It is worth planning your spares carefully as you travel. I had the handle of a fishing reel break the other day. No big deal, replacements are easy to get. As I was shopping for the part, one website noticed that I was logged in from the Bahamas, and conveniently calculated the estimated import duty that would be due after shipping the part here.

On a part that cost BSD$50 the duty due was estimated to be BSD$114!!! Wow… From past experience we know that the Bahamas allow duty free import of boat parts, but ONLY if those parts are required to make the boat move. So engine parts, and sail/rigging parts. Everything else, you pay.

Fortunately for us, we’re headed back to Florida for a quick job that needs us out of the water. We are scheduled to lift on March 8th, at 8AM and splash back at 3PM. Then we’re back underway, headed east as soon as the weather allows.

For the past few days we have been based out of Half Moon Bay, at an island that is historically called Little San Salvador, but has been renamed by the Carnival Cruise line as Half Moon Cay. It is blessed with one of the best beaches around. The only downside is that the population of the island changes from about six every night, to about six thousand when the cruise ship arrives almost every morning. There is a complete faux village that is populated every morning by a boat coming over from Eleuthera.

Tomorrow morning we will begin moving again in earnest, back toward North Bimini where we will check out of the Bahamas, and jump off toward Florida.

It’s a hassle going backwards, but there are always things you forget, that are a lot harder (and more expensive) to source in the islands than they are in the States. So we will make the best of it and rush around getting things we missed.