HomeA Series of Most Fortunate EventsA Series of Most Fortunate Events

A Series of Most Fortunate Events

I have written before a blog on the amazing people that came across my life in a bizarre series of events

https://thecrabbycaptainandthesunnysailor.com/2018/11/29/we-live-in-a-crazy-bubble/ 

and then it happens again.  The first time it happened in the states and now it has happened in the Bahamas.

You may laugh at my enthusiasm when such unusual things bring me to the right place at the right moment, but every time it happens I am amazed.

So here is another crazy story about it happening, yet again.

Half way into our many weeks of finally getting to the Bahamian islands, our generator stopped working.  It would start up and run but it wasn’t producing any power.  We do have solar panels that work well to keep our batteries charged (thank goodness) and we conserve energy so as never to run the batteries down.  But our generator is the only source of electricity to run our Rainman Watermaker.

Water is expensive in the islands and lets face it, this chick loves a nice shower after swimming in the beautiful water! https://thecrabbycaptainandthesunnysailor.com/2018/12/12/swimming-with-sharks-turtles-and-rays/

The captain informed me that if we did not get the generator fixed or get a new one ($$$$$$) we would have to cut our travels short.  And this first mate did NOT want that.  This is when the persistent side of me needed to come out.

Black Pont Bahamas

Arriving in Black Point, in the Exumas (which is a LOVELY place in more ways than one), we had some help from our traveling buddy, Ziv to repair the generator but he admitted that he had reached the end of his knowledge scope to fix it.

Dan and Owen at Lorraine’s

Then while sitting in Lorraine’s café, I overheard some sailors talking and of course I butted myself into their conversation to ask if they knew of anyone that could possibly fix our GenSet.  A cool guy name, Dan, on the Sassanian came over and worked really hard to get us running again, but he also reached a point that he couldn’t do any more.  Fixing the generator seemed to be looking less and less promising.

But, in my gut I just felt like the answer was going to come. 

Leaving Black Point, because of a winter front that was coming through, put us on the other side of the quaint island for a day or two.  On one of those days, after a meeting of a few families on the beach, we all took a walk up the “mountain” to see the Atlantic on the other side.

Rotem and Shahar
Our view

The view was stunning as we walked along the road on the crest, and the  elevated height gave us an amazing perspective. I walked with Rotem while Ziv and Inbar explored somewhere else.  Ziv met us back again and was very excited to tell his wife that they saw a woman praying on the mountain wearing a Tallis.  That was when their middle child, Inbar, who was excited about showing me something, called me to follow him.

So I followed this little adventurous 9 year old to a peak that he proceeded to climb to the top. While I was nervously watching this little mountain goat, I realized that I had interrupted the sanctuary of the very woman that Ziv had mentioned earlier.

She was also on the peak but was tucked into a shaded little area with a spectacular view.  I apologized for interrupting her prayer time but she was so gracious and friendly that she and I ended up talking on the mountain for quite a while.  LV, (her name) mentioned that she was off that day for Majority Rules. because she worked for the post office.  I felt such an odd yet comfortable connection with her and was delighted to have had an interesting conversation with her.

Which leads us to the next day:

The weather window forced us to move our boat back to the Black Point side of the island.  Again, the higher powers were at work here….

Walking through the VERY small settlement of Black Point, I saw the very, VERY small post office and decided to stop in to say hello.  I mean, after all, it was only big enough for one person to work in so I guessed that she would be working that day.  And she was!

LV and I picked up again with stories of our lives and I mentioned to her that we were looking for someone to repair our generator.  LV gave me the name, Sidney who works for BPL, Bahama Power and Light which supplies ALL of the power for the islands with what…..GENERATORS!

LV told me he was a super nice guy that could probably help us out and that I should just ask anyone and they could tell me where he was.

So off I went to find Sidney.

I started my trek down the one road past all of the cute adorable Bahamaian houses with their roaming chickens, and friendly people asking “Have you seen Sidney?”

Everyone I happened across was so helpful in pointing me in the right direction until I finally found him.

Eddie in the mean time had dropped me off to refill our water jugs and was now on his way back to find me.  Of course, when told the folks that he came across that he was looking for his wife, they all replied, “Oh, she is down there talking to Sidney!”

Gotta love a small town where everyone knows everyone and everything !

Sidney turned out to be just the person I was looking for.  He was knowledgeable, and helpful and just a genuinely good person.  From what I described, he ascertained that although he would love to help us, he works on the mechanics side of the generator and we needed someone with knowledge of the electrical side.

And wouldn’t you know, Sidney of course knew someone that worked with him at BPL that did just that.

Sidney must have taken at least 40 minutes out of his day to talk to us, give us contact  numbers and even call those guys FOR US to make the connection.  Wow, what a Godsend this Sidney has turned out to be.

He even filled us in that the one that we were looking for, named LJ (Louis Jr), was going to be coming to Black Point from Georgetown on Monday to work on the island gens there.  Unfortunately for us, because of our weather window and the need to get to Georgetown ( location of my flight to Atlanta for my daughter’s baby’s birth), we could not stay in Black Point past Sunday.

Sigh, it seemed like a solution was so close but yet so far.

So now, it is Monday, we have made it to Georgetown before the weather window closed, but the man we were seeking was probably going to be gone awhile from GT.  But Eddie made the call anyway and can you believe this……

LJ’s job had delayed sending him to the other islands and he told us he could come look at it in the next 30 minutes!

I will tell you that this little chicks blonde head almost spun off of my shoulders with excited.  IS THIS FOR REAL??!

I think meeting LJ was just one more example of the higher power putting us in the right place, right time and with the absolute BEST people.  Wow.  If it wasn’t happening to me, I would have said that the chances of this all working out would have been next to impossible.

You can probably guess the rest of this story, this handsome young man with a heart of gold, came to our boat, not once, but three times without taking any money. In fact, he even ordered the parts for us, had them FLOWN IN, and put them on our boat BEFORE allowing us to pay him!  And of course, after receiving the parts, his brilliance and aptitude fixed our month long problem in about 6 minutes!


I only wish that I had photos of LV and Sidney to put in this blog as well because they are all part of this amazing journey.  The kindness and goodness in this world never ceases to amaze me.  And the blessings that have been bestowed upon us are humbling.

IF the weather windows had not forced us to move to the places mentioned above ……

and IF Inbar had not called me to come watch him …..

along with LV being on that same overlook at the same time….

and Sidney being a good man and offering help to strangers….

and finally LJ with his knowledge and expertise for the VERY problem we were having….

wow,  a beautifully orchestrated series of MOST FORTUNATE events…..

that can only be made possible by a higher power that had a plan.

Many thanks to all of those listed above.  I hope you are reading this.

And for anyone else that might need a gen fixed, contact information is listed at the bottom of this post.  

And for all of the crazy series of events, we are so thankful and promise to Pay it Forward.

Louis Rolle—Generator Electrician

Louis.rolle@hotmail.com


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