When we were leaving the Berry Islands we had two plans of action, depending on whether the Marina we had called had space for us. This meant we were waiting for the dock master to get in and call us before leaving our anchorage. Bahamian time runs a little later than other places we have lived so by the time we got the go ahead we were on a bit of a time crunch to get there. Heading upwind with low winds meant we were motor sailing the entire way. At one point, with no land in sight, our engine rpms suddenly dropped. Not sure what had happened, we held at the lower speed for a minute and then revved up again and everything seemed fine. We decided to carry on and monitor sounds and temperatures with extra vigilance. We got into the chaotic waters of Nassau in good time and were able to grab the parts we needed and do some provisioning before heading to the Exumas.
The winds and seas on the day we left for the Exumas were a dream so with no motor running, we didn’t discover something was wrong until later in the day. While navigating through a known shallow area, we brought down the sails and started up the engine. As soon as the engine kicked on, a loud knocking sound started, clearly a cause for concern! After arriving at our anchorage a dive below the hull showed a very clear issue!
We can only assume we caught this particular unwanted hitchhiker between the Berry Islands and Nassau. We were able to cut the rope off the prop, much to the dismay of our new (self-appointed) hull and propeller guard, a little Remora fish, who appeared to hang out below our hull the entire time we were at Norman’s Cay.
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