So a long time friend of mine asked me if I was interested in helping him deliver a yacht from G’Town back to central Florida. My immigration was nearing it’s end and we needed some stuff from the U.S., so I said sure. I should mention that crewing on this delivery trip includes pay ($150 per day), plus pre-paid return home airfare and an overnight in a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale (shopping) once we reach the states.

Commander Dave (actually just Dave, but his boat’s name is Commander) reached the island on Saturday afternoon and I met him at the dinghy dock with our skiff. We ran over to Elizabeth Island where our delivery vessel waited. The engine started up with only a minimum of finagling and we slipped our mooring buoy lines and headed back across the harbour to the Exuma Yacht Club for further analysis.

Once safely secured on the dock, we began a four hour process of checking out the major systems to see if the boat was up for blue water sailing. We uncovered several potential issues, but overall, the boat wasn’t a total mess, especially for something that had been sitting for 3 years.

We cut our inspection off at 5 pm so that we could rush to the grocery and secure supplies for the pending voyage. Thirty minutes and $150 dollars later, we were back at the boat and storing our purchases.

We finished off the day at the yacht club with a couple of cold ones while discussing tomorrows plan. We’re gonna meet up early and walk through the sails and the rigging and such at 8 am. Barring any major problems, we plan on heading out for the U.S. after a successful test sail in the harbour. Stay tuned, more to follow, end of line….