Antigua to US, day 10 – Bahamas, admin

Wednesday 6 Jun: Bahamas, admin in Sea Crest Marina, Bimini Island
We were aiming for a scuba diving trip this morning, but due to our late bed time last night we didn’t wake up early enough. Maybe tomorrow morning.
Glen wakes up first, 8am and felt like roasting already. 30C inside the boat, even with the sunshade up. So he is on a mission to get connected to shore power to run the AC. Last night our adaptors to 110 didn’t work. So now he re-wired the adapter, shore power connected and AC on. And Oana wakes up to a nice cool cabin. Bliss!
After breakfast it’s a full on morning on the internet. First, research on where we land in USA. On Jonathan’s recommendation, one of our keen readers, we now plan to stop in St.Augustine, FL. Yesterday we were convinced we couldn’t enter there due to bridge clearance, but good old Google revealed we actually can: there are mooring buoys before the bridge, plus the bridge opens every hour for ships if we want to cross to the other side into the marina. Brilliant info!
Next, availability and fees for marina berth or buoy. Few clicks and a phone call later, we have booked with St.Augustine Marina for a buoy 9-12 Jun, US$25/night. Slightly better than US$125/night for a berth. Great, feels like we are making progress.
Then several calls to various customs offices to ‘get the number’ that will allow us to step on land for the actual clearance. A bit of a time consuming process, but with baby steps we make headways. Then register online on SVRS (small vessels registry system) and book appointment for an interview. Phew! Tell you what, the 300$ paid yesterday might as well be worth it for all we managed to sort out while here in this dock with good internet.
It feels weird to go through all this planning just to move on with our next step of the voyage. So different from island hopping: anchoring pretty much anywhere we want, no planning, no pre-booking. We don’t do thorough planning for anything, we are more of the ‘let’s see what the day brings, what our mood is, and what the place inspires us to do’ type. Maybe it’s now time to recalibrate our behavior for the next 6 months, while in the land of very civilized America.
Which brings us to the next challenge: available internet. No internet, no possibility to research and plan before hand. Glen’s UK SIM will have reasonable internet but no hotspot, so no Google at leisure on the laptop. We call Three to see how we can upgrade to hotspot too. Which from the first second is a completely different experience: long menu to get through to an operator, at a call center in India.
Once fed up with all the admin & IT, time for some fun stuff: fly the drone! Glen investigated the sports mode, we tried it, and very soon reverted to normal mode, as it showed some errors and overheating. Hm…anyway, some nice footage again. Bahamas looks even better from the air.
While Oana is on the second shift on IT, Glen snorkels under the keel to clean the barnacles. After all the sailing in last 2 weeks, Cloudy’s bottom was spotlessly clean except from some stubborn barnacles which are now all knocked off.
Remember we mentioned few times that we have a habit of forgetting to seal hatches while at sea? Well, yesterday it happened again and we got a bit of sea water in the front cabin. Now that we are on shore power and have plenty of water, we put the mattress covers for a rinse in our washing machine. We normally avoid using it and go for laundry services ashore instead, to save what is left of its working life for when we actually need it, like in the Pacific.
While we were in St.Vincent, we took the washing machine out of its cupboard to tackle a shroud plate which was squeaking since we crossed the Atlantic, and haven’t used it since. And guess what, now it is playing tricks with us: not draining the water. Maybe we didn’t re-connect the drain hose? Ooph, another job for Glen.
Turned out it’s the drain pump that has failed. So for the moment we spin the covers and let the water drain into the shower and the bilge. Not nice. Drain pump added to the shopping list. The washing machine is a Candy Aqua 1000T. Glen comments that with a name like Candy, no wonder it doesn’t work. It’s like calling it Pussy: expensive and temperamental!
After our very late lunch we are ready to take a break from the boat and all the admin non-sense. So we pretty ourselves up to attempt a crash into Hilton Resort, at the opposite end of the island, both in location and in wealth. Just as we are about to leave we hear thunder. Yes there is a electric storm approaching. With our social plan cancelled, we strip off again and more admin. Feels like a curse. We’ve been hibernating inside the saloon all day with bright sun outside, then when we decide to come out … it rains!
Heavy rain, thunders and lightening all evening, so we are grounded inside our cozy salon, keeping busy with the usual video editing. And some rum punch to get us motivated.
We should revert to sailing, it’s a lot easier, and certainly more fun!