Business in the Bahamas tends to move at its own speed. Such was the case with our attempt to replace our bad engine starting batteries. The engine specialist at our boatyard came over first thing Monday morning and confirmed we had 1 bad starting battery and a 2nd in that bank that was
probably 70%. He also confirmed there was a Cat dealer close by who had the batteries we needed in stock. Yeah.
His boss, the project manager, put a quote together and promised he would get it to us for approval promptly. Then, we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, around 3:30, his boss approved the quote so he could show it to us. Of course, by then, it was too late to do anything so another night in this noisy yard. Ughhh.
We did get our bikes down & rode into Freeport to see what it was like. Not much to see, though.
Tuesday morning, after a couple more trips by Jim to push the yard guys, they did finally go get the batteries and bring them to the boat. Weighing in at over 100 pounds each, it was a struggle for the mechanics to get them into our engine room and then back into the tight little corner to replace the bad ones.
Once the batteries were installed, it took the yard another hour to process the paperwork so we could leave. Again, it's the Bahamas, mon!
Soooo, just as we were getting ready to leave, a couple of tugboats pulled in & tied up to our neighbor, a very large diving catamaran that works out of Nassau. We waited while they pulled him off the dock and directly into a "dry dock". It really was quite the show!
They sink the dry dock, pull the boat in, and then raise the dock and boat so that the boat is high & dry so they can work on the bottom. Pretty slick.
Once we left our dock, we had to clear out with harbor control to make sure there weren't any other big ships moving. On the way out, we counted 6 cruise ships and a number of container ships. Quite the place!
The cruise down to Port Lucaya was wonderful. Light wind, flat seas and a pleasant temperature. THIS is why we come to the Bahamas!
Once underway, Carol's job is to clean up all the lines and stow them. She's quite good at it.
As we came into our port entrance, a boat towing a parasail crossed right in front of us and pulled his rider right over our boat. We had to slow down to keep from hitting him. It IS the Bahamas, you know.
Our marina was easy to get into and very pretty. The owner, who we met just a few days earlier in Stuart, FL, lives in the house just behind the boat. Carol did a little reading at the pool. What a lovely place.
There is a very big blow coming Sunday which may cause us to get stuck for the better part of a week so between Wednesday and Saturday, we'll poke around a few of the out islands and then tuck in someplace to weather the coming storm. This is a by-product of a significant system in the US and will bring gale force winds and squalls - - lovely! We'll be back in touch when we can.
