Cruising Tales From The Log of Nilaya
by Jim and Mary Gienko
July, 2004 - Part 1

Jim and Mary purchased Nilaya, a 36’ Bayfield
	cutter-rigged sailboat, in 1986, with the express purpose of someday sailing her in the Bahamas and perhaps, even
further south into the Caribbean. This is the story of that first saltwater voyage, a three month cruise to the Exumas in the Bahamas.

Cruising Tales

The serious planning for the trip began in January.  Up until our move to Punta Gorda in August, 2003, Nilaya had been a freshwater boat that we had kept on Lake Michigan.  The extent of our cruising was taking our two or three weeks of vacation time and sailing from port to port in Michigan and Wisconsin. Now we had to plan for 3 months of living on board, anchoring rather than docking, and having enough battery power to meet our needs.  Preparing the boat mechanically and electronically was Jim’s job; planning and provisioning the boat and getting the house ready to close up was Mary’s task.  After dozens of trips to Boat US, West Marine and the local hardware stores, Jim was ready.  He had the extra batteries housed and hooked up and had found space on board for all the numerous spare parts he planned to carry.  We had jerry jugs for extra diesel fuel, water, and gasoline.  The dingy was lashed to the deck and the outboard was hanging on the back rail.

All the parts had been inventoried, recorded and stored.  Mary had been busy making regular trips to Sam’s and Wal-Mart.  Everyone had warned us that food was very expensive in the Bahamas, so stocking up at home was a good idea.  We found space aboard for 3 months worth of food.  All the cans had been labeled, recorded and stored in their appropriate bin.  All cardboard and paper had been removed from food and the items were stored in plastic containers or bags to prevent cockroaches.  The “wine cellar” was stocked.    The newspaper had been stopped, the mail diverted to a post office box, the phone put on vacation hold, all the bills for the next three months prepaid, and a lawn service hired.  Captain Jim and Admiral Mary were ready.

A friend  once said, “The hardest part of any trip is just leaving the dock.”  Oh how true that was.  We were traveling with one other boat, good friends from up north.  On the morning of our proposed departure, Fred calls and says, “We’re not ready, let’s leave tomorrow.”  The next day, we woke to a dark and rainy morning.  Jim sat glued to the radar screen watching the storms.  At 1:30pm we saw a slight break in the weather, and off we went, planning to stop the first night at Useppa Island and make a long passage the following day.  The long awaited journey had begun.  Jim and Mary decided to write personal journals on this trip, but did not share them with each other until the last week of the trip.  Sometimes it was questionable if they were actually on the same boat because the perspectives were so different.  This series of articles come from those journals.  See if you can tell who is writing.

“A very long day today to say the least, Naples to Little Shark River (later on this will feel like a very short leg, but at the time the 70 mile run felt long).  If every day of cruising is like today, I’d turn back tomorrow, but I’m sure things will get better.  We were sailing along at almost 8 knots.  It took some getting used to again, heeled over between 20-30 degrees.  Repairing the rip in the sail cover and preparing lunch nearly put me under.

Then the chaos began.  We needed to change course.  To insure arrival before nightfall, we decided to power the rest of the way.  Heading directly into the wind and  the building seas, we felt the engine begin to  starve for fuel.  We slowed the engine (making a long trip even longer), and Jim cleared out the lazarette with the expectation that he would have to crawl down in to put a new fuel filter on (with 20 knots of wind blowing and

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