Fuel Spill Mangrove Cay, Bahamas

Turns out we were not out of the clear.  Last you heard we were fueling up and leaving West End headed into the Little Bahama Bank.  We made it to Mangrove Cay 23 miles Northeast anchored there and spent the night.  Woke up to the faint smell of fuel and an almost empty 55 gallon tank.  When we left West End we filled the tank which only needed 15 gallons and motor sailed the 23 miles to Mangrove Cay.  This would have only used a few gallons.  Confused and not sure if we were siphoned we decided to take the cover off the tank and flip the tank over.

Hmmmmmmmm seems this could be the problem.  Sorry to all the little fishes below us  55gallons of fuel literally down the drain.  Dan and Preston had cleaned around the tank in Fort Pierce before we even hit the water and it was very gunky and smelled like fuel for a few days after they cleaned it.  We didn't feel the need to unhook all the fuel lines and ground wires because it was still half full of fuel.  Now sitting in the middle of nowhere with an empty fuel tank we feel otherwise.  Good thing this boat was made for sailing and not motoring!

Back to Grand Bahama island we go.  Freeport to be exact, a huge import city where we will be able to A: have our tank welded and reinforced or B: order in a new tank.  For novice sailors we were cooking yesterday against the wind going an average of 8 knots.  We were even keeling over in our 18'-3" beam catamaran.  I was too nervous to let the boys go any faster, but we were all grinning ear to ear.  Nothing like flying across the ocean in silence.  The closer we got to the deep seas of the Atlantic the rougher it got and of course the sun was setting right as we were approaching the thin channel out of the bank.  We decided not to try and cross the 6 foot shallow channel at night and anchored in the rough seas all night.  Our anchor held very well and our GPS fix stayed the same throughout the night. That doesn't mean we all weren't up 77 times checking it.  Not that we could sleep anyway as the waves slammed into the bottom of the boat.