Don’t Leave Home Without It …

For those of us old enough to remember this American Express ad campaign, we’ve re-discovered the importance of making sure we have everything we might possibly need before leaving the good ol’ USA — at least anything that can’t be easily obtained from a local Bahamian store.

As mentioned in my previous post, I had replaced two of my sacraficial zinc anodes while we were anchored at Rose Island. The boat has a third anode that also needs to be replaced, but I didn’t bring a replacement, and none of the local marine supply stores carry it. Since we ended up extending our stay in Nassau waiting for weather conditions to improve, we decided this might be a good time to try and order the replacement zinc and have it shipped to the marina. But, when we mentioned our game plan to our boat neighbors, their jaws dropped in disbelief as they exclaimed, “You’re going to have something shipped from the US?? Have you ever done that before?!” In a bold display of our naivete, we stated that we should probably be able to have it shipped by FedEx next day or second day. We were sadly informed that such a plan simply wouldn’t work.

Our neighbors then proceeded to share their experiences with attempting to have items shipped to the Bahamas. Even though they paid the premiums to have things shipped via FedEx, both attempts took over eight days, several hundreds of dollars, and several days wasted in bureaucrats office before they actually got their parcels — one of which was a small replacement part that was only worth a few bucks. And, they considered themselves lucky to have gotten the packages at all since many are not so lucky. The only reason they managed to get their stuff was because they refused to leave one of the bureaucrat’s office at the airport and camping out stubbornly until they were finally able to bribe someone to get their package. Oh my. This explains why the boat supply store was unwilling to order the zinc I needed. It appears to be nearly impossible to navigate the quagmire of customs, bribes and red tape associated with shipping in merchandise. I spoke to one of the local dive operators and found out they will make a special trip to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale if they need to pick up something that can’t be easily purchased here.

Needless to say, we were starting to panic because the zinc anode had to be replaced soon or we’d have bigger issues from damaging corrosion. I started pulling everything out from storage to see if I might have saved the old zinc annode that we replaced before we left Winthrop Harbor. Fortunately, I found the old zinc that should work. Even though this zinc was used in freash water for 3 years, it’s in much better shape than the zincs we’ve had in salt water for just a few months.

So, we’ve decided to stay here at the Nassau marina until Christmas. The winds should die down by Wednesday, and we’re hoping to have a nice sail heading up to Eleuthra. And, I’ll wait until we’re at a nice calm anchorage before I try to replace the third zinc.