big sailfish right at the surface, with his tall fin sticking out of the water.  We had a quiet night at anchor, and left very early for the long run up the Indian River to our next destination - Cocoa, FL.  Cocoa has a nice marina convenient to lots of shops and restaurants, and we have good friends who live nearby.  It's a great spot to sit still for a few weeks and make our engine repairs.
About an hour before we got to Cocoa the sky turned ugly and we heard warnings about severe thunderstorms on the radio.  We tracked the storms on radar and managed to avoid most of the squalls, but the chance of lightning is scary when you're all by yourself out on the water.

We settled into the marina at Cocoa so we could remove the failing damper plate and get the correct replacement.  Removing the damper required building a lifting frame to support the 200 lb. transmission so it could be slid back out of the way.  Jim built the frame and rigged a block and tackle, he unbolted the shaft and transmission and bell housing, replaced the damper plate, and put it all back together - and he did the work all by himself.  For both engines.  He is amazing!

Here is what a new drive damper plate looks like:

The blog is a bit out of date and out of touch with reality.  We are now back in the US dealing with our engine repair, and I think my reluctance to leave the Bahamas in blog form mirrors our reluctance to leave the Bahamas in real life.  But such is the way of cruising.  We are very good at going with the flow because weather, mechanical things, broken teeth, and other lumpy bits of life constantly get in the way of any attempt to make "plans". 

It takes a few days to get from the Exumas back to the US, and we had a few adventures that are worth sharing.  We headed to Nassau where we had a replacement engine part waiting for us.

Jim and I spent a day walking around town in the drizzle to get some lumber, screws, and bolts for the repair, and the next day Jim did some amazing engineering wizardry with the supplies and our block-and-tackle to support the 200 lb transmission, unbolt it, and slide it out of the way.  By himself.  The bad news is that the part didn't fit - our manual and reality didn't match.  We could try to figure out the right part number and wait for one to be shipped in again, but that would be a lot of cost and delay.  And the second named storm of the hurricane season had popped up already.  Heartbroken, we realized that the prudent thing would be to head back to the US to deal with it all, safer if more storms crop up, and cheaper dockage and parts accessibility. 

The trip from Nassau to the Berry Islands started out nice and smooth, but we encountered squalls in the afternoon and the sky looked bruised and angry.  As the weather turned ugly we saw some swordfish tail-walking!  Apparently they get frisky when the seas do likewise.  We dodged the worst of the squalls and anchored for the night, leaving at 0400 for the long, slow (on one engine) trip across the Great Bahama Bank to Bimini.  We planned to stay there for one last Bahamas day with our friends on SMALL WORLD.

We gathered our snorkeling gear and waited for SMALL WORLD to come by our marina and pick us up, but they had to wait because the departing mail boat ran aground in the entrance channel at low tide, and nothing could get past it.

One of my very favorite cays in the Exuma Park is Shroud because it's criss-crossed with little creeks - perfect for paddling a kayak.  The weather would be turning ugly soon so we only had about a day and a half before we had to leave to find better protection from the strong fronts heading our way.  Jim isn't much of a paddler, so I had the mangroves and quiet creeks to myself.