Dinghy adventures--Nassau edition

We left a great group of friends in Great Harbour Cay a few days ago and we were on a mission! We have been toying with the idea of getting a 15hp dinghy engine for a while now and with our growing kiddos we just couldn't get up on plane with our 9.8hp engine anymore. While in GHC we contacted a shop in Nassau and found out they had a 15hp 2-stroke Yamaha in stock and after a bit of discussion we decided to go with it! We figured if we don't like it we can always sell it stateside since it's a very popular engine among cruisers. So we paid for it and started to look for weather that would allow us to get there! 

The anchoring in Nassau Harbor is, um...it can suck. There's a lot of current, reports of poor holding, and tons of boat wakes to contend with. But I wasn’t a fan of staying at a marina and possibly having to get a car if we didn’t have to. We opted to sail overnight, arrive in Nassau in the morning, anchor in the east end of the channel and head to Harbourside Marine via dinghy to grab the engine. We figured if all went well we could be in and out in just a few hours. So how did it go?

It went GREAT! We dropped the hook at about 1000 and took the dinghy to the dock at the Nassau Yacht Haven/Poop Deck--worth the $1/ft to have a safe spot to leave the "car" and Harbourside is pretty much right across the street. Since we had already paid for the engine, pickup was super easy. We grabbed some spare parts for the new engine and one of the guys from the shop actually wheeled our engine across the street, helped unbox it and drop it into our dinghy, and even took the box away! It was so easy! We stopped by Rubi's to fill up our new 6-gallon fuel tank and headed back to the boat.

Getting the engine into our dinghy was easy with a little help! 

So we could have just moved the new engine to the big boat, pulled the anchor, and left at that point, but we were waiting for some friends so we made the (perhaps foolish) decision to make the engine shifts in Nassau Harbor. This means we had to hoist the old engine up onto a rail mount (holy crap, the wakes SUCKED during this), then lift and drop the new engine into place (again, THE WAKES). It was frustrating, hard work, but we did it! Once the engines were in their new homes we decided to raise the dinghy and prepare to get away from the harbor.

The old and the new in their new homes. We need some stickers!

But first...more dinghy action! Well, sort of. Our friends on S/V Bella Vita said it best--"We may visit beautiful islands and pretty locations, but it's the people we meet that's the best part of cruising!" It is so true! And when those people need something to get their dinghy back in action and we have a spare from our now old engine that will work, we rig fenders down our port side and have them to come alongside to grab it! With their dinghy engine being down and ours not being fully hooked up yet, this seemed like the best way to hand it off. And this meant that we could hand off the part and then pull our anchor so they could drop their hook to get some things done in Nassau as the anchorage was filling up. The handoff was executed beautifully! I handed them a propellor and they handed me a box of yummy chocolates! 

Bella Vita passing alongside for the smooth exchange. 

And at 1330 we pulled the hook, waved good-bye (for now) to Bella Vita, and snuck away to what ended up being a private anchorage just an hour outside of Nassau. Still can't believe how much we managed to cram into three and a half hours and so happy that we got our Christmas present and that our friends' dinghy is working again!

Op test...SAT! Woo hoo! Let the break-in period begin!

Christmas winds are in full swing here and that means we have been dodging westerlies and northerlies and are patiently waiting for the easterlies to settle in so we can have a big selection of protected anchorages. For now, we are surprised to have found relative comfort east of New Providence Island for a few days. But the sun in rising and it's about time to move along!