Taking on water and almost SANK!

Since the family Bahamas trip in May, with the wind blowing and an engine delaying us a week, my mom was hoping we could all get back to the Bahamas this fall. Following the STCW course and while watching the weather, my parents and grandfather planned a week trip to the Bahamas. We were planning to go to one of my favorite islands, raft up with some friends, and spend the days spearfishing.

Saturday, the day after the STCW course, my grandfather and I went provisioning and loaded the boat up before picking my parents up from the airport. After about 10 cart-fulls of things from food, clothes, and diving gear then unpacking, we had family join us for a nice happy hour and dinner before we set off the next morning. 

We planned to leave at 6:30 when the sun was beginning to rise. The past few years my dad hasn’t driven the boat as much as I was learning and became captain. Since this was possibly my last trip in this boat and I am confident in this boat, we both wanted him to take back over. I did the lines and he pulled out right on time. We watched the sunrise as we cruised through the intracoastal. Leaving the port and speeding up is one of my favorite things, especially when the ocean was as flat as it was that day. There was no wind and we were excited to spend half the day fishing and enjoying the whole day on the water before anchoring in Andros. 

We were planning on fishing right before and through the Gulf Stream, so a few minutes out of the port, I took over the watch while my parents got the fishing gear ready. The fishing rods were down, my dad was rigging everything, and my mom and I were in the flybridge enjoying the water when all of a sudden I had an alarm go off. I looked at the screen and my heart dropped, it was a “high water bilge” alarm. 

Speechless and trembling I ran down the ladder and lifted the engine room hatch. I didn’t even have to go down the ladder or grab my ear muffs; all I saw was water rushing under my starboard engine like a river. An image I will never be able to get out of my mind. Looking at it for half a second, I ran back to the flybridge and while turning the boat, told my mom to go let my dad and papa to go to the engine room immediately. 

We turned the starboard engine off, hoping to stop or slow the water coming in. It stopped for maybe a few seconds, then started flooding in again. I slowly headed towards the port and called Captain Jay, who takes care of our boat. I went back down to look through the engine room to see the extent of the water coming in; I was in shock… praying it didn’t get any higher. After I was back at the helm, I slowly started losing my steering. I told my papa and that was the moment we called tow. We had no idea where the water was coming from, we couldn’t get the flow down, the bilges couldn’t keep up, and I didn’t decide to call tow until my steering went out. Looking back, that was one of my biggest mistakes. I should have called tow and the coast guard immediately. 

Considering it was a Sunday and the ocean was beautiful, tow had to call in additional employees to come and said it could take 45 minutes. I made the decision to go to a mooring ball that was close to shore… Worst case scenario, I was ready to beach the boat. I went down to the engine room where my dad was shop-vacuuming the water out and I grabbed a 5-gallon bucket and started bailing. You would have never known we were taking water out, the level never changed.

Another mistake I made looking back was grabbing that bucket instead of getting life jackets out and unclipping the dinghy. We had turned off the generator and all the majority of our breakers and wouldn’t have deployed the dinghy, but I could’ve prepared it. Tow ended up coming out sooner than expected and brought three large bilge pumps. 

After my grandfather discussed insurance, tow started the bilge pumps. There was barely a decrease in the water level, but it was enough to start looking for where the water was coming from. We discovered three of the six hose clamps on our exhaust pipe had broken off and the pipe had consequently shifted a little bit. The water was coming in from the exhaust opening in the back.

As we were pumping, we tried to stuff the exhaust opening with a pillow. It didn’t make that much of a difference but did slow the incoming water flow a little bit. Eventually, we had 4 towboats surrounding us, it was a little comical once we realized we would be okay.

Another issue we ran into was, considering it was a Sunday, finding a yard that would haul us out. It would be impossible to fix the pipe without hauling out. Eventually, we found a yard all the way down the New River that was able to come in to help. We were towed the entire way down. I reflected and realized how lucky I was that my steering went out and we called tow. My grandfather had thought we would be okay if we were tied up well at our dock… there was absolutely no way we would have even gotten to the dock without sinking. 

We hauled out, emptied all of our provisions, sprayed the engine room down with fresh water, and made calls and preparations to start on her first thing in the morning. By 4 pm on Monday, the exhaust pipe was fixed with 12 new hose clamps between the port and starboard engines, the electric and wiring had been inspected, generators ran, and we were good to leave the yard and bring her home. We got her home around 7 pm and the only thing we had to replace was the a/c pumps. 

On Tuesday the a/c pumps were replaced by mid-afternoon and we headed to Bimini to start our trip. This was easily one of the scariest experiences I have had, but am so grateful for it. I was able to learn so much and am a better captain now due to it. I am so grateful for so many of the variables that came into play. We were incredibly lucky that we were so close to Florida; if we had been anywhere else or even a few more miles out, we would have sunk. If there would have been wind that day, even 1-foot swell, we probably would have sunk. I’m grateful for every single person that was able to help us and help us turn around so quickly. Obviously, our first priority was safety and to get the boat back to running safely, but we were hopeful we could still make it to the Bahamas for at least a few days.

And on another positive note, we had taken my foster-fail kitten, Mako, with us to see how he would adjust to boat life since I will be bringing him on my sailboat with me. He was relaxed the whole time, oblivious to the chaos surrounding him, and was a little light in the day for us and everyone helping us.