Tag: patience

April 29, 2014

Getting Engine Parts in the Exumas

Before we left the Bahamas, it was imperative that we make a major repair. You may remember we had trouble with the main engine exhaust hose leaking into the engine room. It took awhile to pin point exactly where it was leaking from but we figured out the elbow only accessible from inside the cockpit locker was leaking in several places due to corrosion at the connections.

It took all day and many uncomfortable voyages into the line locker to be sure we had found the culprit. I had to stuff my whole body in there, hang my head over a wood divider upside down practically strangling myself to see what was going on. Bright flashlights and telescoping mirrors help tremendously!

The Leak:

Now, the Exumas are well traveled but very remote when it comes to supplies and marine parts. Virtually non-existent. We determined which parts we would need while in Black Point but there was no way we would find anything useful there. We could either trek back up to Staniel Cay to have parts flown in via Watermaker Air service, or we could scoot down to George Town where we hoped to find a few of the parts we needed.

Our friends on S/V Anneteak (another Whitby 42) helped us make a temporary repair moving the main engine exhaust discharge hose over to where the generator exhaust hose exits the boat on the port side. Although this is NOT recommended and creates quite a bit of exhaust fumes in the cockpit, it was really our only option. The leak was too severe to leave it as-is for the journey south. Although we hoped to sail most of it, we wanted to be prepared in case we had to motor most of the way south. We made the repair with the help of a few borrowed tools and limped down to George Town.

There are really only three stores in George Town that could have carried what we needed. Napa Auto Parts (north of George Town), Top II Bottom near town, and Brown’s Marine which is a pretty far dinghy ride south out of George Town. We tried all three and no one carried 2.5″ marine exhaust hose. Brown’s was the only place that was able to order anything in from the U.S. They would charge a 30% markup on the catalog price (ie. West Marine, Jerry’s Marine, etc.) plus freight charges and customs fees. Duty is free if the parts are essential for the propulsion of the engine. Disposable items such as oil don’t count as duty free.

While it would have been nice to just order the parts we need and be done with it, I couldn’t bring myself to pay 30% on top of all the other fees we would already be paying. Ordering parts from the U.S. and having them shipped to George Town via DHL was another option. We would still be paying freight charges, but atleast there wouldn’t be a 30% markup.

Just before we put in our order, we were told by a few people to try Reggie’s Express Services, Inc. which provides air freight services to and from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and George Town, Exuma. DHL may take up to a week and a half or even more (depending on how long it takes for the shipping of the parts to DHL stateside) to get any parts in since the freight is routed through Nassau for customs. Reggie’s flights leave Florida every Wednesday morning arriving directly in George Town later that day. The freight is cleared through customs at the airport by the next morning.

You can reach Regina at 954-583-8545 or reggiexp@bellsouth.net to coordinate any shipments. She’ll need a pdf of your cruising permit as well as an invoice for the parts that you are having shipped to her in Florida. She charges $1.75/lb with a 5% fuel surcharge. Just make sure your packages are delivered to her by Tuesday morning.

Once the packages arrive in George Town, contact Dejuan at 242.544.9090 that Thursday morning. His office is at Doeboi Unlimited just across from the dinghy dock to the right. He is a customs broker who will handle all the paperwork for you on the Bahamas side of things. He charges $20 for delivery from the airport and $30 for his paperwork fees.

We had quite a few items shipped from Parker/Racor, Jamestown Distributors and a specialty store to get the exhaust tubing in time so it was much easier for us to have Dejuan bring it all back from the airport instead of us renting a car to go get everything. (p.s. if your iPhone cable breaks while you’re in the Bahamas, Doeboi carries some great knockoff cell phone accessories that have a flat cord which is way more durable than the regular round cords and he sells them for only $12. He’s got all kinds of other accessories like 12v plugs too.)

After our special-order fiberglass connector, fiberglass 90-degree exhaust elbow, 6′ of marine wet exhaust hose, a few extra hose clamps and some other miscellaneous parts arrived it was time to put it all back together the right way.

New friends on SV Dream Ketcher (another Whitby 42) came over to help with this major project. It’s always a puzzle trying to figure out the best way to pry off 30-some year old parts and replace them with new ones.

The Fix:

All Fixed! We connected new hose to old hose inside the lockers in the aft head with a straight fiberglass tube. The generator exhaust hose was fastened back to where we took it off inside the cockpit locker. Hose clamps were secured and we are BACK IN BUSINESS!!

April 8, 2014

Elizabeth Harbor, George Town

Limping along from Black Point, we made it down into Elizabeth Harbor problem-free. The jury-rigged exhaust hose worked well and helped us get to a place that has a few options for marine hardware and parts. It might have been just as easy to leave Black Point and sail back north to Staniel Cay where there is an airline service, Watermakers, that will carry parts from Florida. Instead of backtracking and dancing around Staniel as the winds shift, we opted to continue south to a larger town.

George Town was bustling with cruisers all over the place when we arrived a little over a week ago. Maybe two hundred boats were anchored in the popular areas: Monument, Volleyball Beach, Sand Dollar Beach and Kidd Cove.

We nestled in between Monument and Volleyball Beach where there were only a small handful of boats. We like to be close enough to the places we want to go, but far away enough from everyone else so it’s not a total zoo.

Anchoring on the west side of the harbor would have been closer to Lake Victoria in town, but the winds were coming out of the east so it was better to anchor where we did. We braved the soaking-wet ride across and found the small cut to Lake Victoria where the dinghy dock is. Timing is critical to make sure other boats aren’t trying to exit at the same time. The tides and chop made it feel like a gauntlet as we blasted through. Much easier going in than coming out!

Approaching the entrance to Lake Victoria, home of the George Town Dinghy Dock

Exiting the Lake Victoria gauntlet on a choppy day

While searching for marine stores, refilling our 10lb propane tank for the BBQ was high on the to-do list. Peter is the kind of man that needs meat with every meal. Our marine BBQ may be small but we rely on it daily for grilling up steak, fish, chicken or pork.

The morning cruisers net on VHF 72 announced the propane guy was going to be there Wednesday morning across the parking lot from the dinghy dock, but Wednesday wasn’t good for us. If you want to get propane on a day other than Wednesday, the power plant is a great option. There is a cut in the trees looking west from the harbor, north of Lake Victoria, where you can go by dinghy. There are small buoys marking a mini channel that leads to a restaurant dock and resort. Across the street from there is a hill that leads to the power plant. As soon as we came down the other side of the hill, a nice man came out to greet us and took the propane tanks. We had brought along one of SV Baccalieu’s tanks to fill as well so we both didn’t have to make the trek. A 10lb tank costs $11 to fill, which isn’t bad at all, and it takes less than 5 minutes. Not sure what it costs at the guy who is in town on Wednesdays but I’ll bet it takes longer than this place does!

Road to where you can fill your propane tanks

Office on the left is where you go

The Napa store was a good mile and a half walk north from where the power plant was. It was recommended to see if they have the parts we need but there were far more household and automotive items there than marine supplies. Turns out they had nothing useful to us, and they had no way to order any of the parts we need. Go figure.

Next, we took a LONG dinghy ride to Brown’s Marine, south of George Town. They could order pretty much anything we needed out of a marine catalog but their markup from the catalog price was 25-30%. We would need to find a customs broker (more fees) to handle the paperwork and pay the freight charges on top of that! Even though we can import the parts duty-free with proof of our cruising permit, the customs fee still applies. It was still an option, but getting parts through this shop would surely cost an arm and a leg.

Of course it was the weekend again which makes it harder to find parts or any mechanical help whatsoever. There was one store left that we didn’t check out, Top 2 Bottom. The word on the street is that they didn’t have 2.5″ exhaust hose and we knew we’d have to order the exhaust elbow regardless. Time to do a little more research on the best way to ship parts to Georgetown. Patience is the key to our success… good thing we’re not in a hurry!

Meanwhile, we enjoyed the scenery. Volleyball Beach is where the Chat n Chill bar is. It’s a sandy, barefoot, slow service beach bar with a great vibe. There are posts for tying up your dinghy on the beach and picnic tables in the sand. A cheeseburger, fries and a diet coke has become our staple meal here :)

Gunner’s birthday was March 28th and he got to celebrate in style running on the beaches in the Exumas!! Our sweet boy is 13 now and he’s doing great. Instead of being home alone while I’m at work, he gets to hang out with his mommy and daddy and sister all day everyday and run like crazy up and down the beaches in one of the most beautiful places on earth! What a nice way to enjoy his old age. Lucky dog.

It’s the little things in life that bring us joy. Even though we are having a few issues with the boat, our home is in paradise. There is beauty all around us and we wouldn’t trade this life for anything!

January 21, 2014

Bath time!

It’s bath time once a month for our pups. I’m sure this will be happening much more frequently once they are swimming everyday in the salt water :) It just takes a little patience and a little love.

Both dogs got a good brushing from their daddy and Gunner gets a treat so he’ll be good for the deshedding process. Its amazing how much they shed and this is not good when you’re a liveaboard. If you’re not careful, the dog hair will fall into the bilge and could clog up the pump. Although oblivious to it, we don’t want the boat to start smelling like ‘DOG’ :)

We try to pick a sunny and warm day so they dry quicker after bath time. As long as Gunner has a treat or toy to chew on he entertains himself while Betsy gets groomed.

Every once in a while Gunner looks back to make sure the hose isn’t coming his way again…

Then back to the bone :)

Betsy is pretty tolerant of the whole process. She knows that when she’s all clean she gets to snuggle under the covers with her daddy! Spoiled girl.

Both puppies get their nails trimmed and ears cleaned after their bath and Betsy gets real excited when we tell her she has “pretty nails” :)

Next bath time will be on the aft deck at anchor, place warm where the coconuts grow…

January 8, 2014

Living on a boat is a lot of work!

For those of you that don’t follow our Facebook posts, I wanted to share our most recent quote of inspiration spoken from Peter himself.

“You don’t know your strength until you know your limits”

-Peter Pieschel

It took us awhile to get over the initial exhaustion of becoming liveaboards. It takes a LOT of work to live on a boat and for the first month we were just plain exhausted every day. It’s one thing to go boating for a weekend but when you live on a boat it takes some getting used to.

If its windy, we have to pull the boat closer to the dock for us and the dogs to get on and off safely. (When we are anchored we will have a whole new process for preparing the dinghy to take to shore)
Our muscles are constantly working to keep us balanced since the boat is always moving.
When stock up on groceries we put them all in a cart, pull it from the parking lot way down to our dock and begin passing them over the lifelines, into the cockpit and down the 5′ vertical ladder into the depths of the boat.
We have to lift a ladder up onto the bed to get the dogs in and out of the cockpit.
Every time we want to get something out of the fridge we have to stretch our gumby arms way down to the bottom, take everything out to get to what we want and then put all the other items back in.
When we want a pot or a pan, we have to get down on our hands and knees to get it from a locker underneath the stove which extends way down against the hull.
When we want to use the kitchen table we lift it down from its latched position against the bookshelf.
If we need more water, one of us goes topside with a hose and one of us opens the floorboards inside the boat to prepare the water tanks for refilling.
When we need to empty our holding tanks one of us has to be on deck to attach the hose and one of us stands by in the heads to flush fresh water through after the first round of pumping.
Taking a shower requires us to simultaneously keep the two shower curtains in front of the toilet from attacking us as we shower off and then flip a switch several times for the sump so the water will drain out.
Power is needed for LOTS of things we take for granted: lights, fans, radio, cell phone chargers, computers, hot water heater, dehumidifier, navigation instruments, coffee makers, microwave and air conditioning. If we’re not plugged into shore power, we have to generate our own with solar panels, a wind generator, or by running the engine or diesel generator.
When something goes wrong, we have to be very innovative and creative to figure out how to fix it with the tools that we have at hand.
When we’re done using something, it has to be put away because there’s no room to leave clutter out.
When we use dishes, we have to wash them by hand every time we eat.
We have to be plumbers, electricians, mechanics, navigators, chefs, fishermen, sailors, excellent communicators and fun-havers.
This is just the beginning…

Living on a boat is much different than living on land. There is a lot to get used to, but it has slowly started to feel normal :) We absolutely LOVE our little home and we say it out loud to each other every day!! Its hard work but SO worth it in the end. We are preparing our home to travel across oceans to visit far off lands, beautiful tropical beaches and crystal clear waters. We’re going to go Where The Coconuts Grow and the wind in our sails will take us there!

Its going to be a hell of an education too. As the months go by we will be forced to learn so many new skills and we’ll learn how to live with ‘less’ all around. We need the basics, safety equipment, a few personal effects from home and all the rest is just stuff. Our priorities have already begun to change as we work on the boat every day and prepare to set sail. We appreciate the little things we didn’t even notice before. We take a lot less for granted and our happiness increases by the minute.

We do get frustrated sometimes but I think we’re getting better about understanding that we’re both doing our best. Our patience with ourselves and with each other is growing too. Everything we do, we do it as a team and it seems much easier that way. We’re helping each other figure out how to do things we haven’t done before and it’s actually really fun! It’s hard at first to step outside of your comfort zone, but when you do, that’s where the magic happens :)

After the initial exhaustion wore off a little, Peter and I committed to running again to get ourselves and the dogs the exercise we all need. The last couple of days have been a chilly 38 degrees at night here in Southwest Florida, and this is not exactly what I signed up for, but Peter laid the inspiration down pretty thick. His quote about strength and limits really did get me thinking and even though it’s almost freezing outside I perked up a little and tried to see things in a positive light instead. We should be able to handle a little cold weather and still keep exercise a priority. We’ve done 3 miles each night through the cold winds and by the time we’re done we both smile and feel glad we went :) We really are stronger than we think we are, and as a good friend said to me yesterday, we have to BELIEVE in ourselves!!

Peter and I are about to set sail on an adventure of a lifetime with our two dogs and we both feel so lucky that everything has just fallen into place. It’s one of those moments where we know we’re in the right place at the right time, and now is the time to go for it. We’re young, we are finding strength we didn’t know we had, and we’re throwing our fears and doubts aside in exchange for this amazing opportunity. What better time in our lives than now to travel and see the world? There’s so much beauty and joy out there just waiting to be shared.

We hope our adventures will inspire others to take a leap of faith, step outside your comfort zone and find out where the magic happens. Dreams really do come true, if you believe!!