Well what started out to be an overnight stay in Old Bahama Bay Marina (to simply clear customs) has started to turn into an ordeal. We were scheduled to leave Thursday morning. Dan checked the port engine, the one we had just spent a small fortune on in Palm Beach, and discovered an oil leak. It was down under the engine so he hadn’t noticed it when we first stopped. Apparently now it looks like the Exxon Valdese has capsized in our engine room. After checking it he comes to me and says “I think we may need a new engine.”

Well that’s not want I want to hear. We have just gotten started!! This is unacceptable! I send him back to the engine room with orders not to come out until he has found a better answer. (Actually he went back to the engine room after a few expletives from me.) He comes back later and says there is definitely an oil leak but it is not as bad as he thought. We will need to get someone to look at it as it is under the engine and he can’t access it. Oh and we also may have a fuel leak thrown in for good measure. We need to now find a mechanic.

Dan inquires at the marina office and the lady there gives him a paper with the names of several different mechanics. We try to call them but we can’t get through. He goes back to the office. Apparently the cell phones are down. He asks her if she can recommend anyone and she suggests a mechanic named Audley. Audley is not on our list. She will phone Audley for us or he is usually at the Marina everyday and when she sees him she will send him to our boat. Yes, we have heard all the horror stories about local Bahamian mechanics, but we really didn’t feel we had a choice. The kids and I head for the pool while Dan waited for Audley.

The facilities at Old Bahama Bay Marina are great. They have 2 heated swimming pools connected to each other with a waterfall. The staff is friendly, and there is a wonderful beach with free Kayak and Hobie cat rentals and also free bike rentals. In the water you can find beautiful starfish, the biggest I’ve ever seen. Tristan and I had just returned from a starfish adventure when Dan joined us.

Audley has seen the engine and feels it is a rear main seal and if he had the part he could get it repaired in two days. That sounded too good to be true. Dan felt that he was a good guy so we agreed to have him start right away. Friday, Audley and a helper came to the boat, raised the engine, got the old seal off and he went back to his shop.

“I go to come back,” he said.

He called us later and said he needed to order the part. Of course! He would try to get the part here by Saturday. We said fine. Saturday comes. No part. No Audley. He calls. The part is not in. Sunday is Easter. Monday is a holiday in the Bahamas. I am starting to feel we have been in these waters before.

The kids had a great Easter. The “Easter Bunny” visited our boat and they were quite pleased with their Easter baskets. There was one small problem. It seems the Easter Bunny had stored the solid milk chocolate Easter Bunny next to the Bounce fabric softener sheets. A fresh spring rain is not what you want your chocolate to taste like. Who knew?

Dinner on Alegria

We are in the Bahamas at last!!

We arrived here yesterday afternoon after leaving Lake Worth about 3:00 am. We had tried to leave Monday morning at 3:00 am. The wind and the waves were forecasted to have died down, but as we motored out of the inlet, the wind increased and the waves were hitting on the shore. We didn’t make it out of the inlet before deciding to turn around and try again the next night. Just as we decided to turn around a huge construction barge heads into the inlet and we turned in front of him. Luckily he saw us. We anchored back at our spot and explained to the kids why we didn’t go. They were fine.

The winds and seas were again scheduled to drop the next day so we decided we would try early in the morning. Of course, all day the wind kept blowing. We went to bed depressed thinking that we most likely wouldn’t make it out that night either. At 3:00am we were up, this time with much less enthusiasm as the winds were still higher than predicted. When Dan stepped out into the cockpit he noticed a boat had anchored really close to us and it looked as if he was over our anchor. This was a fear of his, that someone would anchor too close and we wouldn’t be able to leave. Dan started the engines, thinking this might wake up the other boat and he would move, but it didn’t work. We were really afraid to try to get the anchor up because he was so close. Now we were thinking weren’t going to be able to leave that night either.

We decided we had to wake him up somehow. After all, he was over our anchor; it was his problem too right? I shined our mega spotlight in his boat windows while yelling “Excuse me. Hello”.

A few minutes later he comes on deck, “Are you trying to wake me?” Smart guy!

“Yes.” I yelled back “We are trying to leave and think you are over our anchor. Can you move?”

He replied that he would watch us and if we got close he would start his engines and move. Ok fine. I start hauling up the anchor. To my embarrassment I realized he is not over our anchor, WE are. Alegria had drifted forward on her anchor chain so that our anchor is actually under our boat. That’s something I might have checked before I woke him up with my spotlight. Sorry! My bad! Now we realized we had to go because we’re too embarrassed to come back to this spot. So we headed out and even though the wind was still strong, the seas were much calmer. As we motored out into the inlet, the construction barge careened for us again. I got out my trusty mega spotlight and flashed it at the barge. I’m sure the captain appreciated being blinded by the spotlight. He didn’t slow down though. He cut right in front of us very close, payback I’m sure for the spotlight incident.

We were out of the inlet and into the ocean. The seas were short period waves, about 3 to 4 feet and it was a lot of up and down at first, then a couple of hours into it the seas settled down nicely. We had an incredible full moon, and a blanket of stars guiding us. It was beautiful. We saw only a few other ships on the radar, otherwise the Gulf Stream was ours.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel the first time I was out in the middle of the ocean with no land around. I was afraid I might get seasick or scared, but neither happened. The kids slept late, enjoying the ride. We motored over as we were dead into the wind. About 2:00pm we pulled into Old Bahama Bay Marina for our custom check in. The long awaited Bahamas were now ours.

We left North Palm Beach Marina yesterday and are currently anchored in Lake Worth waiting for our weather window to cross to the Bahamas!