Official Stuff
Before heading to the Bahamas, we had to get two things done in the Miami area. My idiot self kept putting off renewing my passport and now that it is near time to leave the country, it was set to expire in just a couple of months which generally isn’t long enough to get into a new country. I was able to make an appointment at the Miami Passport Agency for an expedited (read: expensive) passport. At the appointment, I showed them our pet certificates for the Bahamas, our boat insurance rider for the Bahamas, and our yacht log showing the details of our trip so far as proof of travel within the next two weeks. I had a 9am appointment and walked out of the office at about 2:30 with my new passport in hand. One hurdle cleared.
In order to bring pets into the Bahamas, you need to file for a pet permit and get a health clearance. The pet permit process is a bit broken and can take several months. Before we left home, I used a service to handle the process for us. The cost wasn’t much more and the turn around was about 2 days. As for the health forms, they are geared toward people flying or taking a cruise ship, i.e. people with very specific timelines. We, on the other hand, need to wait out weather and other delays. You need to see the vet no more than 48 hours prior to arrival in the Bahamas. Luckily, we were able to get the dates filled in at the appropriate time because as the next section shows, we didn’t exactly get out of town as quick as we hoped.
Electrical Stuff
Ever since we left Pensacola, our alternator has not been charging our batteries. It’s not a huge deal since we have solar panels and an extra gas-powered generator, but it does mean that we need to run a second engine so that we can keep the lights on, etc. It’s also worth noting that if conditions were bad, we wouldn’t be able to run the external generator and our batteries could run out of juice at the worst possible time.
I had tried contacting electricians at each prior stop and was either told that they will not work on boats with lithium systems, or that they are booked out quite far. I was able to get a hold of an electrician in Key Biscayne who was able to work us in. We both thought that it would be a 2-3 hour job. I took out the alternator and he took it to an alternator repair shop. Turns out nothing is wrong with it. So, he came aboard to see what the issue was and found about 50 issues. That number is probably not much of an exaggeration. It turns out that our batteries were incorrectly wired, nothing had fuse/breaker protection, and a number of other problems that were hurting our system and potentially putting us at risk.
So, he had to do way more work than anticipated. Over the next two weeks, he and I tore the whole thing apart, rewired the batteries, added breakers and fuses where appropriate and, what by that point felt like an ancillary benefit, we got the alternator charging the batteries. It was a lot more hassle and expense than I anticipated but we now feel a lot better about the system and no longer seem to be having as many issues keeping the batteries with enough juice to get us through each day.
Fun Stuff
We were anchored in No Name Harbor, inside the Bill Baggs State Park. It’s really, really pretty. It is the best sunset in Miami and has a small tiki bar with live music Thursday-Sunday which was pretty nice.
We took the tour of the Cape Florida Lighthouse, and walked (or in Grete’s case ran) just about every inch of trail in the park. Obviously, we visited the library and park, and ate a few meals ashore.
One day, we went to the Frost Science Museum in Miami. The museum is huge. Large enough that by the end you feel ‘full’. It also contained a three-story aquarium that you could get underneath and all around at different levels. Outside the museum is a cool row of about 50-60 sculptures of dogs and cats painted by local artists. We all enjoyed every bit of it.
Crazy Stuff
OK, remember how I said No Name Harbor has the best sunset in Miami? Well, that is not a secret. Which means that a lot of boats come over on the weekend to eat, drink, etc. Many of the drivers of those boats aren’t very good at driving their boats. They are worse still at anchoring their boats. We saw several boats crashing into each other, the mangroves, the sea wall, you name it. Luckily, none crashed into us. One day the wind was over 30 mph though and I had to stay up most of the night to push the boat next to us away every so often to keep from getting hit.
Anyway, time to depart this beloved country of ours for bluer (turquoisier??) water.
