We started the engine at 0702 hours on Monday morning. There was a light breeze, which would hopefully pick up throughout the day, allowing us to sail. The swell forecast for today was much reduced from prior days but still up at 1.8m, hopefully slightly behind us. If it was on the beam, we would be rocking and rolling all the way to Linton, around 50 miles west of us. Pete lifted the anchor, with the windlass needing help again and then went below to wash his hands, while I started to pilot my way out of the anchorage. We were familiar with the reefs here and knew that we could trust Navionics for pilotage. As soon as we were clear of the reefs, to the north, we turned the few degrees to get head to wind and raised the main sail. We turned to port onto a course of 326 degrees, about 35 degrees off the wind. It wasn't sufficient to sail, especially with only 5 knots of wind but the main sail was providing some lift and helping to counteract the roll of the swell. We needed to clear the shallows north of Porvenir before we could turn further to port and off the wind enough to put out the gib and sail. We inched round to port but the wind angle didn't change, evidence that our forward motion was creating most, if not all, of the wind. Despite having scrubbed the log wheel yesterday, we weren't registering any boat speed. The wind continued to drop until we had no wind at all. There was no chance of getting the gib out and sailing. The current also seemed to be against us, judging by our speed over the ground, under engine. We couldn't even muster 5 mph. At 1045 hours, we dropped the mainsail, fed up of it filling and collapsing in the swell, which was increasing as we approached the Escribanos Banks, with shallow but variable depths. We cleared the banks, passing between the major shoals and then the engine overheating alarm went off and we had to shut down the engine. We had barely any wind but I deployed the foresail in hope of creating some forward motion and a little steerage. There were shoals to the north of us and reefs close inshore, to port, although a way off. The sail didn't help very much but we continues to travel at around 1.2 mph, albeit in a south-westerly direction, more towards the shore than the required direction of travel. At least we were drifting away from the shoals. Pete topped up the antifreeze and after 20 minutes we restarted the engine, with low revs, initially. We now had a nerve-wracking journey ahead, wondering whether we would make it to Linton and if so, whether it would be dark before we arrived. We looked at an option to go to Turtle Cay, 10 miles this side of Linton, if we were late. Gradually, we increased the revs up to 1500 to pick up a little speed but we were still only averaging 4.7 mph. We could see a squall coming and hoped that it would bring some wind for us to sail. It did and we soon had both sails up, enjoying 7 knots of wind on the beam. It lasted a whole 3 minutes before we had to put the engine back on. The wind had come round slightly more west, so the sails weren't collapsing as much. We decided to leave both sails up, under engine, not very professional but it was necessary to ensure a timely arrival. We were now maintaining around 5.5 mph, with an occasional jump to 6 when there was a gust of favourable wind. The swell was a little more on the starboard quarter and the current was easing too. We started to breathe a little easier. A couple of distant squalls provided a bit more breeze now and again. At 2 o'clock, we had a visit from a finch, white and black, with a yellow crown ans
d stripes on its wings. It clung on to various sheets and halyards, to rest and flitted about pecking at lines and chrome. Eventually it left, flying back towards shore, a couple of miles away. Hopefully it made it home. As we closed in on the headland east of Linton, the breeze picked up to 8 knots and we wished for it to stay that way, in case of engine issues on approach to the anchorage. At 1630 hours, in the shelter of Isla Grande, we rolled away the foresail and then dropped the main. Having turned southwest, the wind was directly behind us and felt non-existent. Nevertheless, if we had an issue with the engine, we could still deploy the foresail and turn into the wind to fill the sails and steer away from danger. Yachts came into view much sooner than on our previous visit. The anchorage must be busy to have yachts anchored so far out. We knew that we wanted to anchor behind Polish, on the south side, where the depths are a little more shallow and we had been comfortable before. We dropped the anchor with 7.7m under the keel and landed with 8.9m, after reversing the anchor in. We had 35 metres of chain out. There was a New Zealand yacht in front of us, to port and Polish to our starboard side. We were a little further south than last time and the southside reef wasn't too far away from us but hopefully we were ok. We heaved a sigh of relief; the journey was over, without another engine overheat.