Poof! We're Interesting

Our aforementioned inverter/battery charger issue plus some Official Paperwork plus the need to do some provisioning added up to a trip to Marsh Harbour, our first successful landing since arriving in the Bahamas.  As is the norm in these parts, the boatyard didn't have its own electrician but had the name of one and the Marsh Harbour Marina let us park at one of their docks gratis for the couple of hours said electrician would need to look over our ailing piece of equipment.

I stayed onboard as per our agreement (if I can't fix it myself--which is still almost always--I am obliged to peek over the shoulder of the technician who can); Jane went off in the dinghy to run some errands.  Provisioning (okay, fine, shopping) would come after the electrician was done and after we'd showed the marina our appreciation by having lunch and drinks at its restaurant.



I watched Jane though our binoculars until she'd maneuvered behind a boat on the other side of the harbour and in the process caught sight of none other than Catito, though judging by the absence of their dinghy, it didn't look like Michel and Danielle were "at home."  That's not as surprising as it may sound; one tends to run into the same folks over and over hopping from island to island.

Not long after she was out of sight, Andrew, our electrician, appeared wearing a dark blue polo shirt and the most awesome orange-with-palm-trees print pants I've ever seen.  I coveted them immediately. We spent the first twenty minutes he was on JOY trying everything he could think of to recreate the grinding/clacking sound that had brought us hither but without success.  It had become too highly charged by the engine on the way from Treasure Cay to Marsh Harbour.  This was both good news and bad.  On the good hand, it meant that my fear about having no way to charge up the batteries with the battery charger turned off were unfounded; there are, as it turns out, several ways that the batteries on JOY get charged, but I'll spare you the details.  On the bad hand, he couldn't properly diagnose the problem without its symptom, so his whole visit (and the expense thereof) was in danger of becoming pointless.

But misfortune smiled upon us once again and while trying to get it to make its bad sound, he did notice that the battery charger wasn't doing what it was supposed to do to charge the batteries as quickly as it is supposed to charge them and told us what part was needed and also that the manufacturer no longer made that part because the manufacturer no longer made that model.  However, a brand new one, an even slightly improved one, could be had for as low as $1400+ not including shipping from The States.  Anyone coming to visit you soon, he inquired.  Ah, another grand--plus--day.

After lunch and a couple of Bilge Burners, we moved the boat off of their dock and anchored her, strategically, in the harbour.  Then back in the dinghy to buy groceries.  Too many peanut butter dinners has forced us to try something foreign to our natures: menu planning.  It's a lot of work on the front end, as you meal planners know, but increasingly necessary as groceries are going to get harder and harder to come by.  Nonetheless, it's a lot of work on the front end, so it remains to be seen if we like it better than peanut butter.  After walking the four blocks back from the store to our dinghy with our four bags of groceries, and dinghying back to our boat, we were past due for a sundowner (some things must remain sacred), so we got the perishables put away, made drinks and put the non-perishables away...the next morning.

We had two more chores to care of before leaving Marsh Harbour, both of which involved going back to the Marina: our first refueling outside of the U.S. and a photo opp.  Not just any photo opp.  To the Marsh Harbour Marina belongs The Jib Room and it was there a little over a year previous, that we sat at one of the tables watching people working on their boats and realized something was missing in our lives, namely our interest in them.

...And the rest is history.

Looking out from The Jib Room before JOY

...and after (JOY is starboard side to)