We had planned an overnight trip to get us further east on Puerto Rico’s south coast. The weather looked good, fueled up, and we were off.

This was going to be an into the east wind leg, so we just thought we would motor along straight to our destination.

All was going well, until about 1:00 am. Both engines stopped &%$#* and Cathie was up right away.

Holly truck, what can we do. Well yes, Catnip is a sail boat, so let’s sail. Well, normally when we raise the main sail we point the boat straight into the wind. This is lesson one in sailing school. Without an engine this wasn’t going to happen. The problem here is, shortly after the main sail comes out of the lazy bag, it has to pass between the lazy jack lines. This would be fine with a pin head sail, but not with our square top. With a boat hook, long pole, light, several harsh words, we were able to get the sail up, and Catnip sprang back to life. Now we were able to sail away from shore, and we did for quite awhile, perhaps an hour or more. What a relief it was to have the boat under control.

The next day we saw the problem, Catnip had collected a lot of old rope and parts of a fishing net. After setting this unwanted line free, apologizing to whoever may find the line next, we tried the engines. They each started, but port would die as soon as we put it in gear. The plan was to sail into the lee side of an island, drop the anchor, catch our breath, and see what we could do. But after trying the port engine in reverse, it seemed to work more free of the entangled line, and it would operate OK ish.

We pressed on, and made it to Salinas. We hired a diver to cut the rest of the rope away, after I had done what I could with mask, snorkel, and sharp knife. He got most of it cut away, and the engines ran better, but port still seemed to have an issue. The yards in the area were not too willing to haul us out, so we pressed on to Antigua after a few days rest.