|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Larry's LogWhile I worked on the windvane, Diane did the laundry in preparation for leaving. We still wanted to leave soon. Unfortunately she accidentally left some bleach in the sink where she soaked the new covers and one of them was slightly damaged. Oh well, we could still use them. She also washed some of the boat's canvas with a soft brush and mild soap while I went below to change the filter cartridge under the galley sink. I discovered that some water had leaked from somewhere and was on the floor under the sink. As I cleaned it up, I looked for the leak. I suspected the small foot pump since it was old and none of the pressure water connections appeared to have any water leaking from them. Diane later said that she had been using it and that seemed to confirm it, especially once I started pumping it and found water under it again. Before I removed the pump from under the sink, I thought it was a name brand but after taking the hoses off and unscrewing it from the floor, I found that it had no markings at all and was almost impossible to open, even if I had (or could find) a rebuild kit. I took the entire pump out and brought it to a local chandlery to see if they possibly had a rebuild kit and knew how to take it apart. They didn't have a rebuild kit but did have an entire pump of the same type. The new ones didn't have any markings either. They also had a more expensive name brand, a Whale Mk 3. It wasn't the exact dimensions of the old pump but I knew it would fit in the space I had so I bought that one. I also bought some reinforced hose to replace the old hose, probably original and therefore about 17 years old. When I go back to the boat, I just threw out the old pump and installed the new one. Everything was fine again. I also changed the filter cartridge. That night, we went to the weekly potluck dinner. Stephanie had come back from her visit to the States and she and Tom came over, along with Dave, Judy and Megan from Survival. Actually, they and Paul, Lynn and Tyler from Kiana, along with us were the only people at the potluck. Usually there were 20 to 30 people but the marina was pretty empty. People hadn't really started coming down from up north yet and the overall yacht population was very low. It turned out that it was about 25 percent lower that the same period in 2001. The reasons were unclear but probably the recent crime upswing and some oil spills had a lot to do with the low boat census. Steph had brought some newspapers back for Diane and also brought over the Crème de Brie they had bought for me from Martinique. Thanks Steph! We had a good time and had plenty to eat. We thought we would leave Friday but we decided to stay until Monday to relax. The trip to the islands of Los Testigos, where we wanted to stop first, were about 90 miles away and the trip would probably take about 15 to 16 hours, although the wind and current are with boats going in that direction, basically west. Diane tends to get seasick if she's tired and conditions are at all rough. So we told the marina we were staying a bit longer. We made use of the time though. I checked the new foot pump but noticed a slight leak in the cold-water pressure line; fortunately tightening the hose clamp a bit fixed it. Rex stopped by for a visit and to say goodbye and then I just started putting everything away, like the 2 gallons of bottom paint and the primer I bought. Anyone who has lived on a boat knows that space is at a premium, even on a large boat, so finding room for this was a challenge. Luckily we had been eating our way through the canned meat that Diane had bought from the States and there was enough room under the v berth for the paint and primer. After finishing some miscellaneous jobs, I went over to see Tom and help him with a new computer game he just bought but wouldn't run on his machine. We didn't have much luck since there were some hardware issues and incompatibilities. Not much I could do with that. Saturday I went shopping again for some last minute supplies. When I got back, Diane mentioned that her tooth was bothering her. We discussed it and decided that she should see the dentist on Monday to see what the problem was. You don't want to get a toothache without being able to get to a dentist, which would be the case if we went to Los Testigos - just a small fishing village on one island and fishing camps on the others. Tuesday would be just as good to leave. I went over to visit Tom again (he was working on the cabin remodeling) and had the Bake and Shark they serve at the Wheelhouse Pub on Saturday. It was very good - almost as good as the one we had at Maracas Beach. We just talked for a bit and then I went home for dinner. When I did email that night, I received a message from my sister-in-law that said my brother was in the hospital. He had gotten sick but should be out by Monday. I wrote back asking when I could call to talk to him, hoping he was getting better. They are both doctors so I wasn't really worried, especially since the tone of her message was not urgent. I still wanted to talk to him though. On Sunday, I busied myself with a few chores around the boat. The mast boot had leaked when Diane washed down the boat so evidently there was a spot where a forceful stream of water could get in although simple rain couldn't. So I took off the cover and looked at the neoprene seal. There was a small gap between the flaps of the rubber so I loosened the hose clamps and inspected it more closely. The material was OK, just the old sealant had come loose so I removed it and cleaned the fabric. I decided to try sewing the rubber pieces together and got the sailmaker needles and twine and managed to sew it together without ripping it. After that, it was an easy matter to apply new silicone to make it watertight. While waiting for the sealant to dry, Diane and I applied 303 Fabric Guard to the dinghy, as we usually do every few months. This stuff protects the hypalon dinghy from the UV rays of the sun, and it seems to work fairly well. After that, we put the dinghy in the slings and hung it over the side so we could put up the front awning again. The rest of the day was a lazy one and I walked over to visit with Tom again later in the day. Monday though started as a busy one again. Diane got an emergency dentist appointment and while she went there I checked on the engine. I re-mounted the air cleaner, checked the oil, coolant and transmission fluid levels and started the engine. Everything seemed to be working , and there were still no leaks from the water pump I rebuilt. After running the engine for about 30 minutes at 2000 RPM, to get it up to operating temperature, I checked everything again and it was fine. The alternator and voltage regulator were also working well. After shutting down the engine, I started putting stuff away - there was stuff pulled out from everywhere since I had been working on so many different projects. Since Diane still wasn't back after that, I started vacuuming the bilge area under the cabin sole. We hadn't done this yet and I was amazed how much dirt I got up although on the initial glance it didn't look too bad. Maybe it just looked worse than it was but I was glad I got all that dirt out. If it had gotten into the deep part of the bilge, it might have clogged the bilge pumps and that would mean a very hard and dirty job. Diane finally got back and said she had good news and bad news. "OK, just tell me what happened." The dentist took x-rays but couldn't see anything wrong, although he did some drilling and found a very small spot of decay, which he filled with a temporary filling. He did a temporary one since he wanted her to come back Wednesday for a follow up and wait until Friday to leave Trinidad. He didn't want to do a root canal or anything like that since he couldn't find anything specific to correct. That made sense and we both trusted his judgment so we now knew we would stay until Friday. At least we now didn't have to rush to get ready. So that afternoon, I went over to see Tom again. We had a few drinks and then I went home for dinner. So, although I hadn't thought I would be there, Tuesday morning I went to the cruisers' meeting on security and other issues that Mike on Just Dessert had organized. Naturally, it was pouring rain and I was about to leave when Rex stopped by. He was surprised to see us still there and I explained about Diane's tooth. He was going to the meeting also, as an interested party and offered to give me a ride there and back. The meeting itself was interesting and there were several good suggestions. Hopefully some could be implemented although I doubted that one, a cruisers' association, would last long since we are all transient at some point. Rex drove me back to the boat and I did some more work on the projects left. I redid the snubber line I used for the anchor rode. The galvanized chain hook I used was getting very rusty and the line was also wearing due to chafing against the rusty metal so I cut off the old one and spliced on a new stainless steel one. I usually try to match metal, so that like metal goes on like metal, but I had seen other cruisers use stainless steel chain hooks and similar devices on galvanized chain so I thought I would try it. I check this very often anyway so I could see if any corrosion was occurring where the metal touched. I also worked on installing new hasps on the cockpit locker lids. The old ones were starting to look pretty bad and were just chrome plated so I had decided to buy stainless steel ones. Unfortunately, the holes from the old ones didn't match the new ones on the tops, so I had to dig out the epoxy and fillers and fill in the old holes before I could drill the new ones. The old hasps had been put in with self-tapping screws and on the lid, they were only put in through the 1/4 inch of fiberglass of the overlapping lip and then cut off. Amazingly they had never pulled out, but I decided to use small machine screws. That meant though that there would not be enough clearance behind the lids for the back of the screws with the nuts. Luckily there was enough solid fiberglass on the locker so I could use my Dremel tool to "carve" away enough material (mostly just gelcoat) to let the lid close without binding. But, I had to wait until the epoxy dried to finish mounting everything. |