Last Day Of Our Voyage

It is the final day of our trip and at 6:00 am we have about 52 miles to go.  we were still flying all three sails.  The wind was 15 knots out of the north east and it was about 80 degrees.  We had 6 foot swells.  Paul starting getting cleaned up for customs.  The rally told us that you should be all cleaned up to go into customs.  So, he shaved, fixed his hair up, and put on some fresh cloths.  Then Paul proceeded to fill out the forms for customs.  Everything was going smooth and we saw land in front of us.  The boat was rock and rolling again.  The boat was going 7 knots and was healed over 25 degrees.  What a great way to come into Tortola.  Just as we started entering the protected waters, the wind died.  So, we decided to put the sails away and turn on the engine.  We were only 10 miles away for customs.  We thought customs closed at 5:00 pm and it was 4:00 pm.  We thought we had no worries and then the engine started acting funny.  The RPM's kept going way down then would come back up.  It happened four times.   Then when it did the fifth time the engine cut out.  Oh Shit!  We were approaching an area were there were big rocks on one side and a mountain on the other.  Plus boats everywhere.  We decided to put some genoa out.  Paul kept priming the engine.  We would start it back up and it would work for a while.  Then it would cut out again.  We were only 6 miles from customs.  Paul had figured  out our issue.  Here the fuel tank had gunk in the bottom of it and with all the rocking and rolling it was through the fuel and kept clogging up the fuel filters.  Thank God we have two filters, so Paul was able to change one as the engine was still chugging along.  We had to baby it all the way in.  When we ran lower RPM's the engine would keep going along.  We made it to customs.  However, Paul was sweating like crazy and it was time to get dropped  at the customs dock. Paul wiped his head off, put a different shirt on and jumped off the boat.  The guys and I motored around Sopers Hole.  We were worried that the engine was going to cut out on us again, but she didn't!  It took Paul about 45 minutes.  He took a handheld VHF radio with him.  He called us when he was done and we went back to the dock to pick him back up.  Paul leaped back on the boat and we were off to Nanny Cay.  We had 8 more miles to go until we were tied up.  Well the engine kept giving us problems the whole way there.  It took us 2 hours to get to the marina.  We finally arrived at Nanny Cay and were unable to get a hold of anyone on the VHF to find out which slip we were supposed to go to.  As we came  up to the marina we saw our friends from Rhythm.  They were on the Tee head end of the pier.  We told them our issues and they informed us there was a slip open across from them.  So we decide to take it for the night and figure out our permanent slip the next day.  Thank God  the engine did not die going in.  We got the boat all tied up.  We jumped off the boat with a bottle of champagne and gave our friends huge hugs.  What a great feeling it was to be in the slip.  WE MADE IT!