In the name of group cohesion, today's leaders of the day mixed up the boat crews, and I got sent to Private Retreats. While for most of the week it had been the faster boat (it was newer), shortly after pulling up the anchor we realized the boat was taking on water! A faulty repair yesterday meant that whenever we turned on the engine, water would come rushing into the boat. We frantically pumped out the water while trying to figure out what was wrong.
The result was quite an adventure - we had to deal with a leaky engine (which at some points was smoking), rain, 20-knot winds (just over 20mph), and a very narrow channel that required more than a dozen tacks (changes of direction) to get through. (Since a boat cannot sail directly into the wind, if the channel is exactly upwind, you have to progress by constantly switching from 45 degrees left of center to 45 degrees right.) In the end, the mixed crew worked effectively under adversity during the six hours it took to sail to Bequia, and we all learned a lot and had fun with the experience.
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