It is done. Foss Foam nailed it; rudder fits perfectly and they went out of their way to bring in the schedule. Highly recommended.
Captain Chris Lloyd towed me and while there was a little drama with the pulpit getting bent, he made it right. He put me in contact with the local people I needed to get situated.
Robert Brown of Brown's Boat Yard put me in an affordable slip for the 3 weeks I was waiting on the rudder. He also helped me get customs and local shipping sorted out. He wasn't 100% up-front on costs except for the slip rental. I couldn't get him or his agents to give me estimates on fees, so when the bill came it was a bit of a surprise. I can't clearly fault him, but it's fair to say he didn't go out of his way for me and I was charged for everything and maybe a little more--hard to know as the invoice was illegible. The inexpensive slip offset my overall opinion though. Neutral to slightly positive.
The only bad experience (well, outside of loosing the rudder), was with Tropical Shipping. They made a mistake on the bill of landing which caused delays and extra fees in customs. On top of that, they charged me to make the correction. Communication with them started of good, but it got nasty once I pointed out the mistake and asked for the fee to be removed. Take away is that if you have to deal with them, call them up before shipment and make 100% sure the bill of landing is filled out correctly. This means you have to understand how Bahamian Customs deals with importing items associated with a cruising permit. Don't expect Topical to know how to deal with this--or care.
Overall, I'd recommend not loosing your rudder in the Bahamas ;-)
Onward to the Exumas!
