This was going to be a very brief and relatively
uninformative blog entry and was simply going to serve as a precursor to our
Bahama blogs. I was going to discuss the two repairs we had to do – or pay to have
done and the provisioning we had to accomplish.
What a difference a week makes!
Last Thursday we were notified that the Bahamian Ministry of
Agriculture had denied our import permit for Spot! Apparently last June the
Bahamian government in all its glory determined that, for some reason, Bengal
cats were not welcomed in their country. It is true that Bengals are a
relatively new breed of cat and are only a few generations removed from the
wild. Our Spot is five generations removed, and, as a consequence, has about
1.5% wild genes in her. Most of you who have met her know how vicious our 8¼
pound cat can be. I mean she tries to lick you to death, to interrupt
conversations by purring so loudly and makes a determined effort to knock you
down by rubbing against your leg! Why she might almost be as vicious as her
fellow banned animal, the Pit Bull.
Exactly why Bengals were banned, we do not know – although
we have several theories. One of my favorites is that because Bengals are well
known to be a very intelligent breed, the Minister of Agriculture was afraid of
having a cat in the country smarter than he was. An alternative is that the
Prime Minister said something like “I hate hangnails.” The Ag Minister
misunderstood and thought he said, “I hate Bengals.” And then of course there
is the most likely – they are just stupid. I think Ann wanted to sign up to the
latter.
Ok, now that I have vented, as you can imagine this presented
us with a problem. We could, of course, decide to stay in Florida and pay
marina fees for the winter. Alternatively, we could find somewhere for Spot to
stay while we make what is likely to be our last trip to the Bahamas. We
couldn’t ask our son as he is allergic to cats; we couldn’t ask our daughter as
she lives on the West Coast. So, we asked our friends Dave and Joan Wolf. They
were more than happy to help. All we had to do was get Spot to Northern
Virginia in the middle of a snowstorm.
On Saturday we found out the weather might be good enough to
travel to the Bahamas late Thursday and/or early Friday. On the same day, we
met some friends (Rick and Lynn Nissen) who had just driven from Maryland to
Palm Beach in one day. We decided if they could do it, we could do it. We would
get up at 0430 on Sunday morning, drive all 968 miles, and arrive in Woodbridge,
Virginia later that evening. We would leave Spot at Dave and Joan’s then we
would drive back on Tuesday. It was a brilliant plan and it almost worked.
 |
Spot, waiting for her human prey to appear. Count]d it be the
Bahamian Minister of Agriculture?
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To make a long story shorter we found that our water tanks
were bone dry. We partially filled them, but the water still wouldn’t flow. It
took me a minute to figure out that I might have to bleed the tanks. Once I
did, everything worked. That was, of
course, a blessing and a bane. It was a blessing in that nothing was seriously
wrong; it was a bane in that we now had to drive to Virginia in one day.
Now you might be expecting me to say that we went up,
dropped off Spot, spent a day recovering, then drove back down. You would be
wrong. I have worn glasses for nearly 50 years and, over that time have lost
maybe two, maybe three pairs. On our “recovery” day I lost my glasses. The rest
of the day was spent getting new ones, i.e finding an optometrist open after
the snow storm, getting to Lenscrafters,
having the glasses made and picking them up. We finished just prior to Lenscrafters’ closing and were on the
way again at 0400. Whew! As John Wayne once put it, “Life is tough, but it’s
tougher if you’re stupid.” And I was stupid.
We got back to Palm Beach Tuesday evening. On Wednesday we did
some last minute provisioning and today (Thursday) are sitting at anchor in
Lake Worth waiting for tomorrow morning’s departure.
I know, I know. I promised the gearheads among you a little
information on the two maintenance issues we had – our watermaker and two of
our three heads.
Before we got to Palm Beach, we stopped at Whitakers – a boatyard
we have used before that does pretty good work. We asked them to fix our
watermaker, to make the davit work so it is easier to raise and lower our
dinghy and to give us several estimates on work we may want to have done in the
spring. They determined it would cost $6000+ for bottom paint, $8450 to varnish
the little teak we have on the boat and $4120 for a new holding tank. (As for
the teak, they put something like six coats of varnish and another six coats of
a protectant.) I think l can do just about as well with three coats of marine
cetol.) Needless to say, we are not going back in the spring. I can do some of
that myself, and for that which I cannot do, I think I can find someone in the
Chesapeake to do for a lot less.
Anyway, Whitaker’s took the watermaker pump and motor to
their expert and he decided it was too old for him to repair and warranty.
Really? I must admit that I was a bit disappointed in a boatyard to which we
had sent some business over the years. They did give us the name of an
individual who used to work at Whitakers who now does work on his own. He took
up the challenge, found someone to rebuild the motor and he put everything back
in place. It seems to be working as well as or better than it used to. We shall
see.
As far as the davit is concerned, all they did was to lift the
crane up and apply copious amounts of grease. But since I didn’t even k now you
could just lift the crane by hand, it might have been worth the hour or so they
charged me. Anyway, we’ll find out how much good they did in the coming days.
The real story was the heads. Our Purasans had not had a
problem in over two years. Somehow and for some reason, they both failed within
a week of one another. As you may remember, the only people I trust to fix our
Raritan products (Raritan’s motto should be: Cool Science, Poor Engineering)
are the folks at Marine Plumbing Services. Bob, their Chief Technician, is like
one of the family. We see him for one reason or another just about every time
we go to Palm Beach. It turns out that one of the systems failed because a
small meshed basket dissolved. Raritan’s response, “Yea, we had a batch of those
things go bad recently.” No offer of recompense. Once the $0.50 basket failed,
it necessitated about $1200 in repairs. The total bill was $3558. Oh well, it
is less than 4 Boat Units.
On Friday, we will be on the way to the Bahamas.
Ann’s Notes: Ok ….dear Readers, here is my side of this story/blog…coming from the one that makes all the phone calls and organizes the paper work, reservations and keeps track of our calendar.
We arrived in North Palm Beach on the 15th of
Dec, docked Traveling Soul at Old Port Cove Marina, North Palm Beach FL and got
ready to depart for our Christmas holidays back in VA/MD via car. I always make
sure the boat is clean before we go away, it is a pre-gift I give myself, I
love coming back to clean sheets on our bed when I return. We picked up our car
rental on the 17th of Dec. On the 19th, we loaded the car
with our stuff, including Spot’s travel bag. What, might you ask is in said
travel bag? Everything that a feline traveler and staff might need. 2 Food bowls,
food (soft and kibble), spoon for the soft food, water bowl, water, litter
floor mat, litter, litter box, litter box liner, little box rake, litter bags
to disposal of waste in the little box, Pet Rescue to calm her when she travels,
a few toys, her carrying case ( airline approved, her “safe place”), her
medical records and of course her ‘Purple’ a baby blanket she has had since we
brought her home as a wee kitten. I am sure I forgot a few things, Spot is well
loved by an overly organized guardian…oh…and treats…almost forgot her treats.
We drove half way to VA, stopping in Santee SC for the night, Spot needed to
get out of the car.
We had a wonderful Christmas full of family and friends,
arriving on the 20th, staying at Dave and Joan’s house while in VA
and our condo in MD. It was a yo-yo Christmas, lots of driving between the two
homes. Michael celebrated his birthday a few days early at Tim and Carrie home.
Tim smoked a turkey and it was yummy, I made mac and cheese and a blitz torte
for the birthday cake, a family favorite.
We departed from MD to FL on the 4th of Jan,
staying in Santee SC overnight and we were back in FL on the 6th.
Now the story get really interesting…while in MD, Spot got
her check up and yearly shots so she could get her International Health Certificate.
All was well. I was right on schedule…or so I thought.
On the 7th of Jan, I gathered the health
certificate, Bahamian entry request form, a money order to pay for the fee for
asking to bring our cat with us…plus a fee to fax the approval. If you wait for
the approval by mail, it would take a year to get to the states. Plus a sixty
dollar FedEx overnight fee so the Department of Agriculture in Nassau will get
the request quickly. Then you wait for the approval to be faxed to the marina. Once
you have the approval, you wait for the weather window to cross the Gulf Stream
and you GO.
Now picture this, I have just spent several hours at the
grocery store, provisioning the boat, groceries have been checked off my list, bags loaded into the car truck and I was looking
forward to putting all these items away…well…not really…but it has to be done.
My cell phone rings on the way back to the marina; I see an
odd number on my phone screen so I answer. It is from the Bahamas, Department
of Agriculture…can you hold please? Next
thing I know I am talking to a female veterinarian, being told that the Islands
of the Bahamas no longer allow the Bengal cat breed into the country. Now I
have three … count ‘em … three permits..
that were issued to allow Spot to enter. Sh*t…dumb *ss government.
Now …I have to tell Michael all this and start the problem
solving action. Michael already told you what several of our options were, the
hard part was knowing we would not have Spot with us for this, what might be
our final trip…the blessing was Dave and Joan, our extended family friendship
and their love from Spot .Thank heaven for them saying ‘yes’ when we asked
SO…on the 13th of Jan …after fixing the water
pressure issue at 2:30 AM…we load ourselves into the car around 3:30 AM. This
time we had ALL of the items Spot would need while with Dave and Joan. All her
food, both soft and kibble…kitty litter and everything that does into and for
the litter box, her flea, tick and heartworm Rx ... I think you get the idea. We
then drive from FL to VA, 960 plus miles, trying to avoid a snow storm. We
almost made it, avoiding the storm, we did get caught in some nasty weather, i.e. Non
treated freeway, snow, sleet, and eighteen wheelers passing us on the left. Fourteen
hours later we arrived, one stiff bourbon drink and a grilled cheese sandwich later
and I was in bed. Spot in her new home for several months…all good.
Next day was a rest day and The Eyeglass Incident…my phone
skills and appointment making abilities were test and proven in good working
order. The attitude of Do Not Panic has always worked well for me.
4:30 AM on the 15th of Jan came around rather
quickly like it was 4:30 in the morning. Yes...a stop at Starbucks, needless to
say we were their first customer of the day, they unlocked the door for us.
Coffees in hand, we were back on I-95, heading south again. It was dark and
cold but the roads were clear and the snow plowed to the side. Michael had one
very upset, crying, pissed off female to travel with. I was ok by the time I
got to the NC border.
I know Spot is having a great time with Dave and Joan. They
already had a three level cat tree for her, it has been moved into their dining
room, looking out their back yard, it has been replaced with a five level cat
tree in their family room. Their welcome gift to Spot … Lucky cat.
That is the end of my story… over the years you learn to go
with the flow and if you are organized it makes it that much easier.
Talk to you in our next blog.
Traveling Soul…OUT
Danger, Danger, Danger
Vicious Cat on the Loose (In the Bahamas
we have nothing to do but figure out which
cats to ban!)
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