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Larry's LogSaturday and its now the 4th day after the surgery and my eyes are still not what they should be. The doctor said it might take a while so I guess I'll just have to wait, not that I have much choice. Elias was at the boat by 9 and he started on the small pieces that he had begun already. The power had gone out just before we got up that morning and was still out and the boat was starting to get warm so we opened the hatches. About 30 minutes later, the power came on again but the main breaker tripped and then kept tripping. I wasn't sure what the problem was but figured that it was just getting old and weaker every time it did trip. While Elias started lightly sanding the pieces in the cockpit, I looked for a replacement breaker. I had spares but none of the right amperage. I called Mima and they didn't either. Then I tried one of the small stores in the marina and they didn't have any electrical parts. I went back to the boat and called another store by radio. They said they had one but would be closing in 5 minutes - it was almost noon. I asked them to stay open and I would catch a taxi to come over right away; they said OK and I left. I got there, bought the part and went to Mima to get some sunglasses Steph said they could loan me. When I got to their boat, Diane called to say that they original breaker was now working OK and to just hang out if I wanted to. OK. I went back to Destiny around 2 so I could put the drops in my eyes though. It had rained again so Elias was working inside the boat. Interestingly, when the power eventually came back on, the breaker tripped twice more but then held and was fine the rest of the day. Elias said the power was just bad - could be. Anyway, he finished doing the small pieces inside so I couldn't do much except work on the PC. He finished up around 4:30 and then we moved the pieces so we could eat dinner on the table that night. They were really looking pretty good. After he left, it was still raining so we didn't do much. Diane still didn't feel well but she made a spaghetti dinner and then we just relaxed and watched a video. I checked the forward head to look at the newly varnished pieces I had put there and was horrified to see that the vent was leaking again, and there was water all over new varnish. Luckily, it had cured enough to resist the water. I wiped it off with a soft towel, moved it to where it wouldn't get wet anymore and went out in the pouring rain to try and temporarily stop the leak. I managed to do that by putting a plastic seat cushion over the vent cover and putting a plastic bag over that. It seemed to work and the leak finally stopped. It finally stopped raining last night and the circuit breaker was still fine the next morning. I checked the varnish where it got wet and it also seems OK. My eyes though, are the same. I'll give it until Tuesday, a week after the surgery, to call and check with the doctor. Diane still wasn't feeling well so she slept in for a while I worked on the PC. Tom and Steph came by around lunch and stayed for a couple of hours but left after the rain let up a bit (it started again). It had been raining quite a lot since there were some tropical waves reaching further south than they normally do. I worked on the web site for the afternoon while Diane rested. A very quiet day. The next morning, Diane woke up with a swollen eye and had been up with it several times during the night. It looked like conjunctivitis, which is very contagious. My eyes were about the same although the right one was a bit clearer, I think. The left was the same. She got the name of an eye doctor and because it's contagious, she suggested that I not go with her and Steph said she would go; they left about 9:15. It might take several hours since there are no appointments, just 'first come-first served.' I stayed on the boat and did some odd jobs like flushing the watermaker and I also straightened the boat a bit, at least I tried. Elias came about 9:45 (he had come from Cumana where his girlfriend lives) and had brought me some of the corn rolls, as he promised. They were still warm and I tried one - very nice. During I day worked on the PC while Elias did another coat on some small pieces. Diane came back with medications for a bad conjunctivitis and she and Steph also did some grocery shopping. Since she was so contagious, I went to sleep at Mima. I walked over to CMO and we had some drinks at the restaurant and ate hamburgers there. After dinner, Tom and I and some British guys from a large private yacht played darts. Although I couldn't see the numbers very well, I did OK - my teammate and I won one game. In the morning on Mima, Steph made pancakes and bacon for breakfast - I hadn't had pancakes since we were all in Laguna Grande last year. I called Diane a few times but she had been sleeping late. I eventually spoke to her around 9:30 and she was feeling OK. Elias had come a bit late but had started already. She was just relaxing. I stayed a while at Mima and then went back to Destiny around 11:30. Elias was about ready to start the companionway so when I got back, I started removing all the little pieces so he could clean and sand the wood there. I then went walked back to CMO to meet Tom and Steph again to go to a large 'Home Depo' type store. They wanted some small doors for their cabinets and I wanted to see if I could get a piece of wood to fasten to the stanchions to tie the jerry cans to. I had seen that done on several boats and it would make using the cans much easier. We ate lunch first though, at a resturant in a mall I had never been to before, arepas with chicken and cheese for me, which was pretty good. At the store, I found the wood but quickly realized that it would be impossible to get an 8-foot piece of 1x8 back to the boat in a taxi. Tom said we might get the CMO dockmaster to take us in a pickup truck, so that would work. We left the store, got a cab and the taxi dropped them off at CMO and then brought me to Bahia Redonda. Back at the boat, Elias had cleaned and sanded some more pieces and was starting to finish up. We talked about me going back to Mima for the evening but Diane said she felt much better and so I decided to stay home. I had wanted to call my eye doctor in Caracas today but felt since it was late already that I would just call tomorrow. Wednesday we got started in the morning late and Elias came about 9 so it was hectic early on. He helped me turn the dinghy over and I started working on the transom. I wanted to put the stainless bar on the top of the transom and also attach the new bracket that Armando had made. Finally, I wanted to remove the existing padeyes and see if there was solid glass where the holes were drilled and try to prevent further rust stains. Diane went to call the clinic where we had our physicals and I had my eyes done. She got through to my eye doctor and he said that as long as there was no pain, inflammation or redness, that there was no cause for worry for 3 weeks after the surgery. My right eye did seem to be getting better but the left seemed to remain constant, maybe a tiny bit better - maybe just wishful thinking. Anyway, her primary physician had left for the day already but I was supposed to call mine back at 1pm. I worked on the transom all morning since I was interrupted several times by Diane and by Elias when he asked questions or needed some help. I had removed a bi-fold door from the aft cabin and now he asked that I remove the hardware so he could start it. So my work was delayed. I did manage to prepare everything and I used the Lifecalk primer that Weedie had recommended. It seems that polysulphide (or polyurethane) caulk does not adhere well to metal and needs a primer for that, so I decided to try it. It didn't want it to start weeping rust and felt that it might help. After lunch, I went up to call my doctor but got no answer. I tried again after 20 minutes and got an operator but I couldn't understand what she wanted and she eventually just hung up. So, I went and got Diane to help and she got through. I spoke to the doctor about the test results and he said most everything was fine. He just mentioned the high blood pressure again and that my PSA test was a bit high. I knew about both already (not the specifics but in general) and so he said he would send the results to 'our house' meaning the marina. We went back to the boat since Diane couldn't talk to her doctor until Friday. I finished up attaching the bar to the transom and started preparing the holes I made before to hold the fuel filter to be filled with epoxy. The transom where I had drilled wasn't solid and I wanted to fill the holes with epoxy and then redrill them for the new bracket. I got the epoxy mixed and filled the holes and started to take off the tape I had used to prevent leaks in the vent over the forward head but again I got called away for something else. By the time I got back to it, I just took some plastic and taped that over the vent. Steph had stopped by for a little while, didn't stay too long and while I helped Elias put the stuff he was finished with in the boat, Diane wrote some emails. The next day it rained most of the day, making varnishing the pieces like the doors difficult. Elias did other stuff though like the small doors and tiny pieces and cleaned some more of the companionway. Diane had slept late since she still wasn't feeling well but was up just before he started. In the morning, I drilled the new holes for the outboard fuel filter and was about to start mounting it but it started to rain. So, I went below and started remounting the finished pieces back on the bulkheads - like the spice racks, the magazine rack and the moldings around the mast. That took me to lunchtime and Diane and I went to one of the shopping malls near PLC. We stopped to get lunch at the food court but after sitting down, we happened to see Tom and Steph so we called them over and we ate together. We then all went shopping, first at the pharmacy and then for my sunglasses. We looked in several optical places and got a good range of prices and styles, stopping to get some excellent ice cream, probably the best I've had since Iles des Saintes in Guadeloupe. We then went to the supermarket and then back to the boat. Steph and Tom had planned to come over and we would order pizza tonight but we cancelled because of the rain. We ordered it anyway and they delivered within 30 minutes, right to the boat - what decadence. Friday I worked on finishing the dinghy and finally was able to mount everything after the rain stopped. The morning was clear, it rained at midday and cleared up again around 3 and then started again around 5. During the midday rain, I put together the v-berth double doors that Elias had finished varnishing and mounted them. All that gloss near the flat bulkhead looks very different. We may have to do the whole boat just to get it even! Diane still wasn't feeling too well and rested a bit but did call her doctor and finally got the results of her physical. She made some other calls as well to schedule an appointment with a local doctor to get some things taken care of. Elias had to stop just before lunch to put some pieces below and I helped him so they wouldn't get wet. Fortunately, the things that did get some rain on them were just being started and only had one coat, so the water marks, if there were any, would disappear on the second and third coats. He also finished preparing the companionway and started the first coat on that. It looked great but made getting in and out of the boat difficult since we couldn't touch the sides as we entered or left the cockpit. It is starting to look really good. Steph stopped by to say hi and Diane went up to sit by the pool and then read for a little bit. It's going to be tough to see just the companionway done. |