Update on the boat maintenance.  Walter found a small drip on the raw water shaft pump seal.  He replaced the impellor, but it still dripped out the seal.  The raw water pump is what cools the heat exchanger for the engine making us dead in the water.  Now what???

Thank goodness this was found while at a  location where we could try to order a pump from the states and have it shipped to Staniel Cay.  There is a shipping company called Makers that fly’s into Staniel Cay 3 times a day.  Walter was on it, he located a pump in Tampa and was able to express ship the pump to Makers in Ft Lauderdale .  Then we spent the next few days trying to get Wi-Fi so we could track the pump.  This all may sound easy but was a real challenge.  Not only did we need to coordinate the ordering, and shipping of the pump to Makers we also had to create a import/export license for the Bahamas, be able to upload our boat documents, passport and the approved import/export documents. Now all we needed was for the pump and documents to be in the hands of Makers before they would be able to allow customs to schedule the package to be on a plane.  So, while waiting for all this to be coordinated we have been lucky enough to still be on a mooring ball with high winds and rain for the last few days. Today we got notified that everything was in order and Makers will try and have the pump on their 3pm flight, but not sure what the process will be to get the pump in our hands once it arrives. 

While trying to coordinate getting a pump, we ran into some friends we met back in Nassau, John and Peddy on a boat called Rumbo.  We shared our situation, John said hey I have 2 extra pumps that he had rebuilt, happy to give you one.  Walter was so excited he almost peed his pants. We rushed back to the boat installed the pump and the engine ran like a charm (no drip). We immediately went back to Rumbo gave John our broken pump so he could rebuild it and paid him for the one he gave us.  This was a true generosity, a blessing!

Even though we had the pump and the boat was good to go we had come so far into the process of getting one shipped that we are waiting for it to arrive so we will have a spare.

Side note: Went to shore to get a look at some nurse sharks that hang out by a fish cleaning station. Walter wanted me to move down to the next step, I hope he was kidding.

More to follow 😊