When Life Gives You Lemons…

Make lemonade. Tom flushed the hoses this morning, and out came a handful of impeller rubber. We were optimistic it would start. It did, for two minutes, and then went kaput.

The dockmaster tried to get us to leave at 8:30am for a 110ft yacht that was coming in. We didn’t budge, told him give us an hour.

With the jet skis, the go fast outboard fishing boats, the Sea Rays, the Azimuts, Bimini was beautiful but the people were not. They were flashy and annoying.

We bought our boat from Bradford Marine in Ft Lauderdale. As it turns out, they also have a facility in Freeport. Tom called them to see if we could have our generators looked at today or tomorrow. Well… Tom then told them we just bought our boat from Bradford Marine a month ago. Of course! We’ll see you this afternoon. We set out at 9:30am for Freeport to have both our gensets looked at.

The water was flat calm, and the color was unreal. This photo does not do the water color justice, but it does show the calm seas.

And then the afternoon Northerly front dropped in on us at 10:30am. We had another four hours to go.

With no turning back. We felt like we were in Malaspina Strait. Or that time when we ventured on from Pt McNeil to the Walker Islands in the afternoon after coming from the Campbell River.

We and the boat were tested. Portia was not happy to come down from her flybridge perch. This is Portia on the flybridge. She did not look like this in the rough seas.

Those windshield wipers we hadn’t got to fixing? Much needed. We were taking blue water over the bridge. Tessa refused to go out, so, Tom stripped down and got soaking wet. But made two of three windshield wipers functional. Finally calm seas as we neared Freeport. The front had passed us.

You don’t want to go to Freeport unless you have to. It’s a commercial harbour, cruise ships and freighters. Hail VHF Ch 14, not Ch 16 as the Waterway Guide says. By the time we got back from Bradford Marine Bahamas office a half hour after we arrived, the mechanic already had our 20kw genset working. It was air in the fuel line, Tom got so close!

For the next hour they worked on the small generator with no luck. Hopefully tomorrow they are able to fix it, and we will be on our way!

Our spirits are high, the yard supervisor took us up to the Bahamas Brewery and liquor store. They drive on the wrong side of the road, but with American cars. Confusing, eh? All the staff here at Bradford Marine Bahamas has exceeded our expectations, Tessa finally was able to wash the boat (much needed after sitting by the freeway at Marina Mile and the salt water we just took), and Tom was able to complete small nice to have projects. We finally feel like we are getting somewhere!