I wrote some of this as it was happening to preserve the memories best I could, so the writing of this is a bit strange in places.

Winds were pretty fierce today. Getting the anchor out was a bit of a pain, but we got it out after some time.
Soon after clearing the bridge the winds picked up. Shawn noticed the screacher was unfurling a bit and we'd have to do something about it later. I went to the head for a bit and heard Shawn say "Gonna need your help soon!"
Nature, of both wind and bowels, doesn't much care about what the other is doing at the time. I was trying to finish up best I could when I heard Shawn swear loudly and run on deck. I rushed for the helm and cried out asking what to do. Over the whirling winds all I heard was "TAKE THE HELM" but not much else.
The screacher had mostly unfurled. For those just joining us today, the screacher is a sail about the size of the mainsail but used like a jib. It's used instead of the jib when winds are too light for the jib to be useful. It is very, VERY good at catching wind. You put it away when winds are too strong.
Like... Uh... In the 19kt winds we were experiencing.
I panicked and noticed we were headed straight for the channel markers. I turned the wheel left as far as it'd go, but she was making a hard right. I made the decision to put the engine in idle and go with the wind into the shoals nearby, not even thinking about whether it was sand or not. (This was the wrong decision, as Shawn told me later)
To make matters worse there was a powerboat that didn't even slow down despite the spectacle of a large man wrestling a sail, so I was praying we'd dodge or they'd dodge. We went into the sand (thank goodness it was sand) and got very stuck. Our screacher fell in the water and we had to haul it out, then detach and shove it in the sail locker. Our engine was entirely stuck, despite digging around it, so with some maneuvering we managed to point the bow forward to a more easily towable position and called up Boat US.

There was a terrifying "POP" from the engine as they pulled us out. It turned out to be nothing and we motored into the ICW.

Yesterday we briefly experienced some pulsing from the engine - that is, it lowered in RPM despite us doing nothing to change its rpm. It only happened briefly so we decided to just continue observing. Well today it continued. A lot. We switched over to our newer fuel, but the issue persisted.

While this was happening our prop got caught on a line someone just dropped in the ICW and we were stuck until it finally cut off. Nothing major, but certainly annoying. Probably the cut line to a crab trap or something.

I hate crab traps with a burning passion.

Got into Seabranch Preserve State Park (the waters in it anyway) when the pulsing got worse. The engine turned off twice, and our maneuverability was totally gone. We were stuck and couldn't tell what we were actually stuck on. So we called boat us again for a tow...

Shawn has been playing with the engine filter based on Derek and Heather's suggestions that these problems stem from water in the filter. We managaed to successfully replace the filter but it still sputtered in idle. We both had cuts filled with oil, degreaser, and saltwater at this point. What fun!

At this point we didn't know whether we wanted to continue or go home. I convinced Shawn to get us towed to a nearby marina to see if this would be a quick and easy repair. So now we're at said marina, waiting for the storm to pass over and for a mechanic to look at the engine.

We're definitely not doing a Bahamian adventure at this point - the weather looks awful for a crossing and it also looks bad over there. Not to mention we may have more issues and don't want to get towed across the gulf stream. A keys vacation for us it is!

More updates later.

"Cruising is just boat repair in exotic locations" - Heather Preston

5pm Edit: This area is almost like home. Cute little arts district on the water. Had some okay food and delicious boozy floats (key lime cider with watermelon sorbet for me, hard root beer and vanilla ice cream for Shawn). Rained hard when the mechanic first showed up so he went away, and now it's clear skies but we haven't been able to get ahold of him. It's past 5 now so it'd be rude to continue bothering him. Hopefully it's a quick fix and we're back on the water-road tomorrow!