A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 1/24/2021 – 1/31/2021
Last Sunday we spent the day relaxing at home and swimming around the boat.
On Monday our video from last week finally uploaded! It took 3 days, but at least we got it up! You can watch it here! 🙂 Aside from that, we spent the day sorting out the logistics of a battery problem…
I thought you just got new batteries though?
We did! Don’t worry, those are still doing just fine. The battery we’re having problems with now is the one that starts our port engine. It’s not a huge deal, because it’s the same kind of battery you’d find in a car, so it’s not hard to find or install a replacement. Plus, we have an entire other engine we can use if needed, and we have jumper cables if we absolutely had to use our port engine for some reason.
However, we’d like to get the replacement before we head further South, just to be safe. Our options were to sail back up to Nassau, or get the battery on a mail boat, which would take it to Highbourne Cay (where we were last week), so we could pick it up there. Sounds pretty simple, right? Wrong.
Ray called the battery place in Nassau, ordered and paid for the battery, and requested it get onto the mail boat to Highbourne Cay. The guy was like “yes no problem, what vessel”, so we tell him “S/V Sabado, what day do we need to be there to pick it up?”. The guy explains to us that he doesn’t know, because he doesn’t know that vessel name…? We explain to him that that’s our vessel. He says “oh, no, I meant what is the name of the mail boat vessel you’d like it to go on”. We told him we don’t know the names of the mail boats, we just want whatever one goes to Highborne Cay, to which he replies “I don’t know the boat routes or schedules”… even though he’s the one who offered us this as a shipping option…
So we hang up and call Highborne Cay. They don’t know the vessel name either but they say it should be leaving Nassau at 4pm. That was in 2hrs. So Ray calls the battery guy back and tells him this and he says he’ll try to get it on there, but we never hear back from him.
Wednesday morning we decided to leave Shroud Cay to hide from an incoming storm. Taking into account our new battery potentially arriving + needing a small re-provision run, we decided our best option would be to head back up to Highbourne Cay and check into their marina for a few days. That way we’d be protected from bad weather, be there when the mail boat comes, and we can grab some fresh fruits and veggies from their little store.
Our sail up there started out super nice- downwind, clear skies and calm seas! We sailed with our main up and jib out. We didn’t have much wind, so we averaged an SOG of 3-4kn, but sailing slow is better than not sailing at all!
Unfortunately, about an hour into our trip we changed directions and needed to turn an engine on, so we motorsailed the rest of the way.
We arrived at Highbourne Cay Marina that afternoon, and squeezed into the “spot” they had for us….
We were veeeerrrrrryyyy close to our new neighbors, but luckily they were cool. That night we had a fantastic dinner at the only restaurant on the island, got dessert to-go and ate it in our PJs at home while we watched a movie. ❤️
The marina was packed by Thursday, which is when we were expecting the storm, so I guess we weren’t the only ones planning on hiding out there for it! Everyone on the dock was super friendly- we had other boaters stopping by to chat the whole time we were there! I think my favorite conversation was with the woman on the super yacht next to us… she looked over at another sailboat that was docked a ways away, they had sent someone up their mast to do some inspections, and looks back at us and goes “do you guys climb up your pole too?”. So if you ever hear me refer to our mast as “our pole” please understand that it’s a joke.
Thursday morning we saw the food delivery and mail boat come in right in front of us, maybe even a little too close for comfort.
We were able to score some (very expensive) fresh produce and received our new battery before the storm hit that afternoon.
Luckily, the storm wasn’t too dramatic. The worst of it was in the middle of the night, and since we were tied to a fixed dock we had to be vigilant about keeping our fenders in place, so Ray took one for the team and woke up every two hours to check on things.
Once things calmed down, I went for one more walk around the island. I found a cute little wishing well and some more gorgeous beaches!
I’ll definitely miss this place!
We decided to leave Saturday morning. There’s an even bigger storm coming on Monday night/Tuesday, so it was the talk of the marina- who’s going where, what’s everyone’s plan- some boats were even talking about going to Staniel Cay, flying home, and paying delivery crews to handle the boat during the storm.
We pulled off the dock around 8am and headed to South in search of some protection.
We changed our mind about where to go roughly 5 times while we were underway, but we ended up dropping anchor in a secluded little cove that afternoon. We took down our Code 0 in preparation for the storm, and had some friends who were anchored nearby over for a movie night.
We decided this spot isn’t protected enough from the right directions to weather the incoming storm here, so we’re going to leave today and hopefully figure out a better location to anchor for the next few days. I’ll keep you guys updated on how it goes!