Nassau Three-peat

It was pretty cool when the Bulls did it, a Three-peat, and then, did it again, a Repeat Three-peat. On a boat, going back and forth to Nassau, not so cool. We commuted for three decades in Chicago and don't need to be doing it from the Exumas to Nassau. It was a boring commute, no wind, no speed since we did not want to push the engine. One again, we are in the same slip in which we have moored two other times: another Three-peat. I told Dudley, the dock master, that we had earned a plaque with our names on it for slip #48. But that would mean spending a lot more time here, something we don't want to do.

There has been much discussion in the certain media and some literature about the Mother Ship, and its arrival, including those poor souls in San Diego that thought that it had arrived before they perished at their own hands. Well, Carol and I did, in fact, see the mother ship about 12 nm SE of Nassua -- a confirmed sighting -- with pictures. And, the mother ship had her five, count them, baby boats,all in a row.

This was the second time that we have returned to Nassau from the Exumas and the two days were so nearly identical as to evoke a sense of deja vu. On both days there was very little wind, and what breeze there was had clocked around to the south in anticipation of a front arriving in 36~48 hours. The seas, of course, were almost flat and glassy. Both days were bright and sunny; since we were traveling, generally, to the NW, the sun was hammering the cockpit from the back, so much so that Carol spent most of both the trips in the cabin to escape the sun.

I guess that being back in Nassau is a matter of perspective. I think repairs .... yikes! Carol thinks restaurants ... yippee! No to overlook shopping, showers and other things that so delight her. Once again the first night in meal is pizza. I'm starting to wonder if maybe she didn't sabotage the engine just to avoid cooking a few meals. In her defense, away from Nassau there has not been very much eating out and she has been doing a lot of cooking.

On Saturday morning I decided to tackle an item on the list we had made. Inspect and tighten the bolts that hold the engine mounts to the boat. It seemed simple but necessary since we had found a couple that seemed less tight than they should be. Just to get some spares, I completely took off the nut and bolt from the most accessible of the eight. I saw that the threads on the bolt were badly stripped; no alarms went off, I thought that I might have done this with my overpowering 140-lb., maybe, of mass and muscle. So I went across the street and bought like for like and a few extras and started re-installing new stuff in place of the old. I found it odd that I was using a 17mm wrench on the bolts but a 5/8-in. wrench on the nuts. Still no alarm went off. I didn't like the fact that Keith, the installer, had used locking nuts and small washers. So, midstream I sent Carol with one of the bolts to buy some non-locking nuts. When she returned, after having done three with the original parts the alarm finally went off. I'm not too bright but on a good, average day I can usually avoid full tilt stupid. I guess I did not hit average until about noon. Keith had mixed metric bolts with standard nuts. Of course, the threads were stripped and, of course again, with stripped threads they were not very tight. This may, or may not, have anything to do with the immediate and proximate problem of vibration, but at some point in the future it certainly would have. The last bolt that I changed, one of the ones I had newly installed, we so cross threaded that the only way to remove it was to torque the head off, the good news being that there was room to do this.

So, the final tally was: six bolt sets, six hours; lots of blood on the deck from scrapes, scratches and slashes; old and new parts trashed, lost and discarded ... about $100; my frustration level ... priceless. And, the job is only 75% done because there are two bolts that were just too hard to access by myself. We thought that we had written a check to obviate all these problems. The evidence seems to prove otherwise. I have to admit that I have had unkind thoughts about Complete Yacht Service.

Carol has a new favorite restaurant in Nassau: Montagu Gardens, so named because it is only a few hundred yards from Fort Montagu. It's an older place, probably dating back to the 20's ~40's. The food is good and, by island prices, very reasonable. Carol, who seems to have an aversion to ordering the same menu item two times in any calendar year, has twice had their seafood platter. On this particular night we met our starboard side boat neighbors at the bar and shared a table with them for dinner, a pleasant evening with no shortage of boat stories to go around.

Sunday was another work day, for me at least. 250 hour maintenance on the new engine required several tasks that I had never done before and several that I had never done on this engine. Only one was left undone; I needed to have planned ahead and ordered a spare gasket, which I had not done. At the end of those two days I would have sold off Carol and thrown in Wile E for the promise of never having to hold any wrench in my two hands again.

Come Monday morning we called Albert who sent Jason to look at the engine; after about 5 seconds Jason said to turn of the engine, he had seen enough. The engine was, in fact, very badly out of alignment having severely twisted one motor mount and the proximate cause of the problem was the mismatched bolts which occupied my Saturday. In realigning the engine one of the two offending bolts which I had been unable to do by myself, Jason and I did together. The final vote was that the 8th bolt was just too hard to get to without removing the marine gear (aka transmission). So, it sits waiting for the next owner to handle. The realignment was not quite as good as Keith did during the installation but infinitely better that the mess with which we arrived. On the other hand, I may just be hyper-sensitive to vibrations now and not giving enough credit to Jason. There is no consolation in being correct about the problem and its cause. The right answer would have been: no problem at all from a proper installation.

Setting aside boat problems, we were invited back over to Doug's boat for drinks, he and Sunny having returned to Nassau, as did we; they, however, are headed west for the trip back to the states. We decided that Sunny is a boat princess and probably would not adapt well to life on a smaller boat and a sailboat at that. They are fairly new to each other, building a relationship, something which I admire and respect. I cannot even imagine doing that ... too old, too tired, too set in my ways.

Carol with Peter, the marina manager.

Sunny and Doug.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, we'll head back south to Norman Cay an see what we were unable to see on our first, abbreviated visit. Then we'll try to hook up with Debbie L. who is only an island or two away from Normans Cay.