The Boat

So have you heard the one about the boat?  B.O.A.T. it goes something like this B.O.A.T.stands for Bring Out Another Thousand.   It’s not funny.

Several months ago Allen took Jackson out for a short outing on the boat.  When they weren’t back and sunset was approaching darkness I began to worry.  Not true fear because they weren’t going THAT far from shore, but more generalized worry.  Turns out that there were some mechanical issues and Allen had to make it back at a very slow pace and backfiring all the way.

He held off getting the repairs made because it is hard to accept that you’re going to have to hand over your wallet and just pay whatever the mechanic says.

Eventually a mechanic was called and the news was not good.  The first estimate was in the $850 range and although that was tough to swallow, it just had to be done.  Fast forward about two weeks and the repairs were still not done and the bill continues to climb as more and more parts are required.

While Allen’s parents were here, the mechanic finally finished his work.  Allen, his dad and the mechanic took it out for a test drive.  Later that day they drove it downtown and filled it up with gas.  When the boys got home from school, we decided to take a quick trip, with the whole family, out and around Sandals island and back.  Of course since it was just a quick trip I had no camera {gasp!}

As we passed Sandals the boat did something funny and we stopped.

We were dead in the water.  The anchor was thrown and I’ve never been so grateful for Allen’s Blackberry as I was then!

Allen called the mechanic and they tried a number of things, but to no avail.  The mechanic was unable to help us over the phone. The boys and I sat tight and talked about all kinds of things.  Knowing that getting worried in front of the boys would do nothing to improve our situation really helped me keep things calm.

As Allen is contemplating who to call next to come help us, the mechanic calls back.  He has called the Bahamas Defense Force to come tow us in.  We didn’t even know this was an option.  Having a mechanic that works for the Defense Force really paid off this time!

They came within about 10 minutes, hooked us up and towed us back to our dock.  With full lights going.  We didn’t really care, we were just happy to be heading back home.

That’s the short story.

The long story is that they towed us in, but as we approached the canal entrance to our neighborhood, the waves got really big.  There are boulders on either side that make up the canal entrance.  In normal circumstances this would have been a little tricky, but being towed added another level of difficulty. 

These pictures were the best I could find showing the canal entrance.  Obviously not taken that night!

There was also a boulder that had gotten knocked into the center of the entrance by accident when they were dredging last time {seems like it’ll be there a while}.  So I was muttering some words that you won’t hear in Sunday school and also a lot of words that you will!  We made it just fine.

In all out time here I have never seen so many people out on the dock, gazebo and under the bridge.  It was packed.  The lights on the RBDF boat were certainly not dissipating the crowd either.

Then the Security officer that has to lower a chain to get into our neighborhood canal must have been snoozing since the RBDF boat almost hit it before he came out and lowered the chain.  There was a lot of shouting about that.

We made it past there just in time for our friend Scott to snap this photo.  Thanks Scott!

The resort that connects to our neighborhood was also full of folks out for their evening air, as were the two restaurants that we passed.  There may have been some people in other continents that didn’t hear about our rescue, but it sure felt like we were on display for everyone on our island!

We made it home and the RBDF fellows were complete professionals and even tied up our lines for us.

The mechanic paid us a visit pretty early the next day- turns out that we need at least another thousand dollar part for the boat.

Anybody want to buy a boat?