Heading Back to Florida

 

Blossom at Hurricane Hole

Well, it took a couple days for Mart and me to calm down and bring our adrenaline levels back to normal. All is well now except when a faint smell of smoke drifts in from somewhere in the harbor and we both feel a bit anxious (Nassau’s a working harbor with lots of noise and smells). I’m sure that's a temporary reaction!

We’ve had time now to do a preliminary assessment of the apparent damage. It appears that the fire was contained to just the wing engine and that the damage is fairly minimal, especially given the display of flames and smoke that we had. No fiberglass or fuel burned during the fire. What a relief! The extinguisher dust has been cleaned up and Martin changed out the air filter on the main engine just in case in got fouled.

PAE has been very helpful and responsive and after consulting with them, we’ve decided that we’ll head back to Florida to have her fixed up. We’ll be going to North Palm Beach where their commissioning and service office is located. Lucky for us, we’re still under warranty!  

We don’t like that we’ll be running without a get-home engine (minimal thrusters and a weak windlass too) so we’re thrilled that we’ll have Jim Mobley aboard with us. Jim is a seasoned training and delivery captain who worked with us in both capacities this past fall. As an added bonus, he’s a great guy and we enjoy his company J  We should be back by the end of this week.

It looks like our blog readership has really spiked with our last post.  I normally write with our family & friends in mind but I know that there are lots of boat-curious people and we’ve been asked a lot of questions. I’ll answer what I can once we’re back home and I have a bit more time to organize my thoughts and a better understanding of what took place.

For now, we’re enjoying our last couple of days in the Bahamas and are looking forward to an uneventful passage back to the States!

Best seat in the house (Green Parrot in the background)

Nothing can relax you like spending an afternoon on an innertube built for two at Atlantis