REAL BOAT LIFE ⛵ BROKEN ENGINE. NO SLEEP, NO VISA [Ep.31] SAILING SV CUBA

Do you want to know what real boat life feels like? Follow us every week in our journey as we sail around the world in our 46 foot tiny home Beneteau Oceanis 461 Clipper.

And just like that with a broken engine, no sleep and no more visa it’s time to leave! The winter is slowly creeping in, and the weather is becoming more challenging. With storms and squalls passing over the coast of Turkey, we do not have the best conditions ahead to sail to Crete. However, our 90 day visa is up, there is no way around, and we must leave. We had hoped the authorities would allow us some time for the high winds to calm after we checked out of the country, but we were asked to leave within 2 hours so we got underway.

Just a few hours into our sail west, there is reason for concern! CUBA is taking on water. We have a leak! Not the best news, when you are officially supposed to have left a country and the next coast is still a day sail away. Luckily we find a remote anchorage in the dark to tackle the issue.

Well past midnight Enrique manages to find the cause of the leak but fixing it is not the easiest or fastest of solutions. Boat repairs always seem to take way longer than anticipated and after a lot of effort, burned calories and a cut hand we can once again run the engine without flooding our sailboat. Just 3 hours later we only still have the sail to Crete ahead of us.

Fortunately for us now the wind has calmed down a bit. The next days we sail through all kinds of weather conditions and only drop the hook to catch some sleep. But we were not always able to find an anchorage to rest before nightfall and sometimes it felt like we had to tiptoe our way into a place where we could safely rest. In the pitchblack navigating can be very tricky. But after almost a week we finally make arrive to Elounda Bay in Crete. This is where we will spend the next few months of the winter.

No, we will not be resting our weary heads docked on a pontoon in a comfy marina. We are looking to ride out the worst of the winter on the hook. How bad could it be, right?