Our Grand Adventure

14th March 2026 | Odometer: 1706nm | Bahamas

Waiting for weather in Man of War bay at Great Inagua island had been a wonderfully relaxing experience. Even so, we were excited to be making the 12 hour crossing to Acklin island on the 13th once the winds abated, and to continue exploring northwards through the Bahamas island chain.

So obviously we did all our normal pre-passage checks on the 12th. Only to find…

Oh. Crap.

That is coolant. Lots of it… leaking out our engine. 😟

We immediately spent some time to figure out where it was leaking from. And unfortunately, the culprit was a small sleeve, between the front coolant tank the cylinder head, that had cracked and was actively leaking coolant out.

We phoned a friend who is a caterpillar mechanic to see if he had any advice. Unfortunately, this is a non-trivial piece to repair. We would need to completely open the engine, removing the cylinder head, and pull a lot of the engine apart to replace it. We were in a very remote island, about as far from a mechanic as we could be.

Our friend, Nick, told us to patch it up with epoxy putty and limp it up to a mechanic to get it repaired. So, we commenced pulling all the coolant out the engine, and then cleaning off the whole area. The chances we would be able to stop the coolant leaking out of a high pressure area of the line were… low. But, we gave it our best shot. We spent so long cleaning, then applied the epoxy. With baited breath we put the coolant back in and crossed our fingers and toes. No go. It was still leaking.

So we ripped all the coolant out again, cleaned the epoxy and tried applying a new layer around. We would check in the morning if this layer had worked. It was now super late, and we had spent the whole day in the engine bay, we definitely wouldn’t be going anywhere. Feeling a bit overwhelmed and disheartened we went to bed.

Being on anchor, without a functioning engine is a bit of a scary feeling. There are always risks that you can drag anchor or need to move due to changing conditions. Not having a working engine meant we were praying our anchor continued to hold and no major conditions changed! We were anchored right between two reefs which previously had felt lovely and now felt scary and stupid.

Preparing for a Risky Passage

We woke up the next morning, and after checking, yup, still leaking coolant. We started looking up mechanics who would be able to help us do the work – the closest we could find? Georgetown. Three days of travel away, through wide open ocean and then through a reef.

Even if we could get this patch to seal it, it could crack and fail at literally any point, after which the coolant would run out of the engine into the bilge… potentially leaving us without an engine, adrift in the middle of the ocean. 😬

Overwhelmed and Afraid

Needless to say, we were… not excited about this. But we couldn’t stay where we were either. We did two more rounds of epoxy putty to seal it up as best we could and figured we would just buy a heap more coolant from an auto shop here and beg them to deliver it to us as the far end of the island. We would use the overflow to fill up more coolant as it leaked out and hope to God we made it all the way to Georgetown.

We were both feeling very overwhelmed by it all. It felt like this could be the end of our adventure and potentially the end of the engine in this boat. I was terrified of the thought of the engine failing at any point in the coming days and how far we had to go. Probably the worst birthday I’ve ever had. Sorry to anyone who messaged me that day – I really couldn’t even begin to reply.

Switch to the Safer Path

I started chatting with the auto parts store over WhatsApp, when the guy who owns the store says, “You sound like you need a mechanic!”. I started telling him our tale, after which he tells me that there is a retired caterpillar mechanic on the island who used to fix all the machines at the salt mine here! Amazing!

We had a video call with the mechanic, showed him the issue. He was confident he could fix it if we ordered the parts in. So, a complete change of plans. We would make our way back to Matthew Town into the town dock there, he would come take a look at the engine, help us order all the parts and then when they arrived we could get it all installed.

What. A. Relief.

We were confident we could do 1.5hours down to Matthew Town under a dodgy patch job. This was way, WAY safer than risking it on three days of travel to get to Georgetown. It might take a little longer to get all the parts but honestly, we would rather wait than take such a risk.

So after a second day of working in the engine bay, we were utterly exhausted, pretty emotional and a bit nervous about the next day. The sunset was, as always, stunning, and yet neither of us really appreciated it.

Motoring to Matthew Town

We got up and headed into town. It would either make it or it wouldn’t. I couldn’t bear to think about it for another second so we just crossed our fingers and went.

Thankfully, the trip went smoothly and we were able to pull into the town dock, and get all tied up at one of the available berths there. It was such a relief to be in a dock, tied up and safe.

The local mechanic swung by later that afternoon and helped us put together a parts list to order on Monday. He is such a top bloke!

Birthday Bash

Being a Saturday night, we thought it would be worth getting off the boat, and trying to break out of the mental doom cycle. We asked around to see if anywhere was open for dinner. I got the number for a lady who ran the Lighthouse Restaurant & Bar, about a half hour walk away.

I gave her a call to ask if they were open for dinner, and she tells me, yes, but they have a private party on. I said no worries, we would come another night. But, she wouldn’t have a bar of it! No, no, you must come anyway, it won’t be a problem! So, off we headed, ready for a beverage and a meal – assuming we would be just tucked into a side corner while the party went on.

On arrival, we realised this wouldn’t be the case at all and we had just been invited… to the party! So we had an amazing evening meeting the whole family who own the restaurant. One of the sister’s is the chef, another runs the front bar (it was her birthday), and another out of town sister had come to visit. The bartender (cousin) and the mum too! We had a great time meeting a bunch of their friends, being fed an incredible meal and trying the local coconut rum. What an absolutely wonderful way to start our time in Matthew Town. I can’t thank them enough for making us feel so very welcome at such a low point for us. ❤️