Delectable Bay, Acklins Island

Friday, April 27, 2007

022-26.520 N
074-0.060 W

Ahoy from Shipping Hell (aka Delectable Bay, Acklins Island)!

When you last heard from us (about a week ago), I was describing the problems that we were having with our watermaker. The 800 PSI water hose had abraded a 1/8" diameter hole in a motor cover before the hose developed a hole and sprayed salt water into the motor, pretty much destroying it. Luckily s/v Unicorn had a watermaker by the same manufacturer, so I was able to install my old 12V watermaker and borrow their high pressure hose which allowed me to fill our water tank. That's when the debacle of trying to get parts shipped into here started.

One of the key problems that we have is the lack of communication facilities. Before we headed to the Bahamas we had purchased a GSM (type of phone technology) cell phone which was supposed to be the type of phone that Batelco uses. The problem is the GSM is just being rolled out throughout the Bahamas and at best is in beta test. In the Acklins Islands it's still in crates. The closest Batelco office is 4+ miles from here and due to the intense winds we've been having, you can't take the dinghy there unless you don't mind bashing into two foot waves for four miles. As a result I've been using my dad as an intermediary to figure out what needs to be done.

Nassau is the commercial center of the Bahamas and everything flows through there. Getting things to Nassau is no problem as a multitude of shippers go there. The problem is getting things from Nassau to here. I knew that I was in trouble when the first question that everyone asked was "Who do you know in Nassau?" It seems that you need someone to receive the package, pay customs, and place it in the hands of the next shipper.

Only one airline services Acklins Island and that's Bahamas Air. They also have a cargo branch, Bahamas Air Cargo, which flys of out of the Miami area. After making a series of phone calls from the Batelco office on Long Cay, I found that flights from Nassau to Acklins Island leave on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. I was also told that if the packages arrived in Miami by 5 PM on Tuesday, that they could make the Wednesday morning flight to the Acklins. I assumed that they would be able to make a transparent hand-off between the carriers. Boy was that a mistake! We basically had to arrange for Bahamas Air Cargo to do this, and believe me, this was like inventing a new process and took a ton of calls and e-mail. Amazing! To me this should have been standard operating procedure.

On Friday I informed the watermaker company that I would need to have 2 hoses shipped on Monday. I was also concerned about an exhaust mixing elbow on my generator, so I decided to have one shipped in at the same time. Monday morning I had my dad double check the shipping addresses and flight times. It appeared that we actually had a chance to pull this off.

The first problem appeared on Tuesday morning when we found out that FedEx didn't show up on Monday to pick up the high pressure hoses. I had my dad tell them to ship them via a courier to Miami. Luckily they were in Ft. Lauderdale, so they were close to Bahamas Air Cargo. Both shipments arrived before the 5 PM deadline. It cost a fortune in shipping, but at least they made it. Phew!

On Wednesday morning I got the news that for some reason the packages wouldn't arrive into Nassau until 9 AM and they would miss the connecting flight to Acklins. The next flight wasn't until Saturday. Then I got a message that the description of the parts on the invoices wasn't sufficient for customs. I provided a description via e-mail, but I guess that wasn't enough. My dad contacted the vendors and they faxed new invoices with detailed descriptions to Nassau. But we've been promised that the parts will be on the Saturday flight.

We're in a very remote part of the Bahamas. You can see our current position by going to: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=wcz5101 This area is very lightly populated. The largest settlement in the area is called Spring Point. Spring Point consists of a grocery store, bar, police station, Batelco office, gas station, the insurance board, the air strip and probably one or two dozen houses. Between where we're anchored and Spring Point there are two other settlements, which consist of a small cluster of houses in the middle of nowhere.

As I said, it's about 4 miles from the anchorage to Spring Point. We dock at an abandoned fuel station, walk half a mile to another dock, walk a mile down another road to the main road, and then its 2-3 miles to Spring Point. The good news is that almost everyone who passes you by stops and asks if you need a ride, so once you hit the main road, there's a good chance of getting a ride IF someone passes by. I say "IF" because traffic is not heavy. We've actually had people pick us up and take us to someone else where they told that person to take us to our destination! Where there are people, they're very friendly.

There are supposed to be more Flamingos here than people. We've gone searching for them, but haven't found any live ones. We did find 4 dead ones that appear to have hit the high voltage wires strung along their evening flight path.

I'm also amazed at how little local boat traffic we've seen. There's virtually none. It appears that there's no fishing in the area. We're anchored in 8' of water over sand, and there's nothing to see in the water. Can you say boring?

Since we've been stuck here waiting for parts and not much else to do, we've had times to do boat projects. I attempted to rebuild the high pressure hose by cutting it off before the hole and reattaching the connector. The major problem is that these hoses are assembled using a hydraulic press, and I don't have one of those aboard. I used a propane torch to burn the old hose out of the connector and then using wood from a crate on the beach, I built a clamp to hold the hose in place while we used a gear puller to force the connector onto the hose. While the hose blew off the connector at 600 PSI, I was amazed that it worked as well as it did.

You may recall that while we were in Ft. Lauderdale, we had problems with the air conditioning. Because I couldn't directly obtain Marine Air parts, I brought in a commercial firm. They determined that the compressor had a leak in the heat exchanger and replaced it for the small sum of $3,000. When we arrived in Bimini, we found that we had lost gas and the system wouldn't run. Anyhow, with time on my hands (and a supply of R22 gas that we got in George Town), I went in search of the leak. It took me about 5 minutes to find a leak in a copper tube where it was bent 90 degrees. I have the parts to repair this onboard and it will cost me about $5. Arghhh!!!!

Anyhow, we're stuck here through Saturday and then hopefully we'll out of here on Sunday and head to Fish Cay or Castle Rock. Wish us luck!

-- Geoff & Sue

For the cruiser:

We're anchored in 8' in sand at 22-26.50N 74-00.05W. Don't anchor E of this as it's thin sand over rock and poor holding. Also be careful anchoring too close to the beach to the S of here as you run into the same issues. Note that the tidal range here is only about 1'.

Also note that the charts appear to make it look like you can go S from here, but according to guide books that I have, you can't make it with anything over 5'.
Log ID: 955