Cruising life = fixing your boat in exotic places.

We were well aware that one of the major downsides to living on a boat is that something is always broken, in the process of breaking, or needing prompt attention before it breaks. This is why almost half of our monthly budget is set aside for boat maintenance and parts. But yet again, knowing a hard truth from the comfort of your couch is VERY different than actually living it. I may have naively thought that our boat projects would be more preventative in nature, not “the engine won’t start and we’re in a busy channel” or “where did those 200 gallons of water we just filled up with go??”

I also didn’t expect just how much of where we are at any given time would depend on the availability of boat parts. We spent two full weeks freezing our butts off in Beaufort, South Carolina, (which was 13 days longer than we had intended to stay there) because we were waiting on engine parts for Stacy, our starboard engine. She decided as we were pulling into town that she was in need of a vacation and when we asked her to help us anchor first, she promptly turned bright red and threatened to burst into flames in protest. We finally got her working again (ish) and sailed down to West Palm Beach, Florida, where she again decided “to heck with this working crap” and wouldn’t start for two weeks straight. Neal systematically worked his way through every issue he could think of that might cause an engine not to start, starting with changing the battery. He eventually discovered it was the actual push button panel we use to turn her on from the cockpit. Cue another several days to wait for the part! (West Palm is, thankfully, an excellent place to source parts.)

With Stacy FINALLY working, we prepared to leave the US on the next weather window. The day before leaving, we turned on the engines to go get diesel at a nearby marina and…you guessed it, Stacy wouldn’t start!

Neal got out his problem solving tools again and this time, replaced her starter. Thankfully we have three spares from last summer when Pete (our port engine) needed a new one as well. She also needed a battery jump, which seemed weird for a brand new battery. The next morning Neal and I were crossing fingers, toes, and holding our breath as we started her up to leave. She started!

Our passage to the Bahamas was thankfully uneventful, though every time we go anywhere something breaks as soon as we stop. We often anchor and then wait with bated breath to see what it’s going to be this time. Next up, a water leak caused by another broken pex tube in the engine compartment (an easy fix we’ve had to do before) and a dinghy motor that’s not working. It thankfully hasn’t quit entirely, but is no longer able to hit high enough rpms to get us up on a plane, which leads to a VERY wet ride. We’ve determined that we need a new prop, and there’s a shop in Spanish Wells that may have one. If we can ever catch them actually open. (We’re on Bahamas time now!) But we had intended to leave Spanish Wells on Monday to continue down Eleuthera and on to the Exumas, as well as get in front of a weather system coming in so we could find a more sheltered anchorage before it hits. Foiled again! (I’m editing this on Thursday, and Spanish Wells did not have the part we need. It wasn’t a bad spot to hang out for a few days though!) Parts are very hard to source in the Bahamas, and we’re considering having a new one flown into Staniel Cay. We’ll probably pay double with import taxes and such, but our dinghy is absolutely essential to life at anchor.

So anyway, that’s basically our life right now. I didn’t mention almost losing our dinghy while underway today or our poop problems (which deserve their own post) but as long as Stacy’s happy, we’re happy!