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Larry's LogSaturday night we again had some very light rain for about 10 minutes - just enough to get us up and close the hatches before it stopped. The breeze kept up for most of the night though so we were comfortable although there wasn't enough to keep the wind generator producing much. I went to a large Home Depo type store, Rattan Depo, with Tom in the morning since I still wanted to find a toolbox and maybe some other things. I picked him up at 9 to go into the dinghy dock and we got the bus there. It was a much nicer bus than we used to get, new and air-conditioned. We shopped for a while and I got some of the things I wanted. We then had lunch there and took the bus back, arriving at Marina Juan at 1:30. After dropping off Tom and his groceries, I went back and 'prepared' a light bulb for the Alpenglow fixture. The bulb I bought in Bonaire had burned out already and I had found a new one here so I will do the 'surgery' on it, as recommended by Alpenglow, and hope that it lasts longer, although I guess a year of almost constant use isn't bad. Diane had just relaxed and made dinner and invited Tom and Steph over for later so after finishing with the bulb, I just relaxed as well. They came over about 5:30 and we had a very nice dinner and visit for a few hours. The next day I went over to Survival early to help Judy with her SSB - she wanted to call some friends in St. Thomas. After I gave her a lesson on the SSB and she spoke to St. Thomas, she very kindly made pancakes for breakfast. I strayed awhile and Steph came back from walking Clem and Spike, Judy's dog, a small Shih Tzu. After I got back to Destiny, I got busy doing some small things around the boat. First, I installed the jumper wire I had used to control the voltage regulator. I had put it in originally about 2 years ago because the regulator was cutting out and stopping the alternator from charging the batteries, but it was intermittent and so very hard to figure out exactly what the problem was. The jumper from the batteries directly to the regulator, with a simple switch to make on/off easy, seemed to help so I left it. I removed the switch when I moved the regulator outside the engine compartment, thinking that the heat from the engine probably affected the regulator, causing the original problem. Unfortunately, on the way to Porlamar, the problem recurred so I knew I had to install the jumper and switch again. I installed it near where I remounted the regulator, the compartment above the aft berth. I ran the wires, tested it and it seemed OK. I would run the engine later to do a real test. After that was done and we had lunch, I took apart the repeater unit for the depth sounder. It wasn't working right and I knew it was the repeater since the main unit at the navigation station worked fine. I got it apart and found some dirt and junk inside but nothing near the wires. I cleaned everything anyway, including the contacts with my miniature files and tried it again but with no luck. I then took the main unit off the bulkhead and opened it to look at the wires there. I cleaned the ones running to the repeater but with the same results. Well, I'll try continuity tomorrow. The batteries needed charging so ran the engine and watched to see if the regulator was OK. It seemed to be fine so I started the watermaker as well. It started making water but was also making more noise than usual so I stopped it and figured out that the large gear on the pump was a little loose. I removed it, greased the axle, replaced the gear, tightened the setscrew and started the watermaker again. After getting the belt tight enough and aligned, it was fine, although still only making 4 gallons per hour, versus the advertised 8. (that bugs me every time I look at the output gauge - I wouldn't buy Village Marine again.) Finally, with the engine still running to charge the batteries and keep the voltage up for the watermaker, I relaxed a little. Monday, Diane and I went to one of the large supermarkets this morning on the bus provided by the store and Marina Juan. (Juan doesn't do this from the goodness of his heart, he gets all the points for the money we spend, but at least we don't have to pay for transportation and we get there and have help with all the packages.) We spent all morning and some of the afternoon there as the bus doesn't leave until about 1:30. We got back to the boat around 2 and after dropping off our stuff and putting the cardboard boxes back in the dinghy, we went over to Mima to drop off some bread we bought for Steph. They invited us on board but we first went to Survival to give Judy something and then dropped off the grocery boxes on the dock for the garbage - we try to get rid of them as soon as possible since they carry cockroaches and their eggs. After getting rid of the boxes, we went back to Destiny first, got our test bottles of rum and went over to Mima. We were going to do a taste test. Aboard Mima, Steph got out some glasses and we got out our bottles and they got the one they had. Tom had told me that the rum we usually got, Gran Reserva, was not nearly as good as it used to be. We still had some older bottles, so we had bought a new bottle of that at the store and a bottle of Cacique that had also been very good. We went to Mima with those and the old bottle of Gran Reserva to test them against the bottle of Superior, which was cheaper and not quite so smooth. The results were interesting - the old bottle (bought 1 ½ years ago) of Gran Reserva was still the best, but the new bottle of the same type was the worst - very rough. The Cacique was next, being very good but not quite as good as the older Gran Reserva and the Superior was third. We did the test with the rum neat of course. As you can tell, we take our rum quite seriously. After the test, we just mixed them in with Coke and visited for a while. We invited them to go to Jak's for dinner but they declined so we went in and had a very nice meal - Jak makes delicious fried calamari, which I had, and great onion rings, which we shared. The next morning Diane went in to do more shopping at Rattan, a large department store in downtown Porlamar. I drove her in to the dock and then worked on the depth sounder repeater some more. I tested the wires for continuity and there was nothing wrong there. Since there was nothing "wrong" that I could fix, I was about to give up when I realized that maybe the other repeaters were the same unit, just displaying different things based on what they were connected to. I opened another and found I was right - the only difference was the settings on a dipswitch. I wrote down the settings for the depth sounder and the one next to it, the wind speed indicator, which was useless anyway since the main unit hasn't worked since just after the sea trials when we bought the boat. I tried it but it didn't work too well either so I used the one from the boat speed and that I knew displayed data OK (the boat speed log was not accurate and I could always get that from the GPS). I cleaned up the insides a bit, cleaning the contacts and it worked, at least with the depth sounder. I think the real problem was the LCD screen in the unit - the underlying electronics were probably fine. Getting a LCD screen that size as a spare would be very difficult if not impossible - the units were over 18 years old. But at least I now had a usable depth sounder at the helm. That took all morning up to about 1pm. I finally was about to make lunch when Diane called on the radio that she was at the dock and ready to be picked up. I went to get her and finally relaxed a bit after helping her and dropping some things off at Survival. I just relaxed and read the rest of the afternoon. Diane also rested but went with Steph to walk the dogs about 5. We discussed what she would get tomorrow when she went back to Sigo, the store with the best prices on liquor. We figured about 2 cases of rum and a couple of bottles of things like Bailey's Irish Cream and port. The next day, Wednesday, the first of September and traditionally the beginning of the worst of the hurricane season was a slow day for me - after dropping Diane off at the dock to go shopping again (she prefers to go without me), I went back to the boat and relaxed for a while and then went to Mima for a visit. I stayed until about 1, when I went back and quickly went in to pick up Diane from shopping. She had gotten some cases of beer and liquor so we had to carry it down the dock, put it into the dinghy, and then of course, lift it on the boat. It was cheaper than in PLC though. Once on board, we found places to put it all and then Diane defrosted the refrigerator again while I read my book. There were things I could do but I didn't want to start anything big since we planned to leave in a few days. We had spoken to the diesel guy who delivers fuel to the boat and he was going to come by tomorrow morning so we would be all set. I also put the small jerry jug of gasoline into the dinghy fuel tank so we could fill that as well. We both relaxed after that and went to Fred's boat, Global Ombaka, for dinner, along with Tom, Steph and Judy. Fred had a very nice 46' catamaran and single-handed it, although he was looking for a 'first mate'. We had a very nice time and Fred made a good dinner of goulash, and the cookies Judy brought over were excellent. Thursday the diesel man came early; around 7 and we filled the tank. We took more than I thought, about 120 liters, and we could have taken more but I don't like to fill the tank to overflowing since it can affect the sensor and can spill. We still have the 4 jerry jugs on deck so we should be fine until our return to PLC. He took the small gas container with him and brought it back full about an hour later. Since Diane wanted to go with Steph and Judy to the Sambil Mall, I went also. We picked up Judy, dropped her dog Spike off at Mima, and went in to the dock. While Steph got Judy's wheelchair, Diane got a taxi and by the time we got to then end of the dock, we only waited for a few minutes. We had a good time at Sambil although we didn't get much. After lunch, and some good ice cream, we went back to Marina Juan and I brought everyone back. It was about 3 by that time and while Diane napped, I went back to Mima, visited a little and then helped Tom get Steph up the mast to re-reeve the spinnaker halyard. I finally got back to Destiny about 6. Still in preparation for leaving to go west, on Friday we went, of course, shopping in the morning. Diane wanted to get some meat and fresh fruit and vegetables and I wanted to call my brother in California. We also bought a few more bottles of liquor - sambuca and port. I mostly just wandered around but luckily I found Diane just before she was about to buy 40 oranges, along with the 12 apples, 12 pears, etc. she had already gotten. I said she was crazy and she came to her senses and put about half of them back. Oranges generally keep fine outside the refrigerator but there's no way we could have eaten that many before they spoiled. I called my brother and enjoyed hearing his voice again - that is a drawback of this lifestyle, missing family and friends back 'home.' We got back around 2 and after getting the stuff onboard I dropped off the stuff Diane bought for Steph and Judy. A little after that, we went in to get rid of the cardboard boxes at the garbage on the dock. Diane occupied herself with putting things away and washing the fruit and vegetables - she washed/soaked them in a mild solution of water and bleach to clean and somewhat disinfect them, hopefully they last longer that way. I did some odd jobs but found that a hose clamp that held one end of the rudder feedback unit to the hydraulic arm of the autopilot had broken. It had split and was just lying below the autopilot on the radial. I managed to get out a new one from in the bilge and put it on. There didn't seem to be any damage and the clamp seemed fine, except for where it just broke, not even any rust stains. It must have work hardened but I can't imagine that there was any vibration there - very strange. A bit later, we went over to Mima for dinner. We had decided to stay until Sunday anyway since we still had some small things to finish and I wanted to watch a tropical depression that had started at a very low latitude. |