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Larry's LogWhile I did the chainplate, Diane defrosted the refrigerator. For some reason though, it wouldn't turn on again afterward. She said it happened before when she used a blow dryer but started up after a while. The last time she did it was with hot water and didn't have that problem. So we waited for 12 hours, until the next morning and it still didn't come on. She put the cold packs on the food to keep it cold. I checked the manual and started by checking the thermostat. I jumped it out of the circuit and the compressor and fan came on so I knew the problem was there. I carefully took the unit off the side of the freezer and saw that a wire had come off during the defrosting process. If that were it, at least it would be easy to fix. I cleaned the wire with some sandpaper, put a new connector on and tried it. Started working as well as ever. That evening, we went to visit Jan and Ghislane on Piano, anchored in a small bay just a few hundred yards from the marina. It was a short distance but a world away in terms of peace and quiet. It was a small bay with mangroves around it and was very pretty. We visited with them for a bit and we looked around their boat that was a customized Bowman 45. Since Jan likes to play the piano, it had a full sized electronic keyboard installed! There were several other very nice customizations that served to make the boat their home. We talked for a bit and then went home. We had a problem with the dinghy engine again, this time it would just quit while running OK. After pumping the fuel bulb a bit, it would start again and run for another 10 minutes. On the way back, I just squeezed the bulb a little every few minutes and we had no problem. Either there was a clog in the line or filter or the fuel pump was bad. Another project! Sunday was fun with us going to the local boat races on the beach near the marina. This time I took my camera and got some nice shots of these 30 foot 2 masted boats being rigged and raced. They had the same type of sail as the smaller boats we saw the week before, but had 2 masts, with the slightly smaller sail set on a mast forward, like a schooner, but with no standing rigging. Tom and Steph's friends, Jim and Jacqui from Lady J came in and we all had lunch on Mima after the races. They left around 4 and we had dinner and then Steph, Diane and I went back to the Carnival that evening around 6:30pm. We had hoped to see some folk dancing but saw a fashion show instead. We walked around a bit but by 9, we hadn't seen any dancing and left. We found out later that there was dancing, we just didn't wait long enough. Monday was pretty nice. Diane went to the shop to check on the part and Jean-Louis said it should be in tomorrow. Tom and I just hung out all day on Mima. A bottle of rum seemed to disappear sometime during that period but I swear I don't know what happened! I played Tom's Concertina, by the numbers, and it was a lot of fun. They had bought it used and the guy they bought it from had a little songbook with the notes represented by the numbers of each key. It was pretty easy although under the circumstances, the songs were barely recognizable. I tried it and had some luck. Meanwhile, Diane had done some hand laundry and then we spent a quiet night watching a video. That is a nice benefit of being dockside, unlimited power. I started rebuilding the winches, that hadn't been done since before we left. I usually try to clean and regrease them once a year, but that's up north where they're used only 6 months of the year. Down here, they are constantly in the sun and salt spray and should probably be done more often. I did the one on deck near the mast first and found it in good shape although, naturally, the grease was dried and it needed cleaning. It takes a while to dissemble, clean, grease and reassemble them and so I did about one per day for the next week or so. Of course, the large primary winches in the cockpit take longer; there seems to be a million little pieces and they are pretty complicated. Diane also called her parents that day since they weren't responding to our emails. We had sent them a message twice about staying out longer and had not heard back. When she called, they hadn't received the email (a neighbor's son was acting as go-between, but he had not given them the message yet. We were having a great time though, with Tom and Steph right next to us. We would go back and forth, having drinks on each other's boat, making dinner on alternate nights sometimes and generally just enjoying the place. Finally, on Tuesday, 1/22, the right diode assembly came in Bernard installed it in the alternator. It was late in the day though and I said I would install the alternator in the boat itself. Jean-Louis asked if I would let him know if it worked OK and I said I would. I thanked him again and went back with my now (hopefully) operational alternator. Since it was late, I decided to install it the next day and had drinks and dinner with the "gang." The next day was rainy and overcast so working inside the boat was fine. I installed the alternator, started the engine with Tom looking at the electrical monitor and when I saw 85 amps when running the engine at 1600 rpm, I knew it was OK. The voltage still needed to be adjusted though so I tried doing that but it didn't seem to be working so I thought I would leave that until I sent the question to Jack at Jack Rabbit Marine, where I bought much of my electrical equipment. He had been really good about supporting me and knew he would be able to help. That night, there was a lot of noise on the dock. There was a Dominican guy with a boat across from us and although he was nice enough, he liked to play his music loud and well into the night. He was having a small party and it was tough to sleep. Eventually, it died down but Diane didn't get a good night's sleep at all. Tom and I worked on trying to adjust the voltage regulator the next day but it still wasn't "taking" the adjustments, so I decided to wait until Jack sent me some instructions. Tom and Steph went out to Ste. Anne in their dinghy to visit Jacqui and Jim from Lady J while we watched Clem(entine), their Beagle. They left around noon and came back at about 4. Clem and I just sat around in the cockpit and read and had a good time. Well, I read and Clem napped. She was really excited though when "Mom and Dad" (Steph and Tom) came back. I continued doing the winches the next day and Diane continued working on the finances (figuring out how much we spent last year) and then did her logs. A bit later, I helped Tom with changing a bilge pump that had burned out. He changed it out but, naturally, it required disassembling half his engine room. Mima is a Gulfstar 50 with a BIG engine room that makes working on the engine or anything in there (like the generator, refrigeration compressor, etc.) really easy, but it still requires work. In this case, he had to remove the steps above the engine to get down to the bilge. To do that, he had to remove the wires and hoses that were attached to the steps, and then finally, he had to finagle with the bilge pump hose since it was the wrong size. To top it off, connecting the new wires required some interesting contortions. Well, that's the nature of boats! I finished doing one of the large primary winches and had taken the other one apart. I was almost finished as this was the last one to do, but as it was late (around 3:30) and I figured it was close enough to cocktail hour to make trying to finish the winch "unadvisable." So, I went over to Mima and Tom and I started our Happy Hour a bit early! Monday, Diane had reserved a car for us and so she and Steph went over to the place early and picked it up. We decided to see some of the island and then go shopping at one of the large supermarkets that would have things that the smaller places in Marin didn't have. We went to a large peninsula on the east coast where we saw just how windy it really was. Tom and Steph had considered leaving but didn't when they heard some people on the HF radio describe the conditions they had on passages the day before. We could see it was blowing about 20-25 knots and the seas were up to 10 feet. According to the weather report we had heard earlier, it was going to get worse before it got better. We spoke with Kristali the next morning and they said their passage from Deshaies, Guadeloupe to St. Martin was "exhilarating", with 10 foot seas and 25 knots from the east-northeast. Connie said it had taken 21 hours and they were all really tired. I believe it! Anyway, Steph and Tom were glad they hadn't left and we enjoyed the little tour of the island. Diane and I also went to see the ruins of an old chateau that was a plantation during the colonial period. Tom and Steph waited on the walk since they didn't want to climb the hill back up. We looked around the grounds and admired the view. It was right on the water overlooking the Atlantic. Supposedly one of the ways one of the owners made money was putting up lights as false aids to navigation and then salvaging the ships that wrecked there. There were certainly enough reefs to make it a dangerous area, even without misleading lights and unscrupulous landowners. It was an interesting place though, even though we couldn't read the signs describing its history. Later in the day we all met Jim and Jacqui from Lady J for pizza at a place in Ste. Anne. It was actually pretty good although not near as good as the pizza in the States. Of course, maybe its unfair to compare. We drove there and I got a lesson in driving a stick shift from Tom. Although I know how to do it, I never used a manual shift much and don't do it very well. Particularly going into first after stopping on a hill. I got a bit better by the time we drove back but since we don't rent cars much, I won't be getting much practice. The next day I was busy with finishing the winches. I had finally done all the smaller ones and was ready to do the big primaries in the cockpit. Those took about a day each. We had dinner with Tom and Steph on Mima and watched a video that night. Not too eventful. |