Bahamas (Abacos) Bound - Part Duex

Up until mid-May Dan and I had no definite plans to take Summer Chaser on an extended adventure.  All changed one afternoon when we decided that the “waterbago” sitting in our backyard needed to be used or sold (drastic I know), as we hadn’t taken a real trip in almost 2 years.  Now mind you, the boat was in full use while our friends stayed on it after Hurricane Irma, but that’s not the use we intended when we bought it.  Just like its namesake, it was intended to chase summers.

So we decided to go! Of course, making a decision to go isn’t as easy as it sounds.  One engine was overheating, our fire extinguishing system needed to be updated/replaced, the life raft needed to be serviced and re-certified, we needed to replace 4 major batteries (over 160 pounds each), address an electrical issue with our inverter, change/update/install new engine monitoring electronics, provision (food, supplies, libations) needed to be planned for, routes needed to be calculated and mapped out and too MANY more little projects to mention.  The list gets long when the boat hasn’t been truly used in 2 years.  Several common boating phrases come to mind - …”it’s better to have friends with boats rather to own your own boat”... and…BOAT stands for “bring out another thousand”…  both hold true.

It took 3 weeks and 2 different mechanics for someone to come out, diagnose and fix the overheat engine issue, which gave us enough time to get the other issues and projects fixed/addressed.  Dan did the vast majority of the work himself, even trying to help diagnose the overheat issue before the 2^nd mechanic arrived (which helped prepare him for what he needed to do) – I helped by handing Dan tools.  Thanks to a friend (Trevor) of friends (Steve/Dylan), we were able to have someone come out a bit sooner and provide us the quick fix we needed.  

In the meantime, Dan replaced all the batteries and connections – I helped lower them into the engine room, he did some electrical work on the inverter - I watched over his shoulder and asked “Lori” type questions, he changed and mounted all the new electronics - while I held the vacuum (thanks to Tiger for helping us with the cut outs), and he did most everything else to prepare the boat for the trip.  I went shopping…LOL (I organized, setup and prepared the boat to be lived on for 5-6 weeks).  On Sunday night at 10 PM we were ready for a Monday, June 11 departure!