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Larry's LogThat night the tropical wave did come through with winds gusting to about 35 knots and several rain squalls. Naturally it started at 3am ands woke us up. I stayed up for a while to check that we weren't dragging (we didn't) and that nobody was dragging onto us (they weren't), but I did see a large charter catamaran drag right past us. Fortunately, the people were up and had the engine on by that time and were raising the anchor. Strangely, they decided to motor all the way back to the front of the anchorage to re-anchor. I followed them with my spotlight and they seemed OK. I finally got to sleep around 5am. The next day was still overcast and although it didn't rain much, we just stayed on the boat the entire day. Diane worked on her logs and I continued with "Caribbean." I was actually starting to like it. Around 2pm, I was running the water maker and suddenly it stopped making water although I could hear the motor running. I just happened to be filling a water bottle from the output manually after filling the port water tank so I saw what happened immediately. It was a lucky thing since when I shutdown the unit, I saw that the pulley on the drive motor and the drive belt had come off. If it had run that way for long, the drive shaft and belt might have been damaged. As it was, I fixed it in about 30 minutes, since all that happened was a set screw had come loose. I took the chance to inspect the drive belt and check and clean both the motor and pump pulleys, and then ran the water maker to make sure it was working right. Then I congratulated myself with a cold beer. On Wednesday, it was again sunny although the wind was still up to about 20 knots. Since there was no land shielding us, we felt it all day, although the surrounding reef blocked all the waves. After running the water maker, we went snorkeling again on the inside of the reef. Again, it was simply beautiful. Steve, Connie and Mike from Kristali also went and we used the same mooring. After about an hour or so, we went back to the boat and decided to move closer to the lee of a small island. The anchorage had thinned out and it seemed a little less rolly. So we moved and reset the anchor, and while I was letting out the anchor rode, a large (5-6 feet) barracuda swam past the boat. I wanted to move up a little more but Diane didn't so we wound up between Kristali and a charter boat and a little to leeward. Sure enough, a charter catamaran came in and anchored closely in front of us. Fortunately they left after a few hours. All the cruisers had planned a beach party for about 4:30 and so Diane went around and told those who hadn't been and reminded those who had. The party was really nice except getting there, the dinghy outboard died just before we got to the beach. Luckily, Bridget and John, from Gabrielle, were also coming in and gave us a tow to the beach. We enjoyed the party and Kristali gave us a tow back after. The engine would start and then stall. I had the feeling that it was either the spark plug or the carburetor. I would have a look tomorrow and hopefully get it working before too long. As we got back to Destiny, we saw that another boat, this time a cruiser, has anchored pretty close in front of us. We must be a magnet!! The night was pretty quiet and the boat in front of us, Beaujolais, stayed where she was. Thursday morning I started on the outboard. We hoisted it up to the stern rail and I proceeded to remove the carburetor, as I had already done in St. Martin. I couldn't believe that I actually found sand inside the bowl! How could that have gotten there? Not through the fuel line as there were 2 filters to pass through. If it came in through the air intake, how did it find its way to the bottom of the bowl? Well, regardless, I cleaned it out and put everything back together. I put the cowling back on and lowered the engine onto the dinghy and tried starting it. I pumped the squeeze bulb and could see gas coming out so I tried starting it. It started but then stopped immediately. Once I took off the cowling I saw that I had forgotten to reconnect the fuel line completely. That done, I tried again. This time, it wouldn't start at all. DAMN. After puzzling over it, and after Ralph, from Black Cat, came over and looked also, I hoisted the engine back onto the stern to go over the carburetor again. I removed it again and took off the bowl first and found it completely dry. Hmm. That meant that no fuel was getting in at all. So I then removed the filter housing next to the bowl (actually part of the assembly) and saw that I had mistakenly put the filter screen in upside down so the rubber seal was blocking the opening. Oh well, don't rush so much next time (I wanted to get snorkeling again since another tropical wave was due tomorrow). Again I lowered the engine to the dinghy and tried starting it: second pull and success. So now we had lunch and then gathered our gear to go to the reef. During the second "lowering", Beaujolais came by in their dinghy and said they were sorry they had anchored so close and would be moving. They were as nervous last night as we were, especially since they were directly over our anchor and we couldn't have raised it in an emergency. They were very nice about it and we appreciated their letting us know. So with clear water in front if us, and a working outboard again, we went off to the reef. We went about 50 yards and the engine stopped. I tried starting it again but no luck. Fortunately, we had gone to windward and it was an easy row back to the boat. Once there, I tried the engine again and it started! OK. I let it run a bit (as I did before) and it seemed fine (as it did before). So again we started out. That time we made it out to the inside reef. It was pretty rough and a good current was running that would have made the outside very difficult. We snorkeled for about an hour and got tired from fighting the current so we decided to go back. The engine started fine and ran for about 10 minutes before stopping, about 500 yards from the boat. Diane started paddling while I tried to start the engine again. It took several tries, but it finally started and gave us no further trouble (at least not that day). Back at Destiny, we decided that the dinghy bottom needed some cleaning so Diane got the scrub pads and we cleaned the bottom from the water. Previously, we had gone to the beach and turned the boat over, but that would mean removing the engine, gas tank and oars once at the beach and then putting everything back together once we were finished. Since we were already wet, I thought it might be easier to just do it from in the water. It turned out fine although not quite as good as the other way. Once we finished, we hauled the dinghy out of the water by a halyard to dry it (prevents growth from forming). By that time, it was happy hour and a cold beer never tasted so good. It had been a busy day. Diane had made some bread and chili for dinner. Both were new recipes. Bread - yes, chili - no. Fifty percent isn't too bad. |