May 9-13 Nassau

I had just walked out into the salon after waking up this morning and was settling in to read the morning news and forums when the AC panel went dark.  No power.

After checking everything on the boat it was apparent the dockside power was out which was confirmed by one of the mega yacht crew.  He said its not unusual and we should expect a few hours of waiting before it kicks back in again.  Most probable cause is power sharing with someone or something. 

He repeated, its not an unusual occurrence, while in the background I could hear big generators starting up on most, if not all of the large yachts here.

While we have a pretty substantial generator, 13.5KW, but we have nothing running which can’t be handled by the batteries and inverter.  So we didn't start ours which left us basking in the warm humidity of Nassau but we reasoned it wasn't going to be for days, only hours. So it was endurable.

Lady Sandals moving.  Josh did a fine job driving down this narrow stretch of waterway and easing by us

Meanwhile Lady Sandals moved from behind us over to another dock.  Feels rather lonely here all by ourselves now.

Bay street.   A guy was selling huge conch shells at this table yesterday

I strolled out of the marina again onto the now familiar Bay Street and checked three marine stores for a water filter because the dockside RO water is rusty and I wanted to use it instead of water from our tanks.  No joy.  None of them carries water filters of the type I’m looking for.  Strange, but true.

When I returned, one of the mega yacht guys let me know the power was back on.  So now were we able to switch everything back to shore power and enjoy some cool A/C.  Oddly enough every one of the mega yachts kept their generators running.

Later we all met up at the Poop Deck again and enjoyed drinks and these free hors’devours which consisted of conch fritters.  They are really just fried bread and conch balls but hey, they’re free!

  

I somehow got in a conversation with an older man, Bruce and his son at the bar.   He’s been here for 20+ years. He provided a wealth of info about the Exumas which I cant recall in details but I’m sure it’ll pop in my head when some landmark triggers the memory.

And I’d better watch the “older man” stuff.  He was a few years younger than I am which must mean I've just entered the ranks of old men?

And surprisingly his political affiliations (I didn’t bring it up) were quite progressive with a heavy emphasis on environmental issue.  He cited numerous instances of destruction of natural resources so critical to the Bahamians where international developers disregarded advice on how to minimize the environmental impact of their projects.  The Bahamian government, according to Rich, is as rife with monetary influence just as any other nation.  Same old story, just different country.

Rich and his son operate a little wind /solar generator company doing installs for people who have homes on the islands and are pretty much off the power grid. 

I didn't stay long after everyone else left.  And I went right to bed.

Mothers Day.  So Mary slept late and I made her breakfast and went to the grocery store with Jeff.  We loitered in the boat for a bit after and then Mary and I walked to Potters Cay and to a few shops down that way.  

Potters Cay under the bridge

Part of the farmers market.  Land Crabs!

Potters Cay is an area under the bridges where there are a whole bunch of lunch stands and a sort of farmers market.  Very interesting!  And, as I've heard from various mega yacht deck hands, the best ever, conch salad!

A high priced liquor store which we thought was a "bling" store

Later when we returned without, I might add, trying any of the Potters Cay conch salad, I charged up the dinghy battery and tinkered with the dock lines.  We are being rocked and rolled by the persistent north-easterly swells and east winds today.  Ugh …

Mothers Day Dinner!

We decided to meet at the poop deck bar around 5PM but it was too crowded so we made right for the Double Dragon, a Chinese restaurant and had passable Chinese meal.  Quite interesting, finding a Chinese restaurant here in Nassau.  Wish the food were better though.

 

Mothers Day, Mary, Judy and Jeff

After we managed to make it up to the Poop Dick for a post dinner drink and discussed plans for tomorrow.  Jeff is accompanying me to the boat yard where they will haul the dinghy out and hopefully find the problem and fix it.  Jeff in the meantime needs to take one of his outboards to another repair facility next door to get it fixed. 

Then we need to get Judy to the airport here where she’ll catch a plane to Philly so she can see her brother who is in the hospital.  She wont be returning for 13 days so we’ll most likely be traveling down the island chain alone.

Looking out behind us 

Once we returned from the Poop Deck I went to take a shower except the showers had no water.  It was like a reply of the power outage we had yesterday.  No water in the bathrooms was rather disappointing.  I had to walk back to the boat and shower on board.  Not really a problem but we have only so much water.  And although we can make our own it cant be done here in the harbor.  The harbor water is too dirty and I dont want to risk blowing out a membrane.

It was another early night.

  

Mary and I lowered the dinghy down this morning by 8;00AM.  It was not quite as rough as last night when we endured swells almost on our beam which tends to bounce us around in a corkscrew fashion.  

When the swells roll in we, admittedly, don’t sense much of that motion back here in our master stateroom.   Still, it was noticeable when large waves would slam the swim platform making a racket similar to to a collision.  Not conducive to deep sleep.  So we were both rather tired today.

We got the dinghy down and although it was bouncing I was able to get in and start it up. It screeched like it has been but that disappeared soon and I headed for the Harbourside Marine access dock.

No one was there so I waited.  And then waited until 8:45 before calling them.  I had  an 8:30 appointment.  I’ll just state this right now.  Island Time … it’s a bit less defined than normal time.

At 9:30 the guys rolled in.  Meanwhile Jeff joined me as we watched the tech pronounce it was a starter problem.  The Bendix wasn't rolling back down on the spiraled shaft.  Jeff concurred.

So that meant that the guy in Marathon did a startlingly bad job rebuilding this starter.  Lesson learned.

Since I knew what the problem was I just figured I'd order a new starter.  But after hearing from the parts department that sure, they could order one for me and have it here in 3 weeks, I decided to forgo that idea.  I walked back to the main shop and wanted to settle up with them for the diagnosis but the guy said since they hadn't hauled the boat out, no charge.  

Jeff and I went back to where I had the dinghy tied up and greased up the starter shaft and tried running it a few times but now it wasn't letting loose at all and the screeching was worse.  So we figured it was a flummoxed spring.  Next thing to do was to locate a starter re-builder.

But we had to get the thing started or I'd have to be towed back to our boat.  So we pulled the fly wheel cover off and I got out the manual starter rope and after 4 tries yanking on it, was somewhat dismayed that it wouldn't start.  Jeff, a big old Canadian tried and even he failed the first two times.  Third time was the charm though and he got it started.  

So now my turn.  I yanked on it and failed.  Tried again and bracing against the back seat gave a mighty pull and it started right up.  The darn motor has superb compression.  Hard to overcome, but at least I know now it can be started manually. 

We shut it down and I removed the starter off and manually re-started the engine.

So since it was running we drove it over to Jeff’s boat where Mary was already saying goodbye to Judy who was flying out to Philly to see her brother this afternoon.

I ran the dinghy back to  our boat where Jeff and I hauled it hauled back aboard and then proceeded to the Poop Deck for lunch before Judy had to take a cab to the airport.

After seeing Judy off we checked the laundry that Mary had started a few hours ago.  The washing machine was still running.  The water pressure was so low it took near an hour for the washer to fill.  Remember, this is the Bahamas.

Meanwhile I helped Jeff take his 15hp Merc over to another repair place, Lightbourne Marine and while I was waiting, asked, jokingly, if they had any spare Yamaha starters.  

Cess (not a typo) said they didn't have any parts but thought he could repair it by just taking it apart and doing some fiddling.  So I left it with him and we went the back to the boats.

I walked over later to see if any progress had been made and of course, no, he hadn't looked at it.  

Tomorrow.  Ok, not unexpected.

Jeff came over to our boat for cocktail hour and we ended up going to the Poop Deck yet again for a drink before coming back to the boat and eating dinner.  And we met Herbert there again.  He’s a talkative fellow we met last night.  Insurance salesman.  

Tonight, the marina showers were working so I took a long one.  Its so nice to luxuriate in a long hot shower every once in a while.   Then to bed early since we both didn't sleep well last night at all.

Weather dictates we stay at least until Wednesday.  The starter rebuild, which I have little confidence in, should be completed one way or the other by then too.

So we’re still bouncing a little and have had several showers roll through which washed the boat off.  Guess that’s one plus.  But Nassau is not my favorite pace to be holed up in.  Too urban.  Too busy.  And too expensive!

We loitered around the boat this morning.  Mary wasn't feeling well so she slept until almost 11.  I promised Jeff I’d wander by around 1 PM to see how Dyson and he were making out on the laptop rebuild.  Dyson never showed up or called so Jeff is pretty much tied to the boat all afternoon waiting for Dyson to re-build his laptop.

I walked to the grocery store and then stopped over to see Cess about the starter.

Rebuilt!

Surprise!!! He took it apart and everything was fine except the Bendix spring which he replaced with one not quite as stiff.  It was all greased up and seemed to work fine.  We both thought it should be usable for a few weeks even with a weak spring.   

Wow!  I was speechless for a few seconds.  Normally over here you don’t see turn around like this.  And too boot he didn't want to charge me but I insisted and he eventually caved and said lunch.  So tomorrow we go to lunch somewhere.

I took the starter and after seeing Jeff for a few minutes and hearing Dyson still hadn't called , went back to our boat.

I re-installed the starter, flushed out the cooling system and then Jeff came over for cocktails.  Mary went off to do laundry and since the Poop Deck was right above the laundry room, Jeff and I just went there and met Mary.

I think I’m sick of writing “Poop Deck”, but is so convenient and really is a fun bar with a wide variety of people.  Don C.  You’d really enjoy it.

Up there I noticed a guy walking around with explorer charts and when I talked with him we both had a Thursday departure in mind.  They are going to the same place we are so I guess we have another boating buddy.  His name is Jim off of a sailboat, SnowFlake.  Obviously another northerner of some sort.

Meanwhile Lady Sandals had quests aboard this evening an actually went to out for a little booze cruise.  We really like the crew members we've met over the last few days so take an interest in what they do.   The bar on that boat is to die for.  And I found out that Nichols Cage owned it for a short time,

As I walked down from the Poop Deck bar, Mary was walking down the dock with the laundry basket.  She saw me and just kept waking leaving the laundry basket in the center of a busy dock for me to take back to the boat.  How long have we been married?

After a dinner we pretty much crashed.  Tomorrow we take Cess, the starter repair person to lunch and prepare for departure on Thursday.  Busy day tomorrow!

Not cheap over here

Just a note about purchasing things here.  The Bahamas now have a VAT (Value Added Tax) of 7.5%.  And its on everything here, from a lowly orange to Band-Aids, liquor, fuel and even water.  In addition to that our now, not so beloved, Credit Union seems to be adding a .08% international transaction fee for any debit or credit card transactions.   And, rounding out the list if extra fees, some merchants tack on an extra credit card processing fee of  3% to 5%.  

It’s easy to fully appreciate the sound advice of buying as little as you can over here.   So if anyone is reading this with ideas of coming over, bring plenty of cash, or everything you’ll need for a few months.

The Mall and grocery store.  I know it well now.

A leisurely morning.  I finally wandered off the boat to the store and as I returned to the marina Jeff and Dyson shouted at me so we chatted a bit on the dock before Dyson left with Jeff’s laptop.

Back on the boat I put away the $43.99 case of beer (Dan are you reading this!) and then had to head out to the liquor store to buy a smidgen of rum to supplement my stock since its getting pretty low.

And now, being too late to return to the store, I discovered I’ll need to return  tomorrow morning for grapes.  For us too, but I think more for the iguanas on some of the islands we’ll be visiting. 

The iguanas have become conditioned.  They expect food when people approach them.  I’ll have to be sure get some video of this when we encounter them.   Others tell us they come rambling down the beach and confront you.  Grapes seem to be their favorite.

I found Jeff and we walked over to collect Cess, the mechanic for lunch.  Cess is quite the knowledgeable  guy.  Knows lots and even stayed in Fondulac, WI for a time with Mercury Outboards. 

 

Cess.  That's Jeff's back to the camera

He told several storied about fixing boats on the islands.  Here, they head off to another island via boat, plane or helicopter with as much nonchalance as we would driving to another city.  It was a pleasant time with him.

Once we split up, Cess off to work again and Jeff back to his boat, I went over to talk with Jim from the sailboat (a Valiant 42!) about crossing the banks tomorrow with them. 

We had a nice conversation.  He’s been to Belize, the Rio Dulce in Guatemala and other exotic destinations in the Gulf.

They are leaving around 9:30 while we, being faster, will leave a half hour after them at 10:00-ish.  Our destination will be the same, Highborne Cay.

After I left Jim, I banged on Jeff’s boat so he knew it was cocktail hour.  He finally wandered over by us and after a bit we, for the last time I hope, headed up to the Poop Deck for soup and a few drinks.  I'm not so sure its a good thing when the bar tenders know what you want and call you by name when you've only been a customer for a week.  Janet, will you still remember us in 6 months?

Back aboard, we’re getting ready for sea.  We wont be at a marina for several weeks after this which us just fine with us.  Hanging around at anchor is much preferable.  And free.  

To celebrate we both took long marina showers!