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Larry's LogSunday, December 19, 2004 We got up fairly early after a very comfortable night's sleep - the breeze moderated after midnight but kept up all night so we were nice and cool below. After coffee and the radio nets, we left for Bahia Redonda. The wind was still about 12 knots but as we got closer to the marina, got less and less until by the time we entered our slip it was almost calm. We motored the 9 miles and ran the watermaker since I wasn't going to have a chance to flush it today and might not for a day or so. I counted 14 oil tankers anchored in the large bay around PLC and the neighboring towns. I think it was the most we had seen there. After we got in, the marina staff helping and putting us in easily into out slip, we started to get the boat organized. I hooked up the electricity and water and started to rinse down the boat while Diane went to get some bread for lunch. The guard had given us the key for our storage unit so we could get our air conditioner. After lunch, we went to get the a/c unit but the key wouldn't work - it wouldn't even fit the lock. We tried to find Karen, who handled the rental, but she was out of the marina for a while. We though about breaking the lock but decided against it until we could talk to Karen - Diane didn't want to be without the a/c tonight; it would be hot, and probably buggy. As we walked around from the boat the other side, we saw cruisers we knew and chatted for a bit - we got asked about Lady Diane a lot and usually gave them an abbreviated story. Finally back at the boat, I started to put up the awning, but Diane found Bruce, another cruiser that had helped us get the air conditioner off the boat in August - by chance he was also an a/c expert and he kindly came over to look at the refrigerator and quickly determined that it was the thermostat that was bad and that was why the compressor wouldn't turn off. He removed the old one from the wall of the cold box and made sure that the compressor would run; he couldn't get the probe out because it was frozen in but I said I could do that later. He said it was s standard refrigerator part so we could hopefully buy one in PLC. However, I had a spare someplace and would look for it tomorrow. Karen eventually came back and she went to look for more keys. After a couple of trips back and forth to the storage unit though, there was no luck. Evidently, Paul on Autumn Wind had kept the key he had and the other boat, Calico Clam, who took over from Larry on Babylon, had kept their key. Paul and Vivian were in California and the Calico Clam crew was off traveling - there had been only 2 keys. Karen called the owner of the unit and he said he should have a key and would come tomorrow. By this time it was almost 5. Karen lent us a large fan for the night and hopefully that would help. We went back to the boat after talking to some more people we knew and I setup the fan - it seemed to be OK. We then went to take showers and ate at the marina restaurant - it was too hot and we were too tired to eat on the boat. We had talked to some other cruisers who were eating there and they said the food was pretty good. When we came in, we saw Norm there and talked for a while. Norm had a very large (78 feet) boat called Pawnee, that he generally single-handed, that we had seen as we came in that morning. We met him last time and had been on a short sail on the boat one day. He was a nice guy and had sailed across the Atlantic, seen the Baltic, and come back in the time since he left Venezuela in April. We had a nice time talking with him and the food was pretty good. We got back to the boat and although the fan worked well, it just wasn't the same. We spent a not too uncomfortable night with the fan but there were certainly mosquitoes still around. After getting up and listening to the local morning radio net, we got busy. I was finishing with the awning and then started getting the dinghy ready to launch when Karen came by, smiled and held up a key. She had tried it already and it worked. We thanked her and said we would get 2 copies made - she was going to Merida tomorrow for a vacation. Diane and I went to get the air conditioner and the 'stuff' that goes with it - the cover, foam sides of the enclosure, drain, etc., as well as some other things like the toaster. I brought the unit back on a cart while Diane carried some other things. She stopped at the mini-market to get some bread and I continued back to the boat and saw John from Nirvana on the way. He asked if I needed some help getting the unit on the boat, I said sure, so he came over and we together we got it on the cabin top with no problem. I thanked him and handled it from there. Diane came back and started getting ready to go shopping since it was almost Christmas and the stores would be mobbed and probably run out of things soon. Well, by the time she did some other things, she never did go. I finished setting up the a/c and then finished getting the dinghy ready. I also put away some things in the cockpit and organized the lines that were lying around from the trip. Fortunately, the air conditioner worked well and we were nice and cool that evening. The next day was again pretty busy for Diane although not as much for me. She went shopping and planned to make some phone calls at the mall, leaving around 9:30. I stayed and tried to find the spare thermostat for the refrigerator. I looked everywhere in the main cabin and under the v berth but could find it, although I did find some other things I needed. I also found the 5-inch, 12-volt fan I had been looking for, also for the refrigerator. I changed the fan on the refrigerator again using the bigger one now and then had lunch. I seemed to remember that the spare thermostat might be under the aft cabin berth but since there was so much stuff on top of it now, decided to wait until Diane came back - so there would be room in the cabin to put her groceries and so we could decide of we wanted to put the stuff from the aft cabin onto the v berth and sleep aft. We had done that last time, using the larger aft cabin since the boat was air-conditioned. We can't use it normally since there is very little airflow (it only had a small hatch). I waited for a while and then ran the wire for the cable TV to the dock. It was almost 3 and she still wasn't back. I figured it had taken a while to first make the calls and then the store was probably crowded. Diane finally came back around 3:30 and after we got everything inside, didn't do much except put the stuff away and relax. She had also managed to get the DVD, 'The Incredibles' (English with Spanish subtitles), a new movie that got good reviews. We watched it in the evening and liked it a lot. It was a busy but productive day - in the morning we moved all the stuff from the aft cabin to the v berth and I looked for, and found the spare thermostat for the refrigerator. I had already removed the old one but of course, Diane had just gone shopping so the freezer and refrigerator were now full. Diane had gone off to do some other errands so I put the meat and stuff in the insulated bag with some ice packs and managed to make enough room to get at the thermostat wires, put on new terminals and remove the spillover board to attach the temperature probe. I attached everything, put the food back in and hoped it worked correctly. The compressor turned on and off by turning the thermostat so it seemed OK but the only way I could tell positively would be the temperature the box reached when the compressor turned off. Doing that took most of the morning so by the time I cleaned up the tools it was lunchtime. At this point, the only thing 'broken' was the autopilot that would probably stay that way until after Christmas since all the businesses here close for a while over the holidays. After lunch I worked on trying to get the PC wireless network adaptor to work. It didn't in Bonaire but maybe I would have better luck here since there was someone who really understood the technology, George on Pyewacket. I had seen him when we first came in. I tried setting it up but could get very far. I spoke to David on Sylvester and borrowed his adaptor but it was the same type that I tried when we first had the wireless network here and I couldn't get it to work on my laptop. So, I was out of luck until I could find George and I couldn't seem to find him (I'm sure he was inundated with problems and was trying to keep a low profile). After giving up on that for the day, we went to a little party at the marina restaurant to pick the best lighted/decorated boat in the marina. There was free beer and snacks and lots of cruisers were there that we knew so we had a nice time. Diane was very busy baking the next day - she was getting ready for a party on Christmas Eve we were invited to. I got all the dive equipment out and rinsed it all off again with fresh water. We hadn't done it last year but I felt that we might not have gotten all the salt out of the equipment - it took almost all morning to do that but in the afternoon I didn't do much - just worked on the computer and watched some TV. Christmas Eve day Diane did some more baking in the morning and I tried getting the bases off the stanchions I had gotten from Mima - they were the same as mine and some of mine had cracks in them. Unfortunately, the bases were pretty well corroded inside where they touched the stainless stanchions so they were very difficult to remove. I tried taking off the setscrews, first using penetrating oil and a vise grip but all I did was twist the heads off. Now I'll have to drill the remaining screw out. Diane finally finished her preparations and took a nap. I just continued doing a little on the PC. That evening, we went to a party in the apartment that Janice and Weedie (Plenum) had bought nearby. The apartment was now finished and looked great - they had done an excellent job fixing it up, especially since it was absolutely bare when they bought it (not even any light fixtures). Bob and Susan from Sunrise were also there and we had a very nice time. About 9, Don and Diane from Lady Diane also came - the boat was still in Puerto Cabello but they took a plane here to spend Christmas with friends. Janice and Weedie had very kindly offered to let them stay in the spare bedroom of their apartment for a while. Merry Christmas! We got up and got ready to go to the brunch at Maremares Marina. We had been there many times before and the brunches were always very good. Several people were going and we were looking forward to a good meal. We took D2 (from Lady Diane) in our dinghy and Don went with David and Terri from Sylvester. We were not disappointed - all the food was good and although we were only supposed to get one glass of champagne each, the waitress remembered us and we never had an empty glass. After we got back, Diane went to Plenum to make some phone calls home using the Internet calling service that was now popular with the boats signed up to use the wireless Internet in the marina. My wireless adaptor still wouldn't work so even if I signed up I would need to get another adaptor - we were thinking about getting a new laptop though. The one we had (especially since the 'really' old one was dead) was now 4 years old and a lot of the things I wanted to run on it wouldn't work right or only with great difficulty. It would also let Diane have her own PC again. We'll have to see how that works out. The next day was pretty slow. We both just relaxed pretty much the entire day. Monday, we had a busier day. I did some odd jobs around the boat in the morning like rebedding one of the bolts on the windlass and changing the cartridge on the water filter under the sink. Diane also was pretty busy doing some things and making phone calls. She managed to get an appointment for the dentist in the afternoon so around 2:30 she went downtown. In the meantime, I had contacted George on Pyewacket and he helped me try to get the wireless card to work. He came over and we tried several things and he explained that he had seen this once or twice before - both times the problem was that the power supplied through the USB port had been too little to drive the card - it was actually more powerful than advertised. The only way around it was to try an externally powered USB hub that unfortunately, neither he nor I had. The people he knew who had one were away so he suggested trying announcing it on the net tomorrow. There might be some for sale also. Diane came back from the dentist and the tooth was fixed, at least temporarily. We didn't do too much else that evening. The next day, while Diane did hand laundry most of the day, I did some more things I had been meaning to get done. I straightened up the wiring from the voltage regulator swap, reset the electrical monitor and tried to install the fan in the aft cabin but couldn't finish it because I couldn't get the light fixture off the bulkhead (it was varnished on pretty well). The next morning, I did the local net since the local guy who was supposed to do it was off for the holidays evidently - although it was impromptu, I luckily found the script easily. I made another announcement to borrow a USB hub and got some responses this morning. I went over to get them and tried all morning to get the laptop to work with the wireless adaptor using the hubs, but as the saying goes, "there was no joy in Mudville"; I still couldn't get it to work. I called George on Pyewacket but was told they were away for a week so I guess I won't have wireless Internet on the boat for a while. After lunch, I didn't do too much except work on the web site a little and watch TV. Diane was a little busy though - she walked over to get some gas from the local station and finished doing the hand laundry she started yesterday. We both had a busy day shopping and walking around - we went to the laboratory (for my blood tests) in Lecheria, the town next to PLC, early (via the dinghy to Plaza Mayor) but they were closed for the holidays. So, after I ate something, we walked to the marine stores down the street and then to a large hardware store I had never been to before. It had a very eclectic collection of things and Diane was able to buy some new kitchen knives and I got a rollup extension cord. We walked back to Plaza Mayor, the largest shopping mall in the area and located right on the canal system, and had lunch at MacDonalds (what can I say - I had a craving). I then got on the Internet and Diane got a pedicure. Then it was some excellent ice cream and back to the boat. By the time we got back, it was almost 4pm so we just relaxed, took showers and watched some TV the rest of the evening. On the last day of the year, Diane planned to go back to Plaza Mayor in the morning with Geri from Freestyle but we got a call from Arnaldo, the dockmaster at Bahia Redonda, asking that we come to look at a slip on the east floating dock. Diane had wanted to move closer down the seawall but this was a good spot and big enough to bring the dinghy alongside so we decided to move. It only took 15 minutes to take off the electrical cable, cable TV wire and water hose and move over since we had Arnaldo on the dock and Edgar, his assistant, helping in the chase boat. We got tied to our new spot and Diane went to get the dinghy and go shopping. While she was gone, I adjusted the dock lines, washed off the lines from the muck that had already accumulated from being tied to the mooring pulled underwater and filled the water tank again. In the evening, we went to a New Year's Eve dock party that was a lot of fun. There was a nice breeze and the temperature was very comfortable and everyone had a great time. A little before midnight we all went to the barbeque area that overlooked the beach and Puerto La Cruz and watched some of the fireworks - not as good as Bonaire last year but not bad. |