You can have too much of a good thing! A low pressure front that was predicted to arrive late Friday came in early - just when we were off Cape Hatteras and pretty vulnerable. The seas picked up to about 8 feet as the wind increased to steady 26 and gusts into the low 30s. Perfect opportunity for any crud in the fuel tanks to get stirred up and plug the fuel filters - plus anything that wasn't nailed down ended up on the cabin floor!
Our bailout point was to be Cape Lookout Point, just before sunset. With the engine out we needed to sail to safety, around the point and into the harbor on the lee side. Wearing full foul weather gear, PFD harness' clipped to jacklines, we made the approach in the pitch black and found we couldn't get upwind in the narrow harbor with just staysail alone... so dropped anchor at buoy "4" right in the mouth of the harbor, where we stayed for 2 days until the storm blew through. During that time we picked up and re-organized the cabin and again replaced the fuel filters and bled the fuel lines. We rejoiced when the engine kicked over!
