2012-01-08 (Sunday)Was going to replace the galley water filter, but the old one was pretty clean, so I didn't change it. Loaded and started up the refrigerator.
Listened to three Car Talk podcasts I saved to my laptop. Rain at 9:15. Some strong gusts of wind.
Started unpacking. Thought I'd collapse into bed, but I'm up all day. Still a bit headachey and stuffed-up, but feeling better. Got some free Wi-Fi.
Heard on the VHF that Raymond is no longer collecting garbage.
Plenty of food on the boat, but nothing perishable. Had peanut butter and jelly eaten with a spoon for lunch. "Salad" made of beans, corn, olives, and then a powerbar and some cookies, for dinner.
Put the solar LED Christmas lights out on the lifelines, and they look great ! But they're hard to photograph. Pics.
Took some acetaminophen with sleeping aid, and slept solidly all night.
2012-01-09 (Monday)Slept late, missing the cruiser's net. Headache and cold mostly gone.
JB-Welded a broken hook-fitting in the V-berth.
Looked under the galley sink. Had been worried that taking it up might damage a lot of Formica. But it's held down at the corners by bolts, and once I had loosened the rusty wingnuts, the sink came loose easily. Whatever foam or caulk they used to bed it either wasn't adhesive, or lost its adhesion long ago.
Launched the dinghy, and the outboard started on the first pull.
Went ashore at 1:45. Bought cabbage and tomatoes from the veggie-lady. Exchanged 3 books at the marina book-exchange.
Salad and a boiling-bag Cajun chicken-rice thing and a rum-and-juice for dinner. The bag thing wasn't very tasty, maybe because it was more than four years past its "best by" date. I think my sister gave it to me, probably 8 or 9 years ago.
Bummer: one of the strings of solar Christmas lights didn't turn on. A little life in it, but acts like it didn't charge at all during the day. Maybe the switch is a little loose.
2012-01-10 (Tuesday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. New driver, and he didn't know the route, so we wasted some time going to the shopping center and then having to backtrack to ACE Hardware. Bought Dremel cutting-disks and AA batteries at ACE. Two couples from "Ocean Lady" are on a planned circumnavigation (in 18 months), next stop the ABC's and San Blas islands, and they bought a 50-pound sack of onions and a 50-pound sack of potatoes. Another couple is sailing to Australia to sell the boat there (they have an Australian-designed boat, and apparently the market there is strong).
I bought SS rings at Budget, and exchanged a couple of books at De Big Fish. Long wait at Budget while a guy from our van was ordering seven batteries and buying some other stuff.
To the mall. Cash at the ATM, groceries, then got a passionfruit smoothie and watched soccer on the TV while we waited for departure time. One lady got a chicken lunch from the place that I was told never to get the chicken from; reportedly everyone who has the chicken there gets sick (she had waited a long time for her order and was just starting to eat when I saw it, so I didn't say anything).
Finally all loaded up, and back to the marina. Very strong headwind and chop as we dinghied back out to the boats. On the boat by 12:40; trip seemed longer.
Fairly huge catamaran came into the bay around 1:20. Maybe 100+ feet long with about 12-to-14-foot freeboard along the sides. Probably a $5-million boat ? Pic.
Added water to the batteries.
Started taking down the lifelines. Several of the turnbuckles were balky, and one had to be twisted off the wire-end instead of uncoupled. All four of the ends fastened by clevis pins were galled solid; had to use the Dremel to cut two of them apart, and will cut the other two tomorrow: pics. As was completely obvious, inside the plastic sheath, the wire is rusted: pics. Boat looks very strange with lifelines removed: pic. And walking on the side decks feels very dangerous all of a sudden.
Called "Starshine" and signed up to control the net on Mondays again.
Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner.
Both strings of Christmas lights are working again.
Set up the motion-detection alarm in the cockpit/doghouse, and it works pretty well. Plenty loud enough on "chime" mode; no need to set it to 120-decibel alarm mode. Strong boat motion and strong wind gusts didn't set it off. A couple of false alarms around 2 AM; not sure why (later realized I left a small towel hanging from the steering wheel; maybe that did it).
2012-01-11 (Wednesday)Completely recovered from the cold etc I had in USA.
Mention on the cruiser's net about a couple of emergencies cruisers took care of yesterday. Someone's outboard quit and they started drifting out to sea in their dinghy, off St George's; someone sent the Coast Guard to rescue them, I think. A boat dragged in Prickly Bay and a bunch of people saved it.
Some discussion on the cruiser's net about boats using strobe lights as anchor lights in Prickly Bay. It's improper, looks like an emergency signal or navigation marker, interferes with people's enjoyment of the stars, sometimes interferes with people's sleep.
Cut the last two pieces of lifeline free from the stanchions. Then took the wires and cut off the turnbuckle fittings I'm planning to re-use, and a few pieces of gate hardware that someone else might want.
Still no email response from Sherri about the stuff I ordered; I've been emailing her since Sunday.
Soldered wires and clipped a capacitor across the solar controller outputs, to try to get rid of hiss in the VHF radios. Don't think it worked.
Tried to get a frozen lifeline-turnbuckle apart, but it's hopeless. More than an inch of the bolt inside the sleeve, and everything I need to twist is thin and round and slippery and impossible to grip. Gave up and threw it away.
Chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-01-12 (Thursday)Offered some leftover lifeline-parts for free on the cruiser's net. Right away, Ken on "Magic" came over to get them, and soon someone else called about them. Didn't think there would be so much interest.
Was planning to go ashore early, but then found I had nice fast Wi-Fi this morning. So did that instead.
Wi-Fi suddenly went away at 10:15.
Launched dinghy, pumped up bow-tube, and went ashore. That catamaran is even bigger up close. Named "Hemisphere". Pics.
Walked out of the marina and up over the hill. Had to face down a barking dog in the middle of the street. Later, took a slight wrong turn up a hill, so got some extra exercise. Am heading for the welding shop in Spice Island Boatyard, but had a thought: might be cheaper to buy all new turnbuckles in Budget Marine than to have rings welded onto the old turnbuckles. Eventually got to the boatyard complex. Into Budget Marine, and no, they only have one (big) size of turnbuckles and they're not stainless steel. Into the boatyard, found the welding shop, and they'll do my seven rings onto my seven turnbuckles for EC$120 (about US$46). They can have them tomorrow, but that's too quick for me, I'll come back Tuesday on the shopping bus.
Took some random pictures in the boatyard: pics. Always interesting to look around in a boatyard, but I don't see any very unusual boats here today.
Exchanged a couple of books at De Big Fish. Back over the first hill. Stopped at Sherri's house, but she's not home; left my boat-card to remind her to contact me. Over the second set of hills and back to the marina. Out to the boat by 12:30. Nice big blister on the side of one of my toes. Got some good exercise.
Nice Wi-Fi connection is back. Looked up catamaran "Hemisphere" on the web. It's available for charter (no price given). An article says it's the largest sailing catamaran in the world, 145 feet long, 10-foot draft, 174-foot mast, charters for US$150K/week plus expenses. That's twice what I paid for my boat, per week, plus expenses. And this article says it charters for US$250K/week. The cost to build it is a secret, but this article says disputes about cost overruns on the build forced the building yard into bankruptcy. Also says "a good rule of thumb for a state-of-the-art motor yacht over 100 feet now is $1 million per meter" [to build]. Another article says the build cost for "Hemisphere" was $27 million.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
One string of Christmas lights still not getting charged fully during the day.
That motion-detector seems to work pretty well so far. Sometimes get a false alarm when the boat is rocked strongly by a wake. Occasionally a false alarm for no apparent reason. I'm going to keep it on "chime" mode; the 120-dB alarm would be hideous. Have to play around with where to mount it permanently in the cockpit.
2012-01-13 (Friday)Cruiser's net was very long this morning, over 45 minutes. Lots of boats coming and going, lots of chatter. One boat just arrived straight from South Africa. At least one boat leaving to go N, which is surprising since it's been blowing ENE 15-20 with seas NE 7-10 feet.
Nice free Wi-Fi again this morning. Finally heard from Sherri, via Facebook messaging. She says she's been responding to all of my emails but apparently nothing has been getting to me; never had that problem before with her, and I've been exchanging email with 10 other people each day with no problem. And of course she still didn't answer my questions about my order status.
Started working at replacing the dead battery monitor with meters. Wanted to double-check that DC is being supplied to the monitor, but my Fluke voltmeter is dead. Replaced the 9V battery inside it, and still dead. This thing worked a month ago. Will have to take the 9V batteries to another boat to test them.
Took the back off the electrical panel. Was thinking of replacing the analog voltage meter with a new digital one I bought. But the old one is working, and has about 5 wires into it (for back-lighting and such). Maybe I'll leave it in place and add the new meter elsewhere.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
Taped the motion-detector up to a convenient mounting point, and it seemed to keep working okay. Had worried that it would "see" out the doorway and see motion of the water.
2012-01-14 (Saturday)Launched the dinghy at 9. Over to "Tao" to relay a message: call "Blue Song" on the VHF. Over to "Astral Wind" to use their voltmeter. Old 9V battery from my meter is exhausted, new battery is fine, so my meter probably has died. Back to the boat.
Did some Wi-Fi. Last night after midnight, Sherri sent me responses on FB, saying yesterday she sent emails to me and had me called on VHF. I received none of it, and I was on the boat with the VHF on all day. She has my stuff and we'll try to meet this morning. Progress.
Dinghied ashore at 10 and had the marina office call Sherri. She showed up, and we got all of my stuff out of a locked garage. It's all here: sink, sink piping, electrical wire, rigging wire, propane stove, cooler cushion. She says she's been emailing me often for the last couple of weeks; I didn't receive any of it, to either of my email addresses. And she said the calls on the VHF were on Thursday; that's when I was over at the boatyard, and I'm not absolutely sure I had my radio on in the afternoon after I got back from the boatyard.
Huge boxes, mostly full of packing material (and disposing of garbage here is a pain; it's going to cost me money). Started loading them into the dinghy, and a huge squall rolled in and it started pouring rain. Retreated up into the bar/restaurant with one box that I was afraid would blow away; none of them will be hurt if they get a little wet. Stood and chatted for 10 minutes as it poured and blowed. Finally back into the dinghy, boxes piled high, and outboard made some strange noises and quit a couple of times. Sounds like something's rubbing up in the starter-rope area. Out to the boat by 11:15, piled the boxes up on the side deck, tied the dinghy, and hauled everything into the pilothouse.
Started sorting through everything. Electrical wire and rigging wire look fine. Nice to replace dirty old propane camp-stove with a new one (and I have another new spare down below somewhere): pics. Cooler-cushion looks great (pic), but it came in a box big enough to hold 6 or 8 of them.
Just before noon, six dinghies towing/pushing a sloop to a mooring (pic). Didn't see if they brought it into the harbor, or just are moving it within the harbor. I don't recognize the boat.
New sink looks good (pic). Even has same mounting-bolts as old sink; must be a standard configuration. No instructions, but should be easy to figure out.
Multimeter still is dead, even with new battery in it for a while. It's a Fluke; wonder if it has a lifetime warranty ? Can't imagine why it died. Just doesn't turn on any more.
Rained lightly a couple of time, then brief heavy rain at 2:45.
Removed the rusty wing-nuts holding the old sink down. Got the drain hose off more easily than I expected; getting hoses on and off pipes can be a bear. Got the old sink up and out. Lots of hard old caulk or adhesive around the edges of the holes; got it off. Dry-fit the new sink in, and it's slightly narrower than the old sink, maybe by 1/4", but fits well enough. Pics.
I've always suspected the old sink wasn't quite level, sloping aft a little. Maybe it's an optical illusion. Thought I had a small level on the boat, but I can't find it now. Used a board and a round bottle to try to convince myself the counter isn't level, and I'm half-sure. Dinghy isn't hoisted on the stern right now; that would pitch the boat a little more aft. Adding a raised lip to raise the aft side of the sink would make it look weird. Guess I'll just put the new sink in without any change.
Compared new drain piping to old, and I need an adapter to connect new plastic pipe to existing hose. Similar adapter on old drain piping is brazed on and can't be re-used.
Worse, as I half-suspected, I'm missing pieces to connect new piping to new sink. The pieces that would contain a strainer, and clamp the drain pipes to the basin. When ordering, I couldn't quite see how that was going to work, and now I see that something is missing. Will have to look on internet and in local hardware stores.
So, I put the old sink back in place for now.
The last few days are absolutely typical of boat-projects: two steps forward, one step back. Start taking lifelines off; have to cut frozen fittings apart with Dremel. Get parts for electrical work; multimeter dies. Get new sink; pieces missing.
Sure enough, got online, and it's pretty clear I should have bought strainers too. [Thought I had asked that when I ordered, but all I asked was if piping would work with sink, not if that's ALL I needed to make it work.] Asked them which ones will work, and if they have an adapter to hose. Might have to stay here another 6 weeks if I have to buy it from them and ship it via Sherri. Will have to check the hardware stores. [Later, thought of another alternative: try to reclaim the strainers from the old sink. Probably frozen in place.]
Salad and leftover cold chili and a cheese sandwich for dinner.
Tried the multi-meter one more time, and now it works ! Turned it off and back on, and it worked again. Maybe the new battery had to be in it for a while ? Can't think of a reason for that.
Brief rainsqualls several times during the night.
2012-01-15 (Sunday)Strong NE wind starting around 7 AM. Grey morning. Very dark and plenty of rain starting at 9:10. More dark and rain starting at 10:45. More at 11:05 and 12:20.
Sherri was able to email me from a different account on her domain, so something is wrong with her primary email account.
Checked power to battery monitor, and it's getting power, but still dead. Took it out, applied power to it directly, no life. Opened it up, no obvious damage, but the nearby lightning strike must have fried one or more of the half-dozen chips inside it. Pics.
Started wiring up a couple of digital voltage meters and DPDT switches to replace the battery monitor. While I worked, it poured rain from 1:40 to 2:15, wind gusting from all direction. Had to shut all hatches, even inside the pilothouse, and kept working. Got life out of the round 0.0-15.0 VDC meter I'll use to display battery bank voltage. Puzzled a little over the other meter, a rectangular 000.0-199.9 mVDC meter I'll use (with the shunt) to measure current in and out of each battery bank. Had hoped to use one DPDT switch, but had to use two.
Got everything wired and working. Pic. Will have to watch the rectangular meter for a while to see if I wired it right, and how mVDC on the meter translates to Amps in or out of the banks. I think point-one mV on the meter == one Amp through the shunt. So ignore the decimal point and read the number as Amps. But the numbers I'm seeing don't make sense; too high. Hard to tell with solar and wind power cutting in and out and refrigerator turning on and off.
Left everything dangling; I'll do the mounting tomorrow.
More rain starting at 3.
Changed my mind and starting working on the mounting for the meters; need to paint some wood, so it will take a while. Drilled one piece and started a big round hole in it, but my hole-cutting attachment for the drill sucks, and I'm mostly using a knife. Did it halfway and switched to the new piece that will take more time: cut and painted it. The interior paint I'm using is old and is almost the consistency of spackle, but it's good enough.
Started cooking chili for dinner, got the bacon and onions mostly cooked, and the propane tank ran empty. No problem, got a 1-pound spare tank out of the deck locker. Hooked it up, and it's empty ! Put the mostly-cooked stuff in the freezer, and had salad and tuna-salad and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Checked new electrical meters once in the middle of the night, with nothing charging or discharging the batteries. Current numbers still don't make sense; too high. And then I saw a dangling wire. Will mess with it tomorrow.
2012-01-16 (Monday)I'm cruiser's net controller this morning. So, up at 6:30 and onto Wi-Fi, gathering weather forecasts. An apple and some peanut-butter and some jelly for breakfast; no propane for cooking my usual oatmeal, and I'm out of bread. Put another coat of paint on the new piece of wood.
Then on VHF 68 at 7:30 for the net. Some discussion about a couple of DSC distress calls at 4 AM, lots of items for sale or free, and mention of a cruiser severely ill in the hospital who could use some visitors. Did the net fairly well, no big flubs, took about 40 minutes, and ended with the Dave Barry joke "A knot is just like a mile per hour, but more expensive".
Dinghied ashore after 9. Pretty windy again this morning; the winter pattern of strong ENE or NE wind and NE seas set in while I was gone for Christmas. Left books for Jerry the security guard, and my propane tank to be refilled. Another big, expensive sailboat "Ocean's Seven²" at the dock, behind "Hemisphere". Pic. [Turns out it's another luxury charter boat. This says 104 feet long, crew of 5. She's about 14 years old; when about 12 years old she was sold for about US$4M.]
Ken and Lynn on "Silverheels III" have arrived back from Canada. Around 10:30, I went over and said hi and gave them a bag of "net controller" T-shirts given to me by my friend Stacy, and I was wearing one. Pics. They thought the shirts were great. I asked them to hand the shirts out to the net controllers, because they get around a lot more than I do and know most of these people. They had a good trip, although Lynn was a bit sick with a cold the first week, and Ken brought back a cold.
Into the marina, and confirmed that I pay for the propane when I get the tank back.
Worked on wood to mount electrical meters. Got the round hole for the voltage meter done, and mounted meter and switch onto the wall. Carved out rectangular hole in wood for the other meter, then painted that piece again.
Had been keeping an eye out for the "veggie lady" today, but I guess I missed her. Saw some activity ashore very late, around 5:30, and went ashore, but it was a bus emptying out.
Salad and PB-banana and PB and jelly for dinner.
2012-01-17 (Tuesday)Up at 6; today is garbage-collection at Woburn, and you're supposed to get your stuff there before 7 (later, Kathy from "Stonecutter" told me the deadline really is more like 9). Launched the dinghy and started loading it, and of course the rain started. Waited for it to pass, and got going by 6:30 or so. Long, wet ride straight upwind into stiff wind. Didn't get rained on, but seawater spray getting me pretty wet.
Dinghy piled so high with garbage that there's barely room for me, and I have to hold one arm across the top to keep stuff from blowing off. One huge box with a big box inside it, several smaller boxes, half a dozen bags of kitchen garbage, all of the lifeline-wire, that 1-pound propane can. Long ride through Hog Island anchorage and across CCB to the Woburn town dock. Everyone waiting for the ferry to the resort watched me haul my garbage up to the collection point at the top of the lane. Felt great to get rid of all of it; it's been filling my pilothouse for several days now.
Long but easy ride downwind back to the boat.
Hmmm, I notice the new voltage meter sometimes displays the wrong voltage for up to 10 seconds after startup. For example, if voltage is oscillating between 12.9 and 13.0 upon startup, sometimes shows 13.9 for 8 or 10 seconds, before showing correct voltage. Weird. Wonder if it has to do with PWM output from solar controller confusing it ?
Dinghied ashore to catch the 9:30 shopping bus. Had someone take pictures of me in my net controller T-shirt, but she didn't get close enough and I was squinting into the sun; will have to try again.
Into the bus and we're off. Chatted with Ronnie from "Basilisk", who has been here in Grenada for 6 years (with side-trips to Trinidad to have work done).
Then the money started flowing. To ACE Hardware, where they have some stuff that looks like it will fit my new galley sink. Two strainer-goblets or whatever and a hose adapter (EC$79; about US$30). To Budget Marine. Went to the welding shop and picked up my lifeline turnbuckles; they did a nice job welding the rings on (EC$120; about US$46). Checked haul-out rates in the boatyard office. Checked the price of bottom-paint in Budget Marine: US$307/gallon for the Pettit Trinidad black I'd use; seems exorbitant. The boatyard says I can supply my own paint, so I could ship it in from USA. Exchanged a couple of books at De Big Fish.
To a computer store, and bought a headphone jack to plug into the VHF radio (EC$25; about US$10). To the ATM to pick up EC$500 cash. To the supermarket, and spent double what I usually do (EC$230; about US$88). But they had good prices on some stuff, so I stocked up. Chocolate-banana smoothie (EC$10) and read a book while watching cricket on the big-screen TV. Stopped at the Market Board store for a few veggies (EC$5) on the way back.
Paid George EC$10 for the ride. Picked up my filled propane tank at the guard shack (EC$100; about US$38). As I loaded everything into the dinghy, a squall set in. Decided to go anyway, and got fairly wet as I headed out to the boat. Got aboard around 12:45, and had to towel off the bags as I unloaded and stowed everything. Spent EC$579 (about US$222) this morning.
Good: the strainer-thingies I bought at ACE fit the new sink. It was confusing in the store because I measured the holes in the sink as 2", but I guess they label the thingies by the diameter of the drain pipe, which is 1.5". So I borrowed a tape measure and measured them in the store. They're metal (would have preferred plastic), but I'm just happy to find something that will work. Not sure the pipe-to-hose thing I bought will fit, but that's another hurdle.
George and Kathy both said they would have lent me a small propane bottle if I'd called when I ran out while cooking dinner. Never occurred to me to ask anyone.
Looked online, and Defender sells a gallon of Pettit Trinidad "Tropical" black (turns out to be 1875) for US$200; I think it might be better paint (more copper) than the stuff here in Budget Marine for US$307/gallon. Say US$250/gallon with shipping, Customs, Sherri's markup. Pettit Trinidad 1675 Red or 1875 Black are US$200/gallon at Jamestown Distributors.
So looking at the current boatyard rates (which will go up in April), a haulout for bottom-painting here in Spice Island boatyard would cost about:
US$300 for haulout/splash,
US$88 for pressure-wash,
US$375 for light sanding and two coats of bottom-painting,
US$750 for 3 gallons of bottom-paint,
probably another US$50 for materials and surprises.
Which adds up to US$1300, rounding up. Not bad.
Finished putting in the 200mv (current) meter. Pic (shapes are a little weird because I re-used holes and screwhole-positions used by air-conditioner controls I removed a while ago). But the numbers still don't make sense.
Messed with an LED lantern someone gave me a while ago. Over Christmas, I bought a grab-bag of resistors; want to make the lantern run off the 12V house batteries instead of 3 C batteries. Pic. But I have no idea what current it draws, so what resistance to add. And the multi-meter is dead again, so that's no help. Put a couple of 330-Ohm resistors in parallel, put them in series with the lantern, and the lantern lit up. But I need a working multi-meter to see if the lantern is seeing the right voltage. Then I'll be able to calculate the current, then figure out how many 1/4-watt resistors I need to avoid overloading them. Giving Ohm's law and my brain cells a good workout on this one.
Installed the newly-welded pieces into the turnbuckles for the lifelines. I had rings welded onto turnbuckle-ends: pic.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Still enjoying the way the LED Christmas lights look on my boat at night.
Developed a headache during the night; took pills.
2012-01-18 (Wednesday)Have checked the numbers on the current meter several times over the last 18 hours, and they make no sense at all. Always negative, whether the batteries are getting charged or discharged. Always higher than I calculate they should be. Don't change when some load turns on or off. Will have to investigate.
Went over to "Magic" nearby to get a bucket Ken was giving away, and to give them a donation to help the guy in the hospital here. Chatted with Ken and Michelle, and eventually we had a pretty heated discussion about politics. They're of the "all Democrats are devils and Obama is the chief Socialist devil" school (that's an exact quote from Michelle), so it was interesting.
Loafed most of the day. Finally got going on putting together the sink. No instructions, but I got some from the internet. Probably should get some plumber's putty. Could try using polysulfide caulk, but it eats some types of plastic. I have several other varieties of caulk, but of dubious age and not quite right for plastic sinks. Internet instructions also say to use a "cardboard friction ring", which didn't come with my strainer baskets.
The connector-hose I bought for the sink drain will not work; will have to look for something else.
Experimented with how the new rope lifelines will lay across the shrouds, and decided to use some reinforced hose as chafe-guards.
Tried new mono audio cable on new VHF radio, and got nothing in my headphones. Manufacturer said it should work. Will have to return the cable.
Salad and cheese sandwich and PB-banana for dinner.
2012-01-19 (Thursday)That huge catamaran "Hemisphere" is still at the dock; has been for 9 days now. So I guess $150K/week charterers are scarce.
Finished off the lifeline-replacement job. I don't have a hot-knife, so I wasn't sure how to cut and seal the 3/8"double-braid line I bought. Tried heating the tip of an old screwdriver over my propane camp-stove, but that didn't work. Ended up taping each place I wanted to cut, cutting it with diagonal cutters, holding the ends in the stove flame to melt them, and shaping away any little mushrooming with the screwdriver tip while the ends were cooling. Worked pretty well. Nice to have the deck looking right again (pic), and nice to have a place to drape the Christmas lights and drying laundry. And nice to completely finish a job (probably famous last words). Most jobs recently seem to get about 90% done and stick there: rigging needed a little more wire, VHF radio needed heavier wire, sink needs more parts, electrical current meter in but reading funny, etc.
A reader said "check the fuse in the multimeter". So I opened it again and verified that there is no fuse. But then I futzed with a sheet-metal ground-plane in there; maybe it wasn't making contact. Put the meter back together, and it works ! Stayed working, too.
Worked on the LED lantern. Found it need about 50 Ohms in series with it, which means about 160 mA of current, which means I need about 5 of these 1/4-watt resistors in parallel.
At 3:20, saw a lot of smoke from a nearby boat, but soon found out they had just over-filled a gas generator with oil.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Thought of a different way I could have tied the lifelines, to have less stretch when someone fell against them, but it would have made them harder/impossible to tighten. Can't try it now.
2012-01-20 (Friday)Lots of rain from 8 to 9:15, and I want to get ashore for the 9:30 bus. And the propane tank hose is hissing, as if the valve hasn't closed all the way.
Rain started lifting around 9:15, and the propane hose stopped hissing. Dinghied ashore. Don Casey and his wife Olga are here; last met them in Puerto Rico, I think. Had to wait for second van. Got off at the tire-roundabout and walked to Hubbard's hardware store. They didn't have the right adapter for my sink drain, but I bought something that I probably can make work. Bought plumber's putty, too.
Walked to to ACE Hardware, got a refund on the plumbing part I bought on Tuesday. Concluded the caulk I have on the boat is as good as what they're selling here, so I didn't buy anything new. Walked to the computer store and returned the audio cable I bought on Tuesday. They hemmed and hawwed and really didn't want to give me cash back, but eventually they did. To the mall, got a few groceries, and then chatted with Ernie as we waited for the van. They were trying to make it a quick trip today, but we waited and waited, and ended up getting back to the boat by 12:05 or so, maybe 25 minutes earlier than usual.
Found out some cruisers got invited onto the big catamaran "Hemisphere" last night for a barbeque; I wasn't on the list. [Later, found out they didn't get onto the boat; the crew held a BBQ on the dock next to the dock. And many of the crew were envious of the cruisers: they want to get their own boats and go cruising.]
Ernie said I could make the sink drainpipe fit by softening the PVC pipe in boiling water and then making it narrower.
No nice free Wi-Fi today.
Loafed most of the afternoon.
Climbed halfway up the main mast and took down the port lower main shroud.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-01-21 (Saturday)Took apart the shroud I took down. Measured it, measured length of new wire, cut fittings off old wire, cut new wire. Cleaned fittings, assembled onto new wire. First fitting just would not go together; eventually I found a strand that was crossed and preventing assembly. Got the assembly done.
Climbed halfway up the main mast, installed the top end of the port forward lower shroud, took down the starboard aft lower shroud. Down to deck, tightened the new shroud, removed the old shroud.
Started assembling the galley sink, using plumber's putty to put the strainer baskets in. Got it done, but looking at it later, realized I'd screwed up in a number of ways. Bought the first strainer-baskets that would fit in ACE Hardware, but they're really for shower drains, not sink drains. Should have slowed down and looked in the other hardware stores too. The putty is beige, not white, so looks weird against the pure-white plastic of the sink. One of the washers bulged as I tightened it; maybe I used too much putty. Oh, well, if it doesn't leak I'll live with it. If I have to take everything apart and do it again, I'll do it differently. Set it to dry for a day or two. Sanded the drain-pipe adapter to fit, but I don't have any PVC glue. Was going to try super-glue, but both tubes have hardened while in storage; threw it away.
A couple of sloops that came in today seem to be raising anchor and shifting position a lot; they just can't find a spot they're comfortable with. Maybe they didn't expect the swirly wind we have in here.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Plenty of rain from 10:45 to 11:15 or so. Wet night, all night.
2012-01-22 (Sunday)Totally grey and drenched morning. Plenty of rain from 7 to 7:30 or so, and more at 8:30.
Nice free Wi-Fi signal is back. Lynn says the T-shirts have been distributed to all of the net controllers.
Worked on the shroud I took down yesterday. Eventually got it done, found a break in the rain, and climbed the main mast. Put the new shroud on and took the last old one down. Started taking it apart.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a PB-sandwich and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-01-23 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Loafed and did Wi-Fi.
In the afternoon, worked on the new shroud. Got ready to put the terminals on, took a break for a while, got back to it. Carefully put the first fitting on, filing, and assembling and caulking and then tightening it very hard. Then found I'd grabbed the end of the 4-foot remnant left over, instead of the 22-foot wire I'd cut for the shroud, and assembled the terminal onto the remnant. So had to take it apart, throw away the insert I'd used, and do it again on the right wire.
Climbed halfway up the main mast and put the shroud on. Back down and finished everything at deck level. Almost done with the rigging job ! Took the climbing rope back to the mizzen mast, so I can work on the mizzen topping lift next.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-01-24 (Tuesday)Nice morning; weather is supposed to pretty nice for the rest of the week.
Around 8, loaded up the dinghy and headed over to Clarkes Court Bay. Got to the Woburn town dock around 8:30, and I'm still in time to dump garbage. Took the old rigging wire up first, went back for the kitchen garbage in the dinghy, and that fast, someone had grabbed the rigging wire from the garbage-pile. Fine with me, hope they can re-use it.
Over to CCB marina. They're having a kayak-sale at 8 AM, but by the time I got there, they'd sold all of the kayaks they wanted to sell. I was just curious; I bought a kayak a couple of months ago. Bought mine for EC$150; they're selling similar kayaks for US$150, so I got a good deal.
Exchanged 8 books in the book-exchange, then back into the dinghy. Back to the boat by 9:15 or so.
After lunch, did a tricky operation up the mizzen-mast. Loosened the topping lift from the boom and lashed the boom on deck. Climbed halfway up the mast and tied on a rope to keep the mast from tilting forward. Back down to deck and loosened the mizzen backstay quite a bit. Headed up to the top of the mast. Halfway up, a 12-inch crescent wrench slipped out of the bosun's chair pocket and thudded onto deck. Sounds like it didn't smash anything when it landed, and it didn't bounce overboard. First time I've dropped a tool from up a mast, and it could have been higher and worse.
Got to the top. Used a short line to tie my bosun's chair to the top of the mast, using the RADAR dome bracket. Then took my weight off the climbing rope, which is on the halyard. Now only the short line is holding my weight, and the mast is a bit wobbly. Not fun.
There's a single horizontal bolt holding everything up here. Took the nut off it. Slid the top end of the backstay off, and tied it to my chair. Slid the bolt out a bit, and now the sheave for the halyard is loose. There's a small sleeve in there that's come loose and probably will fall somewhere inaccessible. Took the bolt all the way out, and got the top end of the topping lift free (the whole point of this operation). Tied the top end to my chair. Took two small SS pieces out of a pocket and put the bolt through them first; this will be the new attachment point for the topping lift, so I never have to take out this bolt again. Slid the bolt back through the halyard sheave.
Got the top end of the backstay onto the bolt, applied anti-seize to the nut, put the nut back on. Attached my chair back onto the climbing rope, and feeling safer now. Untied the short line. Climbed down halfway, and untied the temporary rope that was replacing the backstay. A little risky, nothing keeping the mast from tilting forward a foot or so, but my weight is aft of it and I'm halfway down. And soon down to deck. Tightened the backstay again.
Found the impact point where the head of the wrench landed, on the fiberglass top of the aft hatch. A pretty good dent, but not horrible. Could have been far worse: could have smashed a glass port. Another tiny dent where the tail of the wrench hit.
The topping lift I took down is rusty from end to end, with a broken strand in the middle. This thing looks a lot older than any other part of the rigging; I'll bet it's 20 or 30 years old.
Good free Wi-Fi signal is back. For giggles, started to do a BoatUS "quick quote" for boat insurance. When taking specs of your boat, lowest top-speed category is "less than 46 MPH" ! Then turned out they don't quote outside USA, wanted a lot of details, so I gave up.
Signed up for free web hosting at another place, and soon found out that Facebook blocks links to their domains, too. Still waiting to find out if Google Ads are blocked too. And they don't support command-line FTP clients.
Dug into the locker full of rigging wire behind the main table, and also looked at a few coils of rigging wire under the nav table. I have a 39' coil of 5/32" 1x19 that would work for thee mizzen topping lift; will have to see if I have any swage-sleeves that will fit that.
Used some gelcoat-repair gunk to fill in the dents in the aft hatch.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still night; I've gotten used to the fairly strong wind we've been having for the last few weeks.
2012-01-25 (Wednesday)Nice, sunny morning. Motion-detector started going off repeatedly, I think because of strong sunlight reflecting off the water and right onto the motion-detector. Do those things work on infrared or heat-sensing ? [Yes, internet says they detect rapid changes in infrared.]
Did a bucket of laundry.
Turns out I do have a small baggie of 5/32" swage-sleeves and thimbles. I must have ordered all of this stuff years ago with the intent of replacing one of the topping lifts, then not done it. But the sleeves fit a little loosely on the wire; something isn't quite right. Probably would work.
Around 11:30, saw a sailboat towing in a dismasted catamaran. Looks like "Lady Domina", which used to be here, towing a catamaran with a big load of bamboo or something on the foredeck. Pic.
Used the Dremel to widen a restriction inside the PVC adapter I'm going to use on the sink drain.
Used some more gelcoat-repair gunk on the dents in the aft hatch.
Ernie stopped by briefly; they just bought a kayak for Kathy over here, and she's paddling it back to their boat at Hog Island while he follows her back in the dinghy.
In the afternoon, asked on the VHF if anyone had some PVC cement I could use. No response from this bay, but "Magus" in the Hog Island anchorage said they had some. Launched the dinghy and went there. Met Chris and Yanni on "Magus", did the drain-pipe cementing in a trice, and chatted with them for a while. Turns out we were in Marathon at the same time in 2003 or thereabouts, and probably crossed paths a few other times. They've been aboard about 8 years, and now cycle between Puerto Rico and Grenada. Yanni was eating a big lobsterish thing for lunch; hard work but tasty.
Chris told me about a notorious guy I last saw in Luperon in 2005, "Mayor Mike". I'd heard he left there just before he could be kicked out, and ended up locked to the dock in Trinidad or somewhere. Somewhere turns out to be here. I'm told he started a delivery of a boat to Trinidad, lost the dinghy while towing it, got here and told the owner he needed more money, owner refused and eventually called the police. So the boat is locked to the Coast Guard dock here, with Mike living aboard for the last 5 years or so while they're waiting for the lawsuit to come up in court here. The boat is named "Patience" !
Back to my boat, then soon ashore to the marina here. Swung by "Lady Domina" to get a closer look at that dismasted catamaran; sure enough, that load on the foredeck is bamboo. Exchanged 3 books in the marina, then bought EC$20 of gasoline.
Cornbread-sausage-cheese-onion concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-01-26 (Thursday)Struggled with flaky Wi-Fi.
Went to install the galley sink, and I'm missing a rubber washer. Looked for my bag of washers and O-rings and such, and can't find it. In the process, did find some electrical wire I'd been looking for.
Soldered wire and resistors and connector onto the LED lantern.
I need to get rid of some old batteries, but first I need to get rid of some excess ballast (lead pigs) left over after I removed the generator. But the ballast is epoxied to the hull, just under the sole on the port side. I've chipped and pounded away at it, and been unable to budge it. (I did get up 3 pigs that were on the top layer, not against the hull.) Need to get more serious about it, I guess. Boat already has a slight list to port, so I can't get rid of those (starboard-side) batteries until I get rid of the (port-side) ballast that's stuck.
Salad and leftover chicken-onion and leftover cornbread-sausage for dinner.
Tried the LED lantern. It's not very bright, and the resistors are really heating up. I think I'll throw it away; was an interesting project to do but not worth keeping.
Starting to get more wind again. Out on deck at 2 AM, and skies are fairly clear with lots of nice stars.
2012-01-27 (Friday)Grey morning with some light rain. Nice strong free Wi-Fi signal, but I'm going to be on the shopping bus all morning; hope it's still there when I get back.
Raining a lot at 9, but then a gap opened long enough to let me dinghy ashore to catch the 9:30 shopping van. Bought sink-washers and a pry-bar (incredibly cheap, EC$9 or US$4 for a 15-inch pry-bar) at ACE Hardware. Bought 1/8" swage-sleeves at Budget Marine. Exchanged a couple of books at De Big Fish.
We were chatting about SCUBA and other dangerous activities, and it turns out Steve from "Our Destiny" has quite a history. He's a bit of a workout fanatic, but now we found out he's climbed 5 of the top 7 mountains in the world (or maybe it's 5 of the tallest ones on each continent), attempting Everest twice but having to turn back at 27,000 feet each time. And he's done a lot of cave-diving. Pretty impressive.
To the mall. Saw a couple I knew from St Martin, and they remembered my boat and name, but I didn't remember theirs. They're selling the boat, and just got a serious offer, which is good/bad news; they're sad to stop cruising. [Looked up their names later: John from "Aldeberan". I half-remembered their boat-name while was talking to them, but wasn't sure. I think I saw them in Bequia too.]
Into the hardware store, but no luck finding the kind of chisels/wedges I was looking for. Got cash at the ATM. Lots of groceries, then a chocolate-banana smoothie, and watched Premiere-league soccer on the big screen while waiting for the van. First van was full, but I don't mind waiting. Chatted and drank my smoothie. One lady told me how much she appreciated my display of Christmas lights on my boat each night: it makes it easy for people traveling by dinghy in the dark to get oriented.
Van came back. Veggies at the Market Board and then at the veggie stands, then to the marina. Wind howling and spray flying as I went out to the boat. Back aboard a little after 1.
Did Wi-Fi, starting to move web site to a new host.
Took apart the wiring for the LED lantern.
Hoisted the dinghy, and found the missing sink-washer ! It must have fallen out of the drain pipe as I was taking it to "Magus" to be glued.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Wind blowing pretty hard from about midnight to 2 AM. Wind-generator getting a good workout.
2012-01-28 (Saturday)Loafed all day, doing Wi-Fi. A lot of grey and rain around 11:30, and then fairly grey afterward. A lot of people grousing that the morning's weather forecast was wrong.
In late afternoon, got going a little. Measured and cut and swaged new wire for mizzen topping lift.
Put the new galley sink in place and tested it. Big leak from the drainpipe connection to the hose to the through-hull. Hose may be clogged. But the connection shouldn't leak, anyway. Will have to take it out and check. Probably need to add a strip to tilt the sink forward a little, too; water pools aft, away from the drains.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-01-29 (Sunday)Headache.
Heard that Raymond is collecting garbage again.
Moved web site to another host, one provided by a reader, David. He even bought a domain-name for me ! Thanks !
There's supposed to be warmups for a regatta down here somewhere today, but no one's sure where, and the regatta web site is useless. Emailed them, and it looks the course doesn't come near here. I'm not feeling well anyway.
Did manage to climb up the mizzenmast and put the new topping lift on. That's the end of the "replace standing rigging" project, except for tuning and putting seizings on the turnbuckles. Of course, the running rigging needs replacement too ...
The "plumber's putty" on the galley sink hasn't hardened; I thought it was supposed to harden. Looks like the drain-pipe leak has stopped. But the hose is clogged. I'm going to have to take the whole thing apart again, and put it together with different caulk.
Chili for dinner.
2012-01-30 (Monday)Still have headache.
I was net controller again this morning.
Un-soldered the resistors and connector I used for the LED lantern.
Ran a shorter run of thicker (10/2) wire to the cockpit VHF radio. Had to drill another hole in the top of the electrical panel box; the existing holes are jammed full of wires. But things went smoothly at the electrical panel: usually I drop one of those small screws and it disappears, or it takes 10 tries to get the screw back in with 3 connectors on it. Got everything working. Now, on high power, people will probably be able to hear my VHF radio signal in their fillings. People already had been telling me I was transmitting a strong signal.
Tried to Skype-call Mom to say Happy Birthday, but my Wi-Fi connection is too flaky today.
Still have this stupid headache. Time to try some different medicine.
Leftover cold chili for dinner.
Had headache all night, despite taking pills.
2012-01-31 (Tuesday)Pills keeping headache under control, but it's still there.
Took the sink out. The drainpipe joint I glued slid right apart; that glue didn't hold at all. Maybe the black pipe isn't PVC ? And of course the plumber's putty, which refuses to harden, is so goopy that it's very hard to remove from all the parts. Lovely.
Getting cabin-fever in the afternoon; I've been aboard too long. Launched the dinghy and headed over to "Silverheel 3". Nice long chat with Lynn and Ken. I showed my sink drainpipe to them, and we think maybe there are incompatible plastics, and I'll just have to gunk it together with caulk. And I probably used 5 times too much plumber's putty; will try that again. Apparently it's supposed to stay pliable.
I gave them an EC$100 donation to help J. T., the cruiser in the hospital. And bought a big micro-fiber towel from them for EC$50; they have a bunch of them. They gave me half a bottle of somewhat-cheap rum; they've gotten into premium rums and are spoiled for the cheap stuff now. Pic.
Apparently there are plans to use that dismasted catamaran and the load of bamboo to make a floating tiki bar.
They said the lady who was severely injured jumping from a waterfall is doing fairly well now. She's able to walk with aid of a cane and a torso-stabilizing girdle (not to mention rods implanted in her spine). But her husband had to have a hernia operation. And with all of the medical costs and health declines, their cruising days probably are over.
Ashore to the marina. Exchanged a couple of books at the bookshelf, finding one by an author I've been thinking I'd like to find more from. Wandered around the cabin area of the marina a bit. Then back out to the boat. Stuck a screwdriver into the through-hull for the sink drain, but didn't find any clog that far down. It's pretty narrow, maybe 1/2" diameter.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a very light rum-and-cola for dinner.
Food and an ibuprofen gradually made my headache go away; slept solidly.
2012-02-01 (Wednesday)The free Wi-Fi has been very flaky for the last few days: slow and buggy and tenuous.
Took the galley sink drain hose off the through-hull. The through-hull is clear and operates fine, except that the handle is cracked through. The hose is crimped and partly obstructed near the bottom; cleared the obstruction. Replaced a hose-clamp and put the hose back on. Assembled the strainer-baskets and drainpipes back onto the sink, using a lot less plumber's putty this time.
Put the sink back in, and gooped the critical drainpipe joint with polysulfide caulk. Might work.
Cut, sanded and painted wood to prop up the aft end of the sink.
Took up the floorboards in the hallway and started working on the ballast, using a small sledgehammer and crowbar and the pry-bar I just bought. This ballast was put in to balance the generator, which I removed a couple of years ago. This ballast is just about at the waterline. Already took up 3 of the pigs, but I need to get up several more.
Chipped away for a while, lots of shards flying everywhere. Warm afternoon with less wind than usual, so I'm pretty dirty and sweaty. Was about to give up; looked like this will take forever. Then I managed to get the pry-bar under the outermost pig and got it to move. Still a tight fit, and it's a heavy sucker, but I soon had it up and out. Pics. And that was the critical one; now I have more room, and can get at the second one. And the third is moving, but the second one has to come out before the third can come out. Chipped away at the second one for a while, but couldn't get it to budge. Enough for today.
Heard a generator and power tools on that dismasted catamaran, so I guess they really are making a floating tiki bar.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-02-02 (Thursday)Wind has been pretty consistent at ENE 17-20 knots and seas at NE 7-10 feet for the last week or so, and will continue for next week or so. I feel in no hurry to get moving; might stay here all winter/spring. Plenty of boat-projects to do.
Rosie the veggie-lady showed up after noon, so I went ashore and bought some veggies.
Sanded the wood I painted, and used it to prop up the aft end of the sink. The drain-hose is resisting the tilt a little. Started using the sink, and no leaks from the drainpipe, and the tilt forward (relative to the counter) makes it drain nicely.
Cut the drain-adapter off the old drainpipe; want to take it to the hardware stores in search of a better connection than the caulked connection I have right now.
Chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-02-03 (Friday)On the cruiser's net, "Ventoso" announced their arrival from Trinidad. Last saw them in St Martin.
A really odd item on the net: boat "Bo" is looking for info on water depths in the USA ICW from Norfolk to Miami. The draft of their boat is 9 feet ! Good luck with that one. [Right after the net, heard "Bo" say their mast is 22 meters above water ! And they'd read some official document saying the "plan depth" of the ICW is 11-12 feet. But reality is more like 6 feet.]
Net controller was talking about regatta events, and referred to the scheduled times as being in "GMT, which is Grenada Maybe Time".
Had been planning to go on the shopping bus this morning, but realized I really don't need to get anything. Will go on Monday instead.
Wind very gusty, very powerful at times.
Around 2, a sailboat with three guys aboard came in and tried to anchor (pic). Fifteen minutes later, they were dragging down over an unused mooring ball. They raised anchor halfway, motored away, and had the anchor snagged on the line under the ball. I thought they were going to get it into the prop, too, but they avoided that. Took them a while in this gusty wind to get free; finally they raised the anchor all the way, and were able to use a boat-hook to lift the ball's line off the anchor. Then they went to the upwind end of the anchorage and seemed to have little problem anchoring up there.
Drilled wood and assembled two more steps and a hull-brace onto the swim ladder I'm making. All done; well, all the parts are on. Will try it tomorrow. World's heaviest and clunkiest ladder.
Seem to be a lot of boats coming in this afternoon; a lot of traffic on the radio, one boat saying they've been dealing with 30-knot wind all day. Ken on "Silverheels 3" got to try out some more of his "matchbox French" to try to help a confused French guy trying to communicate with one of the marinas.
Salad and leftover cold chili for dinner.
2012-02-04 (Saturday)After lunch, launched the dinghy. Put the swim-ladder over the side of the boat and adjusted it from the dinghy, but the wind's blowing so hard, and there's such a surge going past the boat, that I may not test the ladder today.
Dinghied in to the marina. Exchanged 2 books st the bookshelf. Then walked across the peninsula to Prickly Bay Marina and back, just to get some exercise. Back out to the boat through howling wind.
Spent more than an hour chipping away at the ballast under the hallway sole, but couldn't get the next pig free.
Cornbread-sausage-cheese-onion concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-02-05 (Sunday)Did Wi-Fi and loafed. Skype-called Mom and chatted, but the connection went in and out a bit.
Poked a bit at the wiring to the backup VHF radio, but it's a confusing mess.
They're starting to make progress on that floating tiki bar: pic.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction for dinner.
Invited to watch the Super Bowl, I dinghied over to "Astral Wind" at 7. But the boat's dark, no dinghy I believe, and "Silverheels 3" next to it looks dark also. Maybe they're on a bus trip that's late coming back ?
Back to the boat to grab sandals and wallet, then ashore to the marina. Watched the first half of the game, had a rum-and-coke, chatted with Guy from Alberta Canada. He's worked on oil rigs all over the western half of the country, running a fleet of "vacuum trucks" that vacuum up drilling mud. Nice chat about jobs, politics, immigration, healthcare, Grenada, etc.
Back out into the anchorage around 9, swinging by "Astral Wind". It's still dark, but there's a dinghy on the starboard side that I don't think was there before. Back to my boat and to bed.
2012-02-06 (Monday)I'm cruiser's net controller this morning. So, up at 6:30 and onto Wi-Fi, gathering weather forecasts. Then did the net from 7:30 to about 8:15. Chatted briefly with "Stonecutter" and then "Ventoso" afterward. "Ventoso" arrived from Trinidad a couple of days ago, but is about to hustle up to St Lucia to pick up someone from the airport.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Found out right away that I was right about yesterday evening's confusion: a bunch of people went on a bus trip, were promised to get back by 5:30, and actually got back at 7:30. They tried to reach me on the VHF, couldn't because I was in the marina bar, and just went to bed.
To ACE Hardware, bought a wastebasket. To Budget Marine. They don't have the size of valve-handle I need, so I took it to the welding shop. The boss wasn't there, so I didn't get a firm price, but I left it anyway, should be cheap.
Took some random pictures in the boatyard: pics.
Exchanged 2 books at the book-exchange. Then ran into John and Janet from "Ventoso", and chatted with them for a while. And they hopped onto our bus for a ride. To the mall. Got groceries, bought a chocolate-peanut smoothie, chatted for a long time with a lady I've met before, I think her name is Anna. She told me a lot about her misadventures having boat-work done at St David's / Grenada Marine here. We talked about Florida, Europe, other things. Pleasant. She won't eat meat except for fish, avoids sugar and salt and canned goods.
To the Market Board store for veggies, then CK's, then back to the marina pretty late, a little after 1. And people are already gathering for the 1 PM dominoes tournament. Out to the boat, with the outboard making a couple of strange noises. Stashed the groceries that needed to be refrigerated, then back ashore, with the outboard sounding bad again.
EC$10 for the dominoes tournament, which is for J. T., the cruiser in the hospital. Two tables of 6 players apiece. A fun time, but bad scores on the first hand and the last hand of the day killed my chances to win. Let's see if I can remember who was playing. First table I played: Ernie from "Stonecutter", lady from "Merengue", Leslie from "Farhaven", Ricky and Kimberly from De Big Fish. Second table I played: Kimberly, some lady, Anne, Michelle, Anne's husband. Lynn from "Silverheels 3" was playing too. Ricky was the tournament winner, so I gave him the dominoes flag I made a while ago, and he laughed and said he'd pin it up inside his restaurant with the other memorabilia.
Back to the boat by 4:30 or so, the outboard lower unit making alarming noises (hope it isn't tearing itself apart because the gear oil leaked out or something). Tired and feeling a little sick. Ruth on "Astral Wind" called to invite me over tonight, but I begged off.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner, and early to bed.
2012-02-07 (Tuesday)Rained a fair amount in the early AM, and grey morning. Doesn't match the weather forecast I read yesterday. But by 9 it was sunny. And it remained the forecast "partly cloudy".
Did a lot of Wi-Fi. I'm a bit addicted to the internet.
Got into the hard dinghy, slid around under the outboard on the stern of the inflatable dinghy hanging on davits, and changing the lower unit gear oil. A messy, awkward job, with the wind and swells and wakes moving everything around, dirty smelly oil dripping all over the place, banging my head into the fins on the outboard, swearing and sweating. Forgot to bring out a funnel, although that would have been one more thing to hold in place. I guess I should have lifted the outboard up onto deck, and used a bucket to try to contain the mess. The good news is that there WAS oil in there; bad news is I'm not sure how much. It poured and dripped for quite a while and I caught some of it in a jug and most of the rest with a lot of paper towels.
I never have understood the way you're supposed to put the new oil in. Two holes, you're supposed to squirt the oil in through the bottom hole, when it's full it comes out the top hole, you put bolt back in the top hole, take filler out of bottom hole, vacuum holds oil in place long enough for you to put the bottom bolt in. I understand why it should be done this way: to avoid air pockets in the oil reservoir. But it never has worked for me. Can't get a solid seal on the bottom hole as I'm squirting in the oil, then oil runs out even when full and top bolt is back in. Never enough hands to hold me and squirter and outboard and top bolt and screwdriver in place simultaneously. Maybe in a nice workshop, with plenty of room and an assistant and everything right, it works. Not for me in real life.
Got the oil in, from the top down with the bottom bolt in. Paper towels to clean up the equipment and the hard dinghy, and more paper towels to wipe oil off me. Got up onto deck and wiped myself off some more. Took a shower with lots of soap.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-cola for dinner. The chicken came out too salty.
Fireworks at 8:35 from Independence Day celebration in St George's just visible over the northern hills, with full moon over the eastern hills.
2012-02-08 (Wednesday)Full moon over the western hill after dawn: pic.
Grey mid-morning; light wind flipping over repeatedly so the boat keeps spinning and spinning.
Did Wi-Fi. At one point, suddenly it was on steroids: speeds over 1 MB/sec. That lasted for about 5 minutes, then it was back to normal.
Aft water tank, the bigger of the two, has run dry.
In midafternoon, lowered the dinghy and pumped up the bow tube. Checked outboard engine oil, then started the motor. Ran okay, motored about 50 feet, and it started squawking again. Experimented with it, took the cowling off, tapped and listened, and eventually decided the problem is in the starter-rope recoil mechanism. I can make the squawk happen just by revving the motor while in neutral, and usually make it stop by swinging the motor from side to side. Looked at the service manual, and these mechanisms can be a real jigsaw puzzle to get apart without everything flying out, and tricky to get back together, but there are places where it probably needs some grease to get rid of the noise: pic. A little rain threatening; won't do it today.
Salad and a cheese sandwich and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
Frequent rain during the night.
2012-02-09 (Thursday)Very grey and frequent rain until about 7 AM. Rainy off and on during the day. Loafed, did Wi-Fi.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Frequent rain during the night.
2012-02-10 (Friday)Very grey and frequent rain until about 8:30 AM.
Into the dinghy at 8. Did the long, wet ride over to the Woburn town dock, with the dinghy loaded with tons of garbage, including the kitchen sink. Got rid of it, and over to CCBM to exchange half a dozen books. Sun came out, and ride back to the boat was pleasant enough.
Loafed most of the day.
Took the cowling off the outboard and looked at the starter recoil mechanism. As usual, the service manual gives no details on one tiny operation: detaching the shift-interlock rod from the recoil housing, and it's not at all straightforward. Messed with it for 10 minutes before I figured out the trick. Then took out 3 bolts and got the mechanism off.
Soon realized there's no need to take the mechanism apart; squawking while the motor is running means something must be rubbing between the mechanism and the flywheel, not inside the mechanism. So applied some lithium grease on the pawls and other exposed parts, and put it back onto the motor. Will see if the squawk has gone away.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a cheese sandwich and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Plenty of wind during the night; kept the wind-generator going much of the time.
2012-02-11 (Saturday)Thought of going on the shopping-van to downtown, but they're not picking up from my bay, and it's a bit rainy to be walking over to the next bay. Then 5 minutes ahead of time, they called on the VHF and said they WILL be picking up at my bay ! Too little notice for me to get there.
Did Wi-Fi and loafed most of the day.
Clamped the galley sink down into position and caulked around it.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Ate too much and had too much rum in my drink: gave me a headache. Didn't sleep well.
2012-02-12 (Sunday)Headachey.
Did some Wi-Fi.
Plastic hinge broke on toilet seat in forward head.
Dinghied ashore at 11 for the "jumble sale" at the marina. Almost immediately found a GPS antenna (pic) that should work with my GPS, and bought it for EC$25 (US$10). Took it out to the boat to make sure it works. Got out there, and my GPS won't power up, with or without my own antenna connected ! Didn't even try the new antenna. Opened up the instrument panel, checked the wiring, tested for power at the connector, all good. GPS must have died. I'm pretty sure I tested it after that lightning strike months ago (yes, log says I did); maybe it died later as a delayed result of the strike. Bummer; I'd been thinking two steps forward (outboard, sink) and one step back (toilet hinge), but now it's two steps back.
Back ashore, chatted a little with Lynn, then went for a walk to get some exercise. Back to the sale, and chatted with Leslie for a while. Found that water costs EC$0.40/USGallon here; I might have to buy some, since most rain recently has been the light, billowing kind that doesn't put much into the buckets. Back to the boat a little before 1.
Antenna I bought has the model number sticker worn off, so I can't even tell what GPS's it would be compatible with. [A reader tells me most newer antennae are compatible with any newer GPS; older ones might be different. Since the one I just bought is a newish Garmin, it should be compatible with my Garmin GPS.]
Added a little more caulk around the galley sink to touch up a few spots. Not too bad-looking: pic.
Into the water and swam a couple of laps around the boat. Then used the new swim ladder to climb back aboard. Worked okay, but needs some attachment or hook at the top to avoid strain on the stanchions. Might have cracked a little gelcoat at the base of one of the stanchions just now.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-02-13 (Monday)I'm cruiser's net controller this morning. So, up at 6:45 and onto Wi-Fi, gathering weather forecasts. Then did the net from 7:30 to about 8. Report of a locked outboard motor stolen from a dinghy hoisted on davits in Prickly Bay; pretty unusual.
George stopped by to say a guy he knows in Carriacou might want the ballast I'm going to get rid of. He might be down here in a couple of weeks. Okay with me. But I'm a little nervous that even though I keep moving ballast to the starboard side, the boat is staying on an even keel. Maybe that's happening because I'm also emptying water tanks that are mostly on the starboard side.
Did a bucket of laundry.
GPS still dead.
More progress on that floating tiki bar: pic.
Measured and cut and painted more wood for the swim-ladder.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Feeling a little headachey in the evening, so took some acetaminophen pills with sleeping aid, and they knocked me out pretty well.
2012-02-14 (Tuesday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. To ACE Hardware, bought a new toilet seat (EC$52, US$20) and some bolts etc for the swim ladder. To Budget Marine and the welding shop, to pick up the valve-handle I left there last week. But the guy returned it to me saying he won't weld it, the metal is too damaged. I think he's crazy, it's just cracked across in one place, but I didn't argue with him. Budget Marine has smaller size in stock, but not this size. Exchanged 2 books at the book-exchange.
People on the bus were talking about air travel; the cheapest UK-Grenada flights are being shut down because the Grenada govt can no longer afford to subsidize them. Some jokes about the Caribbean airline LIAT, saying "LIAT" stands for "Leave Island Any Time" or "Luggage In Another Terminal". But I've had okay experiences on LIAT.
To the mall. Got groceries, bought a chocolate-banana smoothie, chatted.
To the Market Board store for veggies, then CK's, then back to the marina and back to the boat.
Put more paint on the wood for the swim-ladder.
Did Wi-Fi. Not solid enough to Skype-call Mom for Valentine's Day.
Bummer: my Garmin GPS 128 is discontinued, and the successor to it costs $270, a lot more than I expected. Might go with some cheaper non-marine GPS, but I want a GPS that plugs into 12V power. And my two Garmin antennae would be useless, and I probably wouldn't get NMEA output. Not sure if a GPS with internal antenna would work from inside my pilothouse.
Installed new seat on the forward toilet. Easy job, fit perfectly, makes the whole head look new and clean. Pic.
Put yet more paint on the wood for the swim-ladder.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Fair amount of rain during the night.
2012-02-15 (Wednesday)Drilled wood and assembled the new pieces onto the swim ladder.
Around 3:45, lots of radio traffic about an aluminum sloop hard aground on a reef inside Prickly Bay. 15 or more dinghies there trying to get it off, but I think they had to wait until rising tide at sunset.
Tested the GPS cable a little, and I'm getting only 9.6V to 10.2V on the power pins, when system voltage is near 14V. GPS still should work at 10V, according to manual, but this bears further investigation.
Cornbread-sausage-onion concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Plenty of wind from about 10 to midnight; wind-generator humming away.
2012-02-16 (Thursday)Totally grey and rainy from dawn until 9 or so. Stayed grey and occasionally rainy all day.
Did some Wi-Fi, as the boat spun and rain sprinkled.
George stopped by, with a guy from Carriacou who's building a boat and wants my lead ballast to melt and mold into ballast for his boat. I said he could have it. Didn't mention any money, so I guess I'll give them to him for free.
Worked some more on chipping two more ballast pigs out from under the hallway sole. And it went fairly quickly; got them out ! That's the last of the pigs under the opening in the sole. Pic. There are several more a little further aft, but I'd have to cut a new opening to get to them.
Decided I'm not going to re-wire the backup VHF radio right now; too much work. So I put the back-cover back onto the electrical panel.
I have two six-volt house batteries that are dead, and I haven't been using for the last 9 months or so. Time to check them, and either revive them or get rid of them. Took the multimeter into the engine compartment. One battery reads 1.9V, the other reads 2.5V. They're dead-dead-dead. Dead.
Gave myself a haircut.
Salad and cheese sandwiches and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
At night, decided I'll keep one or two of the ballast pigs and lower them down into the deepest part of my bilge, to improve the boat's stability. Will have to cut them in half and drill hoisting holes in them; an intact 70-pound pig is too hard to lower down and someday haul up. Total of seven out; if I keep two, that will leave five for the guy from Carriacou. Will I have to have a machine-shop cut my two in half ? Not sure I can cut through a 3" x 4" cross-section of lead with a hacksaw.
2012-02-17 (Friday)Gorgeous, sunny morning.
After the net, called "Merengue" on the VHF. A few weeks ago, they said a local guy was looking for any batteries that cruisers were discarding. I told the lady on "Merengue" that my two batteries were 6-volt and dead-dead-dead, but she called Trevor the taxi guy, and he wants them. So now I have to haul them ashore.
So I went into the engine compartment. Lifted each battery and box down onto the sole, up across the engine and into the hallway, out of the box, up into the cockpit, out onto the stern deck, and down into the dinghy. They weigh about 65 pounds apiece, so I was happy to get it done without hurting my back or dropping one on my foot.
Dinghied ashore at noon. Put the batteries in clear view at the corner of the parking lot. Exchanged 2 books at the bookshelf in the office. Went for a walk over to Prickly Bay and back. Batteries still there at 12:45. I went back out to the boat.
Hauled the seven ballast pigs onto the centerline, two in the aft cabin and five in the main cabin. Boat now lists about 2 degrees to port. Probably due to mostly-empty water and fuel tanks; each of them is centered a bit to starboard of the centerline.
At 1:45, I think the batteries are still in the marina parking lot. Hard to tell; they're at the extreme limit of my binoculars. Dinghied ashore at 3:30, and they're still there; back to the boat and asked "Merengue" to call Trevor again.
Ran engine for 5 minutes to exercise it; it's been a couple of months since I ran it. Started right up and ran fine.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-02-18 (Saturday)Headachey, so I took pills.
Dinghied ashore (outboard squawking badly) at 8:30 to catch a shopping bus (EC$10) into St George's. The batteries are still sitting here. Bus arrived around 8:45, got us into the market area by 9:15. Strolled through the market and nearby streets, but didn't find anything I wanted. Avocados are out of season, so the few available are green and hard as rocks. The grapefruit don't look very good. I already have cabbage and cucumber and tomato. Some guys in the back alleys offering me "fresh green", which I assume means marijuana.
So wandered through the duty-free mall, then through the tunnel over to the Carenage. Into the Grenada National Museum (EC$5). Nice exhibits on slavery, animals and sea life, fishing and rum distillery. Several pictures of "great fires" on the Carenage waterfront; seems they've had at least a couple, in 1991 and 2002. I guess the firefighting must not be too good. [Later, Patrick pointed to some buildings way up on top of the hills and said that's a boys school that used to burn every 5 years, pretty regularly.]
Then upstairs for an exhibit about the "Biana C", the cruise ship which caught fire and sank here in 1961. The big cruise ship at the dock today is a Costa ship (pic), the cruise ship that sank recently in Italy is a Costa ship, and today I learned that the "C" in "Bianca C" stands for "Costa" !
The "Bianca C" had quite a history, going through about 4 names and multiple purposes, scuttled by the Germans at the beginning of WW II and spent 2 years on the bottom before being raised and put back into service. When it sank here, it was a high-end luxury cruise ship, with about 300 passengers and 200 crew. It was getting ready to leave to cross to Europe, there was some explosion in the engine room, local boats helped get passengers and crew off, the ship burned for 2 or 3 days, a British Navy ship (I think) came and blew the anchor chain apart and towed the ship toward a shoal offshore, but the tow was difficult and the cruise-ship went down in deepish water. It landed upright, is mostly intact, and is a popular SCUBA site today.
Across the street and into an art gallery that is hosting the annual Grenada Art Festival. Some nice paintings, but smaller than I expected. Sign said I was in the right place.
Up over the hill and back down into the market side of town. Into a couple of supermarkets and got groceries. Waited a little until Patrick showed up and I could stow them in the van. Sat streetside for 10 minutes and people-watched. Then it was time to leave. Stops at IWW and the vegetable stands on the way back. Batteries still sitting in the marina parking lot. Outboard still squawking a bit as I went out. Back to my boat by noon. Still a bit headachey, and a bit tired.
Dinghied ashore around 4:30, and the batteries are gone.
Salad and a cheese sandwich and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
2012-02-19 (Sunday)Consolidated my to-do lists into one list, and ended up with 22 items ! I thought I'd been knocking a few items off the list. Actually, half a dozen items are tiny, or things I've been working on and are almost finished. But a couple of bigger items, such as "replace running rigging" and "test/fix/replace anchor windlass".
Dinghied over to CCB marina for dominoes at 1. Very nice game, and I ended up winning, by 1 point. Played with Cliff and Deb from "Windmark I", Kathy and Ernie from "Stonecutter", and Pia.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-02-20 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. A long session, and I was hoarse by the end, but it seemed to go pretty well.
Did Wi-Fi most of the morning.
Moved capacitor from solar controller into electrical panel. Bit of a mess in there; running out of places to attach DC negatives, and the before-switch positives are just connected in midair instead of having a terminal strip. And I should weed out some of the dangling AC stuff left when I removed the genset and the light-transformers. Another item for the list.
Tried to apply power directly to pins on the GPS, but got no life out of it. Very fiddly connection; maybe I didn't get it solid enough.
Painted third anchor with Rustoleum primer to stop it from shedding rust all over the deck. One item done off the list. [But then I added yet another item during the night.]
Salad and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-02-21 (Tuesday)Dinghied ashore at 9:15 to talk to George. He wants me to hold onto the five ballast pigs until the guy from Carriacou comes down again. I thought the guy was his friend, but he says no. Wonder if I should have asked for money for the ballast. Wonder how much 350 pounds of lead is worth. [London exchange says 90 UScents/pound, so I'm probably doing a foolish thing, giving it away. But I'm going to go through with it.]
Did Wi-Fi most of the morning.
A few strokes showed that a hacksaw can cut the lead ballast pigs pretty easily, so I guess I'll do that. I'm going to cut two of them in half and lower them into the lowst part of my bilge, for added stability. But before I do that, I should clean out the bilge. And before I do THAT, I should change the engine oil, a messy job I've been putting off.
Loafed much of the afternoon, too.
Before 5, went over to "Silverheels 3" and chatted with Ken and Lynn. Took my GPS over, but their Garmins use different connectors than my Garmin. Had a rum-and-coke and lots of good conversation. They say the guys building that floating Tiki bar plan to tow it up to Carriacou when it's done; that would be nice. But Ken points out that it has no diagonal bracing in it, so far; a good wind would make it collapse. Ken also reminded me of another item to add to my boat to-do list: change sheeting point of mizzen boom. The list keeps growing.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-02-22 (Wednesday)Did Wi-Fi.
Knocked an item off my list: cut rusty shackle and links off primary anchor rode and replaced with a new shackle.
Around noon, starting to get gusty strong wind. Supposed to blow hard for next several days. There's a dinghy-concert this afternoon at 4:30; wonder how windy it will be for that ?
Pulled out the new current meter, and traced wires, and used multi-meter on battery shunt. But decided the multi-meter is not trustworthy in the single-digit-mV range. Maybe I need a separate current source to drive the current meter; the installation instructions have some complicated text about that.
Used some alcohol on corrosion in the GPS connector. Online this morning, I found it's a custom connector; have to buy it as part of Garmin cable. Tried to use the multi-meter, and meter was dead. Opened it up and fiddled with ground-shield, and got it working. Applied it to GPS connector, and I get 12 to 12.5 V where I should be reading system voltage of 14 V. Sprayed some battery-corrosion cleaner on it and left it to sit.
Looked at another item on the list, caulking at base of mizzen-mast, and decided it didn't need to be done. Strike it off the list.
Fiddled with the GPS some more and got absolutely nowhere.
Hacksawed one of the ballast pigs for a little while, and it's slow going. The blade starts binding as the cut gets at all deep.
Skipped the dinghy-concert. Later, Ken told me he went past that area in the dinghy, and the wind and waves were very rough. That's what I expected. Would have been a rough, uncomfortable ride to get there, too.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
Fair amount of wind during the night.
2012-02-23 (Thursday)Headachey.
Didn't feel like it, but we're short a couple of net controllers, so I did a short version of the net this morning. Skipped a couple of the less-important sections. Done in 15 minutes. Wind supposed to be about ENE 20 knots for the next 8 days.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Dinghied ashore at noon and got about 10 gallons of water (EC$4). Hustled back out to the boat just ahead of a rainsquall and got the laundry off the lifelines just in time.
In the afternoon, did two more water-runs, between rainsqualls. Total of 30 gallons into the aft water tank.
A reader told me there might be some tricky reset sequence for my GPS. But I don't see anything about that in the manual. [Sent email to Garmin, and they said there IS such a sequence and told me what it is, but they really think I have corroded power pins.]
Swam a couple of laps around the boat, then used the new swim-ladder to climb back aboard. Worked okay, so that's another item down off the to-do list.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Picture of dinner: pic. Purists will shudder: beans, bacon, macaroni. Also onions, couple of lumps of cheese on top. Enough for two meals.
2012-02-24 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. To bank, then ACE Hardware, then boatyard area. Into the boatyard, and found Hans on "Geode" and bought a wire-stripper-crimper from him for EC$15. To the welding shop. They had said my through-hull handle was not weldable. I acid-cleaned the rust off it, and brought it back to show to them today. They pointed to little blemishes and said they were cracks, and when they applied heat, the metal will crumble. So I guess I'll have to order one from USA. Forgot to ask them about cutting the ballast pigs for me.
To Spice Land Mall. Went across into Coyaba Resort and found a wonderful book-exchange; exchanged 5 books. Got groceries (but no bananas, no tomatoes, no cucumbers). Bought a chocolate-peanut smoothie (EC$13). Nice conversation with several cruisers. Someone said "Celtic Spray" might have extra dinghy-patches; I need to patch my dinghy a bit. Back to the boat by 12:30. Cloudy and windy and threatening rain.
Occurs to me that I have several unused and closed through-hulls; I'll just borrow a handle from one of them instead of buying a new handle.
Took a picture of the swim ladder I built: pic. Hangs straighter when my weight is on it. One step just below the waterline, and two more steps well underwater. A piece at the waterline that presses against the hull sides. A piece resting on top of the rubrail to bear most of my weight there. Heavy and ugly, but it was cheap to make and it works.
Loafed most of the afternoon.
Tried to replace the rusty thimble in the davits, but the axle can't be budged. Will have to come at it a different way.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
2012-02-25 (Saturday)Still can't hear Chris Parker's weather on the SSB. Thought my old Grundig Yachtboy PE 400 SSB receiver might be bad, so I switched to a new Grundig 4000A a few days ago. But that didn't help.
Had thought of going to watch races, a couple of bays over. But after 9 it got grey and started rainy, then I developed a headache, and by 10:30 the wind was howling. So I think I'll give it miss.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-cola for dinner. Pic.
Pretty good wind all night; wind-generator spinning.
2012-02-26 (Sunday)Headache.
Online, tried to register for a FileZilla tech-support forum. Used my Yahoo Mail email address, and it said "no, we don't allow that, Yahoo Mail is the #2 biggest source of spam or abuse". So I tried my GMail address, and it said "no, we don't allow that, GMail is the #1 biggest source of spam or abuse" ! So I gave up.
A little before 1, got on the radio and asked if anyone had a Garmin GPS with 7-pin plug. Jerry on "Poco Loco" responded, but said he didn't know what plug his had. Easy to check, but I didn't press it. So I headed out, into teeth of howling wind and wet seas, stopping by his boat on the way to dominoes. Sure enough, got there, and in 2 seconds we determined his had a different plug than mine. On to the marina.
Played dominoes with Cliff and Deb from "Watermark I" and John and Katie from "Purrfect". "Purrfect" has been up to Antigua, to look into a day-chartering opportunity, then down to the Tobago Cays because some friends wanted to go there, now down here, will leave in a couple of days to go back up to Antigua. Must be nice to have a fast boat (it's a Leopard 47 catamaran), but I still wouldn't want to be out in 8-10 foot seas.
Very nice game, very competitive, but I came in third. Lots of good conversation. Exchanged a couple of books at the bookshelf. Easy ride downwind back to the boat by 4:30. Wind still gusting and swirling, boat swinging around quite a bit. Going to be like this for another week or more.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a cheese sandwich for dinner.
2012-02-27 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Loafed most of the day, doing Wi-Fi. Wind gusting and shifting; a boat dragged in Prickly Bay, a skiff overturned outside Hog Island, rumors of a cruising boat capsized and people in the water offshore.
[Heard the next day: last two are same boat, it was a fishing boat, still people missing.]
[BUT: later heard one person missing and presumed dead from the fishing boat, and other boat was a charter boat that ran aground in surf and everyone swam ashore.]
Later heard a charter company asking if anyone had seen a lost dinghy, I think.
[Days later, heard that the charter boat was recovered.]
Pried a horribly rusty thimble out of the tip of one of the davits, and replaced it with a newer thimble of a better size for the rope: pic. One more item off the to-do list.
Cornbread-sausage-cheese-onion concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-02-28 (Tuesday)After the cruiser's net, at around 8, I loaded up the dinghy with garbage and headed out to Woburn, a long, wet ride into stiff wind and chop. Got there, dropped off the garbage, and looked for someone to ask to confirm pickup days. Usually there are a dozen people hanging around here; today there's no one. Finally a guy wandered through, and sort of confirmed that they also pick up on Friday.
Headed back, and stopped at "Richard Corey" to test my GPS with their power cable. It works, so the problem is in my power cable; that's a relief. Chatted with Don and Olga for quite a while, about places and boats and people and incidents. Very nice conversation.
They said that 5 or 6 years ago, even after the charter business had left, Mount Hartman Bay was a happening place, crammed full of anchored boats, marina slips full and with a waiting list. Now the marina is mostly empty, and the anchorage maybe 1/2 or 1/3 full. The marina needs some better PR.
Sailboat "Homeward Bound" returned recently, and they told a story about it. The boat was taken up to Alabama to have a lot of work done to it, including putting on a pilothouse, I think. On the way back, shortly after starting a hop from Bahamas to St Thomas, at 4 AM in high seas, the mast broke about 2/3 of the way up, just below the upper spreaders. Took 4 hours to secure everything, and then they found that while the boat was wallowing, the steering chain came off the sprocket. Took another hour or so to fix that. And then they pressed on to St Thomas ! Now the boat is here, with the mast 20 feet shorter than it was before, and a bit beat-up by the trip and the accident: pic.
Back to my boat by 10:30.
Big, strong rainsquall with lots of wind and horizontal rain, starting at 11:15.
Added water to the batteries. Forward bank took a fair amount.
Salad and leftover cold cornbread concoction for dinner.
2012-02-29 (Wednesday)"Purrfect" left, heading N to Antigua and then BVI's, I think.
Bit the bullet and started changing the engine oil. And the job was just as nasty and frustrating as I expected. I have four oil-change pumps of three different types aboard, and tried a fourth type in the past, and none of them work well for me. They all have leaky hose-joints, or take a lot of physical effort, require about 4 hands to run everything, or other problems. Have to hold the tube into the dipstick sleeve at just the right level, or else the pump sucks all air, or oil too solid to pump. Maybe I need to get the oil hotter, but it is warm. And the end of the tube isn't getting clogged with solids or anything. Engine has a copper tube down to the sump on the other side, but that never worked for me.
Spent a solid two hours sitting naked in the warm engine compartment (at least there's somewhere to sit, after removing the genset), pumping the oil out bit by bit, until my arm was too tired to keep going. Got 6 quarts out of the sump, and soon another 2 quarts out of the filter and oil-cooler.
Put in a new filter. But couldn't get the seal on the filter housing seated properly; I always have trouble with that. Put in 2 gallons of new oil, started the engine and oil gushed out; fortunately I'd tied a plastic bag around the housing for exactly that reason. Really want to change from the old canister-type I have, to a spin-on filter, but the online places that sell housings almost never say what filter they use or what the flow rate is. I need one big enough for a 6-cylinder diesel. A week ago, I asked about new oil filter housings at the ACE/NAPA store here, and they had no idea what I was talking about.
So gave up for today, after 2.5 hours of work on it.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-03-01 (Thursday)Lots of rain, boat spinning a bit, from about 2:45 AM to 4:15. Then light rain all morning, very grey weather, boat still spinning occasionally.
Light rain and wind blowing hard and gusty from SW from about 6:30 to 7:30. Some cruiser went by in a dinghy at 6:55, heading out and around to Hog Island or further, not even wearing a rainjacket. Would take an emergency to get me out in this weather. And a catamaran headed out at 7:10 or so.
Loafed all day. Should have sorted out the engine oil filter, but I procrastinated.
Lots of rain and wind from 3:30 to 4:30.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
More rain starting at 6:30. More starting at 9:15. Lots from 10:30 to 12:30.
2012-03-02 (Friday)Weather grey and wet. Little wind early, more starting at 8.
Dumped more rainwater from buckets to tank. Probably have loaded 45 gallons or so in the last day or so. Wish I had a funnel-hose-and-filter from the pilothouse roof to the tank neck, but it would be a bit awkward to arrange. Could have filled the tanks with 200+ gallons if I had that.
On the cruiser's net, news of sailboat "Chinook Wind" which left here a few days ago, heading W. We're told they hit a reef off Las Aves at 1 AM, the crew was rescued but the boat is a total loss.
[Heard later: it's a New Zealand boat, they've crossed the Atlantic twice, they wer completing a circumnavigation. Left Las Aves, hit a reef about 20 miles out. I'm told the whole area is a graveyard for boats: lots of wrecks, back to Spanish Armada days.]
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. To the ATM, then ACE, then Budget. Disposed of a gallon used engine oil at the boatyard. To the mall. Exchanged 4 books at the resort across the street. Got cash and groceries. No chocolate or peanut in the mix, so no smoothie today. Back to the boat by 11:45.
Nice afternoon: fair amount of sunshine, no rain.
Before 5:30, dinghied ashore. Onto George's bus, with Helen and George from "Wind Dancer" and their two friends, Lorraine and Gavin (I think I have the names right). Over to Prickly Bay, where we picked up Gene and Suzette, and the couple from "Tarantella" didn't show up. And we're off to the "Fish Fryday" at Gouyave, halfway up the west coast.
Nice conversation on the way up, and later. Gene and Suzette are from Spokane WA, cruised a lot in San Juan Bay and around Vancouver Island, then about 3 years ago headed down the west coast, through the Panama Canal, and to the E Caribbean. They had a very rough trip down the W coast of the USA; I'd always heard it was rough going N, but they had a tough time going S too, including a knockdown. They're on some kind of "cruise 3 months, work 9 months" schedule of cruising each year.
The couple from "Wind Dancer" has been to some exotic places: South Africa, Ecuador, lived a year in American Samoa.
Survived lots of vehicles tailgating us and passing us on these narrow, bumpy, twisty roads, and got up to Gouyave by 6:50 or so. Wandered the streets a little with Gene and Suzette, then to the two small roped-off streets where food-booths have been set up. The weather is great; no rain. Some music playing, but not the steel band I'd been expecting. The food is okay, fairly cheap, mostly fried fish. Had a fish kebab that was pretty good, a fish pie that was cold, a "fish cake and fried bake" that was okay, some fried cous-cous sticks (I think) that were nice. And a small Guinness that was quite nice. Spent about EC$35 (about US$13).
Left Gouyave around 8:45, and back to the marina, with George showing off all the different blaring noises his fancy electronic horn on the bus could make; I could have done without that. And he passed several people; not worth the risk. But he's a good driver.
Paid EC$20 for the trip. I was the only one getting into a dinghy at the marina; "Wind Dancer" is in a slip. Pretty calm and dry evening, which was good because my outboard quit halfway. First symptom was that the squeeze-bulb on the fuel line wasn't working right. Then the fuel line sheared right through, right where it joins the fitting to the motor. Gasoline spritzing into the dinghy as I tried to hold the fitting on long enough to pump some gasoline into the motor; that didn't work. Could grab a mooring and try to fix the fuel line; I have a few tools. Tilted the motor up, grabbed the paddle, and paddled out to my boat by about 10:15. Not too difficult.
Then I couldn't get the motor tilted back down, so I could attach the lines and hoist the dinghy on the davits. Messed with it for 5 minutes, prying with a screwdriver, getting oil and gasoline all over my hands, and finally got it down as rain started sprinkling. Hoisted the dinghy and got inside, cleaned up and went to bed.
2012-03-03 (Saturday)Headachey.
Noticed that the fuel line for the outboard is held onto the fitting by a steel band, not a hose-clamp as I'd thought last night. So I probably couldn't have fixed it in the middle of the harbor with the tools I had available. Probably could have patched something together.
My friend Ronnie on "Campechano" sent me a picture from a fishing trip he did off the south coast of Puerto Rico: pic.
Fixed the outboard fuel line, and added a short length of hose and an additional hose-clamp to the dinghy toolkit.
Took the engine oil filter off again, getting another pint or more of dirty oil out of it, and much dirty oil all over everything. Messed with the top washer and cut an additional washer for the bottom. Put it together, tied plastic bags around it, added a quart of oil, and ran the engine for about 5 seconds. No oil leaking or spurting out of the filter housing. Added another quart of new oil, ran it again for 5 seconds. Still good. Ran it another 10 seconds or so, still good. Ran it for a minute or more, still good. Enough for today. I'll top up oil again tomorrow and run it longer.
My friend Stacy pointed me to a Cummins diesel mount and filter on EBay; I'm going to buy that as soon as I get together another order for Sherri. It is used on 6 and 7-liter diesel truck engines, so should work for me.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-03-04 (Sunday)At 8, catamaran "Tobago" came in from Hog Island direction and anchored next to me.
At 11, dinghied ashore for the "Jumble Sale". About half as many people there as in previous sales, which meant the roar was lower and you could talk to people. But chatting with Ken was difficult because he's read my blog, we're Friends and in the same Groups on Facebook, and he's even read the "interview" I did last year. He needled me a little about saying in my "interview" that I like to move every 2 or 3 weeks; I've been here about 9 months.
I got rid of some filters and an old outboard prop, by marking them "free" and leaving them on a table. Took a little walk up the hill and across and down to get some exercise (nice tree: pic), then back to the boat.
Starting at 12:30, did the long dinghy-ride over to CCB marina, into the teeth of howling wind and strong chop. Had a rollicking game of dominoes with Cliff and Deb, and Barb from "My Island Girl"; lots of fun, lots of jokes, and we even talked some politics afterward (a rare treat; most people don't want to talk about it). I won the game. Exchanged a couple of books at the bookshelf, but I've been here so long that I've read most of the interesting (to me) books. Dinghied across the bay to Whisper Cove marina and checked out their bookshelf, but most of it is non-English, and I found only one semi-interesting book. Long downwind ride back to the boat, getting home around 5.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a cheese sandwich and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-03-05 (Monday)Collected a surprising amount of water in last night's rains.
I was net controller again this morning. A fairly quick net; not a lot of traffic.
Lots of rain starting around 11:10. Another big rainsquall at 1:45, but much briefer.
Started engine and ran it for 5 minutes; no leaks from oil filter housing. So I can cross the oil-change job off the to-do list.
Ken stopped by to drop off a couple of USB sticks with videos and other stuff I might be interested in. Copied 18 GB of stuff onto my laptop.
Cleaned oil out of the engine compartment, in a low spot where it accumulates after dripping out of the filter housing.
Ken and Lynn swung by, to surprise me with a Garmin GPS cable ! They'd been to Scubatech, found out they were throwing away a sunburnt Garmin GPS, and snagged the power cable for me. Wonderful ! I returned the USB sticks to Ken.
Applied power to the new GPS cable, plugged it into the GPS, and the GPS works. Tried to connect the used antenna I bought a few weeks ago, but it has the wrong connector on it. So another small item onto the to-do list.
Rain from 3:30 to 4:15.
Chicken-onion-carrot-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Fairly windy all night, but no rain.
2012-03-06 (Tuesday)Headache.
Wi-Fi got just reliable enough to Skype-call Mom and chat for a couple of minutes.
Loafed all day long. I really need to get off the boat and get some exercise.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-03-07 (Wednesday)Dinghied ashore by 9:45 to catch a bus to the Lagoon. To the monthly book-swap at IWW, where I traded 7 or 8 books. Took crowded and awkward to be comfortable or have a conversation with any of the other cruisers. Walked up to Grenada Yacht Club and traded another 7 or 8 books at their bookshelf. Huge sloop "Mirabella V" is in a slip at Port Louis Marina. According to its Wikipedia page, "At an estimated cost of over US$50 million, she is the largest single-masted yacht ever built".
Then walked down to Foodland for a few groceries. Back to IWW, where the bus was 20 minutes late picking me up; Patrick had gotten the time wrong by 15 minutes. Back to the boat by noon. Wind howling.
Asked Patrick about the fishing boat that capsized near here a few days ago. He said it was a father and son aboard. The son survived; the father's body has not been found.
Grey and rain at 1. Sunny and wind howling again by 2.
Pumped 3 gallons of nasty oily water out of the lowest bilge. At one time, I had a dry bilge; will have to try to get back to that.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a PB-sandwich and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Strong wind all night, wind-generator cranking. Very strong from 9:30 to 10:30 or so.
2012-03-08 (Thursday)Skimmed more oily water out of the bilge. And tried to separate oil from water in the 3 gallons I pumped out yesterday.
Started working on my income taxes, a process similar to dealing with the oily bilge.
Macaroni-sausage-onion-cottagecheese and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-03-09 (Friday)Headache.
Lots of wind and rain from 7:30 to 8 or so.
Had to pick 8 or 9 little bugs out of the oatmeal before I could cook it.
Dinghied ashore. Got some gasoline, then onto the shopping bus. Was taking a gallon of used oil to the boatyard disposal, but George said he'd take it. Looked at engine oil prices in ACE Hardware; EC$61 (about US$23.50) minus 5% discount for a gallon of 15/40 CJ-rated for diesels. Not too bad, I think. Exchanged 3 books at De Big Fish. To the mall, got groceries, skipped the smoothie. Back to the boat by noon. Tired, and headache still fairly bad.
Rain at 1:30. Very grey afternoon.
Salad and leftover mac-cheese for dinner.
Fairly bad headache all night; didn't sleep much.
2012-03-10 (Saturday)Fairly bad headache. Very grey morning.
Again had to pick 8 or 9 little bugs out of the oatmeal before I could cook it. Getting down to the last of the bag.
Rain starting at 1, starting again at 3:30, again at 4. And fairly rolly all afternoon, which didn't go very well with my headache.
Salad and cheese sandwiches for dinner.
Headache eased by midnight or so.
2012-03-11 (Sunday)Headache mostly gone.
Starting at 12:30, did the long dinghy-ride over to CCB marina, into fairly strong wind and chop. Very low tide: sandbars showing on the innermost reef. In the marina, saw a sailboat named "Brain of Pooh".
Had a very nice game of dominoes with Cliff and Deb and Pia; lots of fun, but a disastrous hand in the middle of the game put me way down, and I avoided last place by only 1 point. Exchanged a couple of books at the bookshelf. Long downwind ride back to the boat, getting home around 5.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-03-12 (Monday)Another grey morning, threatening rain.
I was net controller again this morning. A fairly quick net; not a lot of traffic.
Just created a joke version of the Grenada cruiser's net: CruisersNet. Please check it out, and send any additional jokes for it to me. Thanks !
Salad and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-03-13 (Tuesday)Fairly sunny morning. And the wind is now E, with seas easing to 7-5-foot range, so a lot of boats will be traveling. I saw 3 heading W during the net, and another left our bay.
One of my solar-LED Christmas light strings stopped working a couple of weeks ago. So this morning I opened it up. Battery seems to have charge, switch is okay. Not sure what is wrong.
Dinghied ashore around 3, and took a walk over to PB Marina and back. Nice to get some exercise; I have been turning into a vegetable. Gave Lynn a ride back to her boat; I was yakking away and approached it too fast, but saved the situation at the last second. Embarrassing.
Swimmed a couple of laps around the boat, then a nice shower.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Bad headache all night; didn't sleep much.
2012-03-14 (Wednesday)Bad headache. Feeling mostly better by noon, but still tired and a little achey.
Took half a dozen shots at hacksawing through a ballast pig. Got about 1/4 of the way through.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a PB-sandwich for dinner.
Took more pills and slept well.
2012-03-15 (Thursday)Feeling okay this morning. Rain at 6:30.
Did Wi-Fi, and got a headache again. Maybe it's from bad posture and eyestrain while using the laptop.
Rain at 3:30.
Salad and tuna-salad for dinner.
2012-03-16 (Friday)Heavy rain from 4 AM to about 5 AM.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Outboard fuel line is leaking at the quick-connect connector to the fuel tank. Chatted a bit with Tony from "Cariad", acnhored close to me. And with Dave, from a wooden boat here, someone I see only every 3 months or so. He believes everything is a conspiracy, every thing to do with corporations and governments and people everywhere and anywhere. Fun to talk to him.
To the bank and ACE Hardware and then Budget. I tried to walk over the hill to True Blue resort, but couldn't find it. Got some good exercise anyway. To the mall. Exchanged 4 or 5 books at the resort across the street. Got groceries, then a chocolate-banana smoothie. Chatted with various people. Back to the boat by 12:15.
Several more sessions cutting through a ballast pig; got about 2/3 of the way through.
Rain from 4:15 to 4:30; more starting at 6:45.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-03-17 (Saturday)Someone on the net this morning said there were island-wide internet problems. I couldn't get any Wi-Fi yesterday afternoon, and it's flaky this morning.
Sailboat "Gaucho" leaving: pic.
Finished sawing through the first ballast pig: pic. Started drilling a hole through the "tab" part of one half, and the bit kept wedging and spinning. Drilled 7/32" holes through tabs of both halves, then the bit was stuck in the drill's chuck. Maybe when it spun in the chuck, plastic at the bottom of the chuck melted and grabbed the bit ? Trying to pull it out with pliers, the bit broke. Finally got the stub out: pics. Enough for today.
Cornbread-sausage-cheese-onion concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-03-18 (Sunday)Finished drilling holes in the two pieces of ballast, and started cutting the second pig in half.
Starting at 12:30, did the long dinghy-ride over to CCB marina. Had a nice game of dominoes with Cliff and Deb from "Watermark I" and Sue and Earl from "My Bonnie". Earl won handily. Sue and Earl are still tired from a rough 25-hour passage up from Trinidad yesterday. Nice conversation after the game, about cruising, computers, more. Earl was a bridge-tender in Titusville FL, and had a front-row seat for the last few Apollo launches, and then again for many of the Shuttle launches.
Exchanged four books at the bookshelf. Thought I was going to get drenched on the long downwind ride back to the boat, but the rain just sprinkled on me all the way; got home around 5.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Rain at midnight.
2012-03-19 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. Couldn't get any Wi-Fi beforehand, so I gave a very general weather summary I got from Ken.
Did a bucket of laundry.
I keep adding more and more funny stuff to that joke cruiser's net page I created.
Did some hacksawing on the second ballast pig.
Salad and PB-sandwiches for dinner.
2012-03-20 (Tuesday)Around 8, loaded up the dinghy and headed over to Clarkes Court Bay through fairly mild conditions. Disposed of lots of garbage at the intersection up from the Woburn town dock.
More hacksawing on the second ballast pig.
Dinghied ashore around 3, and took a walk over to PB Marina and back. Gave Lynn a ride back to her boat again.
Big rainstorm from anout 5:30 to 6, heavy rain, swirling in from all angles.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Developed a headache in the early AM.
2012-03-21 (Wednesday)Did Wi-Fi, and loafed.
Finished hacksawing through the second ballast pig. I feel like a prisoner who has sawed through a window-bar. Pic.
Added water to the batteries.
Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner.
2012-03-22 (Thursday)Drilled holes through the ballast pig halves.
Cornbread-sausage-cheese-onion concoction and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-03-23 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Chatted with Tony; turns out he drew the diagram for how those guys should build that floating tiki bar. I ribbed him a little that Ken had noticed there was no diagonal bracing on it for a while. Tony said the guys were short of bamboo and lumber, and so started just leaving out pieces of his design. He told them they couldn't do that, so now more bracing is starting to appear.
To the bank and ACE Hardware (bought some polypropylene line for the ballast) and then Budget. I walked over the hill to True Blue resort, but their book-exchange is pitiful. Got some good exercise anyway. To the mall. Stopped at CK's. Back to the boat by 11:30.
Pumped out and mopped out the bilge. Going to be a tight fit to get the ballast pieces down there, but it will work.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
2012-03-24 (Saturday)Apparently there's been a bit of a heat wave in the Eastern USA. The net controller this morning, Hope, said yesterday it was hotter in her home town, Chicago, than it was here in Grenada, and "that's just not right".
Lots of grey and rain starting at 12:15.
Cut line, sealed the ends with matches, threaded line through holes in ballast. Then lowered the ballast pieces down into the bilge. Will make it a pain to clean the bilge in the future; will have to haul a couple of them back up. But that's most of that job done.
[I keep getting questions from readers, so here's a recap on what I've done with the ballast:
The ballast I've removed was put in originally to counterbalance a big diesel genset. I removed the genset a couple of years ago. The genset was at and above the waterline on the starboard side, and the ballast was on the port side right about at the waterline, just under the hallway sole. I'm not removing any of the 4500 pounds or so of ballast encapsulated inside the keel. I moved 150 lbs or so of the removed ballast down into the bottom of the bilge, so hope to have improved stability slightly.]
Chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-03-25 (Sunday)Dinghied over to CCB marina for dominoes at 1. Very nice game with Kathy and Sue and Earl and Cliff and Deb, and I ended up winning. Some nice conversation afterward. Exchanged 4 books at the bookshelf. Back to the boat by 5:15 or so.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a light rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-03-26 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Someone broadcast a warning about big jellyfish in the water.
Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar.
Tried to file my income taxes online, and it's the usual flim-flam. When I started, it said my federal return would be free, and I could file state return for my state (NJ). After entering all of my data, it says $20 for federal, and they can't do my NJ return. Sent a message to them; will have to wait for response. They responded and said they'd change the price for federal to zero; guess they were just trying to see if they could get away with charging $20. But turns out they don't support NJ state return at all, so I'll have to switch to a different site.
Skype-called Mom and chatted with her.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
Headache at night. And the boat was rolly all evening and night.
2012-03-27 (Tuesday)Headachey. Boat still rolly.
Cornbread-chicken-onion concoction and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-03-28 (Wednesday)Made a dominoes flag.
Wi-Fi still pretty flaky. I think I'm going to buy an antenna system based on the Ubiquiti Bullet. Someone here sells them for US$250. Could put together the parts myself for about 60% of that, but then I'd have to ship it here, and hope I got all of the parts right, and wait a month or two to get it. Simpler just to pay the money.
Tried to clean off the corrosion on the GPS connector, but made it worse.
Salad and leftover cornbread-chicken for dinner.
2012-03-29 (Thursday)Fairly bad headache. Felt miserable all day.
Salad and cottage cheese for dinner.
Felt terrible all night. Tried three different kinds of pills; no relief. And the boat is rolly, adding to the misery.
2012-03-30 (Friday)Still have bad headache.
Huge catamaran "Hemisphere" came in around 8:30. Pic (you can see a couple of people on deck, to get a sense of the scale of the boat).
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Headache came and went, back and forth. Had George take me to the Post Office (not at all in a convenient place) and mailed a wedding card to Indiana (EC$2); will see when it arrives. Got groceries, then a chocolate-banana smoothie. Headache still up and down. Back to the boat by noon. Napped for a while, with my head feeling slightly better.
Spaghetti for dinner.
Headache finally went away around 2 AM.
2012-03-31 (Saturday)Cruiser's net pretty disjointed this morning, since there was traffic about boat "Culebri" which got stuck on a reef while leaving the Hog Island anchorage just as the net started. Several dinghies went out and got the boat free.
Took out an AC bilge-pump that I've been meaning to get rid of (pic). Never primed properly, never worked well, and can't use it since I took out the genset. Pretty rusty, too.
Added water to the batteries.
Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar.
Bought EC$20 of gasoline. Interesting: gasoline prices here have gone up only slightly, while those in USA have gone up, what, 30% in last 6 months ? Of course, we've always been paying US$6/gallon or more here.
Skype-called Mom and chatted with her. Tried another income-tax site, but isn't clear that they do NJ returns, and I guess tech-support is off for the weekend. Emailed Rikky about the Wi-Fi system, but he takes only cash, and I don't have enough on hand.
Wanted to make chili for dinner, but the boat was rolling so badly that I had salad and a cheese sandwich instead.
2012-04-01 (Sunday)Catamaran "Hemisphere" left at 8:30.
Finished reading a very good book, "Periodic Tales" by Hugh Aldersey-Williams. About the periodic table and the elements, and how they were discovered and used in science and industry and art and culture. An interesting tidbit: Inert-gas welding is done with argon keeping oxygen away from the metal. When Airbus builds the airframe of a new jetliner, they fill the whole hangar with argon and have the welders wear breathing apparatus as they work !
Dinghied ashore at 11 for the "jumble sale" at the marina. Dropped off the AC bilge pump with a "free" tag on it. Chatted with Sue and Earl. Went for a walk over to Prickly Bay and back. Wandered through the sale again, then out to the boat.
Dinghied over to CCB marina for dominoes at 1. Played with Cliff and Deb from "Windmark I" and Sue and Earl from "My Bonnie". Very nice game, with lots of good conversation. I had some ugly hands and yakked so much that I made a couple of mistakes, and came in 3rd. Deb won, but didn't take the dominoes flag home with her, because all four of them are leaving this week ! Cliff and Deb will be storing the boat on the hard and flying back to Toronto for hurricane season, and Sue and Earl will be heading N to Carriacou and then W. So maybe no more dominoes for a while. I'll miss them.
Exchanged 4 books at the book-exchange. On the way back to my boat, a local boat roared past me too closely, making a huge wake and guys laughing and yelling, and I gave them the finger. On these Sunday afternoons, they roar in and out of the party at Roger's Beach Bar, perhaps a little tipsy, and drive their boats dangerously.
Chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-04-02 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. Took the laptop out on the foredeck ahead of time to get enough Wi-Fi to get the weather forecasts. Five boats leaving today and heading W to Bonaire and then eventually Panama.
Started to try doing my income tax on another web site, and it wants me to download and run an EXE file ! No.
Looked at applying some patches to my Hypalon dinghy. Glue kit is 5+ years old, and the "curative" has hardened and is useless. Instructions say that doesn't make the glue harden, it just adds UV and gasoline resistance. But they want me to let the glue dry for 2 days before using the dinghy. Awkward.
Calculated coverage needed to paint pilothouse inside and out, and paint hull-sides. Lots of approximation, but came up with total of 700 square feet.
Lots of wood-smoke all over the anchorage in the late afternoon and evening. Seemed to be more on the W side, but can't see where it's coming from.
Salad and a PB-sandwich for dinner.
2012-04-03 (Tuesday)Heard on morning net: that smoke yesterday came from a huge brush-fire, or set of brush-fires, on Hog Island, just E of here. The beach bar there didn't burn. Lots of rumors about how or why the fire started. Photo by Michael Drake (or Brian Steele ? not sure).
Stopped by "Silverheels 3" to give Ken the "Periodic Tales" book and see his Wi-Fi antenna setup.
Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar. Succeeded in filing my income taxes online. Will have to wait a couple of days to see if they got accepted, and if the payment went through.
Applied a patch to the dinghy tube.
Celery and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-04-04 (Wednesday)Did some Wi-Fi. Federal tax return was accepted by IRS.
Put some more glue on the dinghy-patch. Wiped dust off the solar panels.
Grey and raining starting at 1:40.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-04-05 (Thursday)Rain at 4:45 AM.
Did some Wi-Fi. State tax return accepted by state IRS.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Got off at the Sugar Mill roundabout and walked up over the hill to Grand Anse. Got veggies at a stand. Got cash at Scotiabank ATM; I'm hoping this is a cheaper way to get cash. Into a pharmacy to look for migraine pills, but they were unhelpful. Down to the Wall Street roundabout, into another pharmacy, and eventually got Imigran (sumatriptan) pills. Expensive: 2 pills for EC$69 (about US$26.50). Worth it if it lets me avoid several days of pain.
Exchanged 4 books at resort across from mall. Got groceries. Chatted for a while with cruisers, then into the van. Back to the boat by 12:15.
Gave myself a bit of a haircut.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-04-06 (Friday)A little more glue on dinghy-patch.
Replaced GPS cable with new one. A bit hard to thread it through the narrow holes, with an inaccessible air-space between them. Multimeter shows the inline fuse probably is bad (corroded holder), so took it out. GPS works and talks to VHF radio. Did a DSC position-check to Ken's radio; didn't realize it would chime and bother him. He has someone aboard and a couple of SSB radios opened up, so he's busy.
Checked the old GPS cable, and got it to work ! So maybe the problem was the (slight) corrosion in the fuse-holder all along. Well, now I have a spare.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-04-07 (Saturday)I'm about to buy a Wi-Fi setup here from Rikky, for EC$630 (US$250); not cheap, but it's based on the Ubiquiti Bullet M2-HP, and is supposed to be very good.
But I had a VHF call from "Astral Wind" this morning, saying they've had a change of plans, and need to sell some stuff. So they have a used Bullet Wi-Fi setup for sale.
Sure enough, I have email this morning from Rikky, saying he could meet me at 11 today to deliver the new system. Sent him email saying to hold off, I may do something different.
Dinghied over to "Astral Wind". Ruth has developed eye problems, so they're going to stop cruising and sell the boat ! That's sudden. But the Wi-Fi is confusing: they're not selling their Bullet right now, they're selling a 5MileWi-Fi system instead. I've heard of it, probably better than what I have now, but maybe not as good as a Bullet. But they say in some situations it has worked better than the Bullet for them. I thought they were asking EC$100, but turns out to be US$100 (EC$260). I bought it for EC$200 (US$77). They say originally it cost more than the Bullet system, but I don't know how long ago that was, it's used, certainly looks much simpler than a Bullet so I can't imagine it cost the US$500 they say, etc. I'll give it a try.
Back to the boat. Put the Wi-Fi antenna up in the rigging, above pilothouse level, and fired up the laptop. Got the new Wi-Fi setup working without too much problem, but it sees only 4 or 5 networks in here; my old adapter sees 10 to 15. Fiddled with it a bit, but no go. Shut it down, took it back to "Astral Wind", got my money back. They were happy to take it back; probably figure they sold it to me too cheaply.
And now I'm reconsidering buying a Bullet system. Maybe I'll just buy a coax and better antenna for the Rosewill adapter I have already.
Salad to start dinner, then dinghied ashore for a late walk. Up the hill and over to Prickly Bay, then around and up the steep hill, and back the long way to the marina. Good exercise.
Leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-04-08 (Sunday)Supposed to be some kind of "work-boat" exercises out of Woburn, starting at 10:30 or 11 this morning. So I made the long dinghy-ride over to CCBM, arriving around 11. Very low tide; the reefs are sandbanks. Lots of sails up at the Woburn town dock, but none of the boats are actually in the water yet (pic). Had a soda, exchanged 5 books at the book-exchange, and read a book while keeping an eye on the harbor. No other cruiser here. One work-boat sailed a little at 11:25. I left at noon, and another work-boat came out just in time to cut me off at the corner from CCB to Hog Island. I circled around to yield to him, and took a couple of pictures (pics). Back to my boat by 12:30.
Worked on moving the mizzen-sheeting to a different point; it's never been right.
Continued with phase 2 of the haircut I started a couple of days ago, and ended up giving myself a severely short haircut. Very comfortable.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-04-09 (Monday)Rain at 5 AM.
I was net controller again this morning. Nothing remarkable, except boat "Momo" is selling 280 KG (616 pounds) of lead ballast.
DSC distress call from boat "Aloa" at 2:25, man overboard about 1 mile NW of Pt Saline. About 4 miles from here. I learned something: when my VHF radio receives a DSC distress call, it keeps beeping a very loud alarm until I press a button on it; the alarm doesn't ever stop (as far as I can tell).
And I wish people would give their location by name before reading off a lot of GPS digits. Everyone was scrambling to figure out where this boat was, someone repeated the location but with a digit wrong, finally someone else came up and said "1 mile NW of Pt Saline". I wish the Coast Guard would do that too; USCG announcements often just give digits and leave you to figure out if the announcement was about something anywhere near you.
Turns out the "man overboard" was a missing diver on the Bianca C, and another dive boat picked him up.
Found a hook-fitting that will work on the mizzensheet, and put it on there.
Had toyed with the idea of going to the beach bar on Hog Island, but by 5 it was grey and raining.
Chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-04-10 (Tuesday)Started getting a headache at 4 AM or so.
By 5 AM, headache bad, with all of the usual symptoms: sinus pain, muscle aches all over head and neck. Took a couple of acetaminophen.
By 8 AM, headache still very bad. Took one of the Imigran pills. No instructions or warnings anywhere in the package. Looked it up a few days ago on Wikipedia and found possible bad effects, no useful info on how to take the pills and interactions with other medicine. Will have to do a wider search.
By 9 AM, headache may be starting to ease a bit. Had a PBJ sandwich for breakfast; don't feel like cooking my usual oatmeal. Staying in bed.
By 10:15, headache quite a bit better !
By 10:45, headache mostly gone, a little pain and some tiredness and achiness and slight muscle tension left.
By noon, still feeling tired and a little achey.
Did some Wi-Fi. Looked up Imigran dosage and interactions; no problems.
Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner.
2012-04-11 (Wednesday)Lots of rain at 3:45 AM, 7:15, 7:45.
Still not feeling quite 100%; slight vestiges of headache. But I haven't taken any more pills since taking the Imigran.
Raining every half hour or so all morning.
Took a couple of acetaminophen at 10.
Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar.
My state income tax return payment went through.
Lots of rain starting at noon. Again at 1:20.
Looks like I can buy those migraine pills (generic sumatriptan) for US$1/pill at an online pharmacy, no prescription required. Instead of US$13/pill here.
Back to the boat by 4. Feeling a little headachey. Took ibuprofen at 5, acetaminophen at 7.
Leftover cold chili and a PB-sandwich for dinner.
2012-04-12 (Thursday)Headache gone; feeling good.
Started a job I've been contemplating for a while: removing the headliner in the V-berth and throwing it away. I know there are deck-leaks under (above) it, and I need to get at some wiring up there. The trim and headliner just gets in the way every time I need to get at anything up there. I'll remove it and (eventually) paint the underside of the fiberglass deck. Shouldn't look too bad.
Took out screws and took down the two big headliner panels without too much problem. Pics. But the panels are too big to get out through any of the hatches; they must have been inside the boat already when they set the deck on top of the hull and fastened them together ! So I'll have to saw them in half to get them out of the boat.
Started taking down the strips of plywood that were used to fasten the headliner up; the plywood is held on with screws driven up into the underside of the deck. Got the middle one down.
Took a break to go ashore and buy veggies from Rosie and Cecil. Got tomatoes and a cucumber, and she threw in a few small bananas for free. No other cruisers came ashore; I wouldn't have minded a chat with someone. Back to the boat.
Taking out two more plywood strips, I took out a screw in the port-forward corner of the V-berth, and got a stream of hot water for several seconds, then drips and oozing. So the deck coring there was full of water. It's probably not the only place. I'm not about to start sawing the deck open to fix it, unless some place gets really spongy when walked on.
Went ashore at 4:30 and took a nice walk.
Chicken-onion-carrot-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-04-13 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Sat in the van and chatted as we went to ACE Hardware and Budget Marine; I don't need anything. Got some interesting conversations going about healthcare and current events and such. Exchanged 3 books at the book-exchange.
Chatted a little with Dave the conspiracy-theory guy; I enjoy yanking his chain a bit. According to him, one big conglomerate/monopoly runs the whole world, the BBC is run by the British SIS, etc.
To the mall. The pharmacy there had the same reaction as the first pharmacy I went to last week, when I asked if they had anything for migraines, any Imigran or Relpax: "oh, no, we don't carry anything like that !". As if I'd asked for gold bars or something. I thought migraines were a very common illness. Fortunately, the second pharmacy I went to last week had the stuff, no problem. Later, Ken said this pharmacy does have the stuff, you just have to hand them an old package that proves they do have it, and then they'll dig it up. Maybe I'll try that next week.
Got groceries, then a peanut-banana smoothie, then watched cricket on the screen for a while. Into the van, a couple of stops, then back to the boat.
Very hard to get any Wi-Fi today.
With some effort, managed to break the big headliner panels from the V-berth in half, and get them out through the companionway hatch. Took another panel out of the V-berth, and a couple of pieces of plywood mounting down from under the deck. No streams of water today.
Dinghied ashore at 5 and into a van to go to Friday jazz and poetry at the national museum downtown. Over to CCBM and then De Big Fish to pick up more cruisers. A full bus: me, Ian, Steve and Donna from "Summer Love", Cliff and Deb from "Watermark I", Charles and Ruth from "Astral Wind", Keith and Heather from "Shadowfax", a couple more.
The event is upstairs from the national museum, a nice location with an outdoor terrace, some artsy things sprinkled around, a table selling glasses of wine, a small outdoor cafe. The room with the band was too crowded and hot for me, so I lurked in the terrace area most of the time, and could hear fine from there. Wandered out into the street a couple of times, when they did poetry or some of the solo singing. Never did like poetry. But the jazz / jam session was pretty good. Drummer, bass and lead guitar, sax and clarinet, one more guy.
The event was over by 8:30 or so, and we walked down and through the tunnel and along the waterfront to a restaurant. Lots of people on the streets; I don't spend much time ashore at night. Upstairs and into a cafeteria-style place, then out onto the back deck to eat. Food cheap and decent. Nice conversation with Steve and Donna.
Interesting how different people live on boats. "Summer Love" is an Amel, maybe 45-50 feet long, and very electricity-intensive. They run a 7 KW generator every day, and were complaining that someone broke their dishwasher recently and the part is very hard to get, from Germany.
Back to the boat by 10. Very dark evening, heading out in the dinghy and then hoisting and stowing everything. But I had my flashlight.
2012-04-14 (Saturday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Got only a tiny flash of Wi-Fi today.
Got the rest of the headliner and plywood backing out of the V-berth. Had to do a little sawing. Found an old mud-wasp nest.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-carrot-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-04-15 (Sunday)Did a couple more items of laundry.
Got some Wi-Fi. Letter I mailed from here 3/30 arrived in Indiana on 4/13, exactly two weeks in transit.
Once more into the V-berth. Actually, into the chain locker, to get at stowage mountings for second anchor, which are forward of the place where water poured out of a screw-hole in the underside of the deck.
Took off the chain locker doors (pic) and will throw them away: they've always been in the way, the hinges are completely rusted again, the doors are Formica over particle board and swelling a bit from water. Some nice wood molding on the edges; I'll have to pry that off and save it. I'm going to make a simple one-piece wood hatch that just slides down into place, with no metal hardware, to cover the opening: pic.
Tore out and threw away a plastic curtain I installed a while ago to catch mud splashes and water in the chain locker; it's filthy and always gets in the way. Got at the nuts for the anchor hardware, reaching through the opening into the dark and dirty chain locker, fumbling to feel the nuts and get a wrench onto them. Most of the bolts were okay, the nuts a bit rusty, but one bolt was completely perished and twisted apart as soon as I put a wrench on it. One nut seized and the bolt spun, so I had to move from locker to foredeck and back half a dozen times to get it out; would have been nice to have a second person aboard. Got everything out. A couple of the holes were drilled with the coring left unsealed; I'll have to see if I can epoxy those edges. Not much caulk used in the holes, either.
But I'm not sure if the water from the coring came from any of these seven holes I've just opened up. There's more hardware mounted further forward in the chain locker, even harder to get to.
Further investigation shows that all seven holes have exposed coring, but also shows that I have no epoxy left; the dregs I had probably evaporated. And doing the holes properly is a chore: have to tape the bottom holes, pour epoxy in from above, let it cure, then re-drill the holes. I think I'll skip it.
"Sunshine II" came in around 2:30 and anchored next to me: pic. I think it's another Gulfstar 44.
Found a bolt to replace the one that wasted away. Put everything back in, with caulk.
Tried to take the wood moldings off those locker doors, but the particle board is partly crumbs and partly glue-hard, and the moldings keep cracking. Gave up.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-04-16 (Monday)Headache. But an acetaminophen pill, ibuprofen pill and shot of tea (for caffeine) seemed to work pretty well on it. Heard about that combination on the radio the other night.
I was net controller again this morning. Lasted about 30 minutes, and afterward I relayed for a couple of boats who couldn't talk to each other directly.
Did a little Wi-Fi.
Cut a hatch for the chain locker out of the old headboard stuff (used jig-saw, but it popped the fuse in the inverter, so finished with handsaw). Put a coat of paint on one side of it. May not have enough paint; it's been solidifying in the can for a while.
Dinghied ashore, stopping by "Sunshine II" to say hello. Ended up staying almost 2 hours, talking to Babs and Tim (I think; maybe Tom ?). Their boat is a 1973 Gulfstar 44 motor-sailer like mine, but quite different in many ways. Has a staysail, and slightly different main shrouds to deal with that. Different layout below: V-berth removed and replaced with storage lockers, no forward head, galley sink moved to separate counter on port side, built-in tables/counter on port side instead of the settee/berth I have. Engine room the same, but their engine was replaced a while ago with a newer Ford 120 or 140 HP, sawing through the cockpit sole in order to lift engine out and in. They're still running an Onan diesel genset, like the one I tore out. They have a household AC water-heater and a household AC refrigerator/freezer, and a watermaker. Queen bed and a closet in aft cabin instead of my twin berths. Non-working AC freezer; I have the remains of one of those, too. A bowsprit, although they think it wasn't original. Roller-furling, added later as it was on my boat, I think. Their hull-sides have been painted; mine still are gelcoat. They've had the boat less than a year, bought it here in Grenada. They're about to put it on the hard for hurricane season, then want to come back and cruise up to Antigua or so.
Dinghied ashore to do Wi-Fi in the marina bar. Skype-called Mom and chatted with her. Did a lot of other online things that have piled up. Checking out flights back to NJ in the summer. Toyed briefly with the idea of flying to Cartagena for a vacation, but flights from here and Trinidad are not cheap.
Coming back to the boat, saw three cattle go past the little beach behind my boat. Very strange: it's at the end of a long and overgrown path through the mangroves, of no particular use to anyone. Why did they do out there ?
Salad and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-04-17 (Tuesday)Put a coat of paint on the other side of that wood I cut to make a hatch.
A little before 8, filled the dinghy with a ton of garbage and all of the headliner wood, and did the long ride over to Woburn town dock. Got rid of it all there, although a lady said I wasn't supposed to put wood on the pile, just household garbage. Across to Clarke's Court Bay Marina, and exchanged 4 or 5 books at the book-exchange. To Whisper Cove Marina to check out the meat store, but their prices are too high for me. Back to the boat by 9:20 or so.
Ashore at 4:30 to take a nice walk for some exercise.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-04-18 (Wednesday)Surprise: email from a reader who said my old web site was back up ! The hosting service who kicked me off abruptly in January must have enabled it again, without informing me. Idiots. No wonder I had a few readers emailing me to ask why I hadn't updated my log file in 4 months. The service kicked me off and wouldn't give me a chance to put any forwarding pages in place. Did that now.
Put another coat of paint on that wood for the hatch.
Grey weather all afternoon. "Sunshine II" and a big sloop left sometime during the afternoon.
Added water to the batteries. They took a fair amount. I've been charging them straight from the solar panels, bypassing the solar controller. I'm starting to think I haven't been charging my batteries hard enough in the past.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-04-19 (Thursday)Totally grey day. Rain from 8 to 9:45. First good rain since I took the headliner out of the V-berth. Investigating now, it looks like the leak is either from the bedding of the anchor windlass, or just coming right through the chain hawsehole (which I have plugged with a plastic bag).
On the net, "Bay Pelican" is giving away a propane stove/oven, which I could use. But a couple other people jumped for it right away. They didn't ask the size; maybe I'll call the winner ("Main Bris") tomorrow and see if it's available again. I cook on a propane camp-stove in the cockpit; the stove/oven in my galley is AC-powered, and I don't do AC.
Rain from noon to 1:30 or so, and sprinkles afterward. Started to get slightly less grey. V-berth still has leak, even after I adjusted the plastic bag over the hawsehole. So I think the anchor windlass needs to be rebedded.
At 3:15, a catamaran came in. I think it's fiberglass with an extremely dirty hull: pic. Could be aluminum. [A few days later, Ken told me it is aluminum, just was never buffed to make the usual "swirly pattern".]
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, still night; didn't sleep well.
2012-04-20 (Friday)Headache at 4 AM; took pills.
Hot, fairly still morning. We've been getting some of this summer-type weather this week.
Headachey.
Boats from last season are starting to re-appear. Jim and Anne on "Impressionist". Miss Kitty on "Falcon". And more and more boats are hauling out to be stored on the hard for the hurricane season.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Got out at first roundabout and started walking. Into CK's to look for chili spices, but no luck. Into Marketing Board for same, no luck, got tomatoes and bananas. Down to Scotiabank to use ATM; I have to pay up my cruising permit and renew visa about 10 days from now, and that will take a bunch of cash. Into the Foodfair, found some chili spices, and they have shaving cream at a good price (I've been looking for a couple of weeks). To the Coyaba resort, and exchanged 4 books at their book-exchange. Into the hardware store to look at paint for the interior of my boat. Into IGA to get groceries. Pouring rain as I came out, but that's good timing: walked indoors to the food-court and got a chocolate-banana smoothie, and chatted with Julia and others as we relaxed. Back to the boat by noon. I think we had some rain here while we were gone.
At 1:45, getting very grey, and strong wind coming up from S. Some rain starting at 2:30.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
2012-04-21 (Saturday)Grey, humid, still morning.
Small trimaran came in around 9: pic.
Painted that wood hatch some more.
An hour after it came in, that trimaran still is trying various anchoring spots. Lots of toys and clutter on that boat: pic.
Cleared reel, rope, platform, supports out of the anchor chain locker (pic), so I can get at the anchor windlass when we get a sunny day. Had thought of replacing the plastic rope-reel in there with a sturdier wood reel (pic) that came with the rigging wire, but the wood reel has a cardboard cylinder, and the cylinder is so wide that probably all of the rope won't fit on it.
A little headachey; took pills. Starting to get some sunshine around 11:30. Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar. Stayed all afternoon. Chatted a little afterwards with Lynn and Ken.
Salad and leftover cold chili for dinner.
Headache.
2012-04-22 (Sunday)Headachey.
Took the anchor windlass off the foredeck, by unfastening from inside chain locker: pic. One of the nuts was totally rusted and didn't want to come off. And the cored deck is a bit compressed, but I don't see a way to fix that. Cleaned up the deck opening and bolt-holes, and taped over it in case we get rain.
Ashore at 1:30 to play dominoes. A fun game, although I was a bit headachey despite pills. Played with Kitty from "Falcon", Anne from "Impressionist", Ronnie, Carolyn from "Moondance", Donna from "Summer Love". (Apparently some people didn't show up because of boat-troubles: Jim on "Impressionist" is working on an alternator that's putting out no juice, and "Quicksilver" has some kind of engine problem.) Carolyn won, and got to carry away the dominoes flag I'd made. Chatted a bit afterward. Back to the boat after 5.
Headache getting worse. Celery and sandwiches for dinner, and to bed.
By 8 or so, headache was very bad, a vise around my forehead. Took an Imigran, and 2 hours later the headache was gone completely. Guess I'll have to buy a couple more of those, at US$13 a pill.
2012-04-23 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Chipped a whole lot of corrosion off the bottom of the anchor windlass. And chipped a lot of rust off both ends of the lever for it; that's thing's corroded into about 2/3 of the original length. It's been years since I used the windlass, and it's frozen solid; won't work. Started taking it apart, and got to the usual point: I can get the chain gipsy off, but the rope gipsy is frozen on; I've never been able to get it off. Now I tried pounding a big screwdriver down between the gipsy and the windlass body, and this is what happened: pic. Discouraged and headachey, guess I'll give up for now and see if I can find instructions on how to disassemble this thing. I have a diagram on my laptop, but it doesn't give steps to take things apart. I may have to destroy that rope gipsy, which I never used anyway, to get it apart.
Tested the orbital sander, to see if the inverter is strong enough to run it. Seems to work okay.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
During the night, thought about making my own anchor windlass.
2012-04-24 (Tuesday)Ken and Lynn called me; they'd like 100 pounds or so of my extra ballast, to make dive-weights. They offered to buy it from me, but I'll give it to them for free.
Put together a sketch of the anchor windlass I'd like to build: DIY Anchor Windlass.
Change of plans a couple of times, and then Saul from Scubatech and Lynn came by in a skiff at 9:15. Gave them two ballast pigs free for Scubatech, one free for Saul, then he said he'd buy as many more as I had, to make fishing-net weights. So I sold him the last two for EC$100 each. Later, I called Ken and told him to donate the EC$200 to the JT hospital fund.
Online, saw some comments that my anchor windlass (Simpson-Lawrence Hyspeed 510) is built with bicycle-type parts inside, it's old, and spare parts for it are ridiculously expensive. And apparently it's undersized for my boat.
Worked on the windlass, can see where a pin is going through a clutch plate on the chain-gipsy end of the shaft, but of course the pin is frozen in there solidly. And the shaft is frozen in a position that makes it very hard to drive the pin out. Downloaded a couple of PDFs and web pages about the windlass, but none of them is much help. I'm probably going to have to destroy the rope-gipsy to get this apart.
In late afternoon, up the mizzen-mast to work on the RADAR dome. Hot afternoon, and boat rocking a bit, so it was fiddly work. Got the plastic cover off the top of the dome, and climbed back down, holding it awkwardly in one hand. It's big and unwieldy and has almost no purchases on it.
Turned on the RADAR, went up on deck, and looked to see if the antenna inside the RADAR dome is rotating. No, it's not. Maybe the motor is dead; that might be a relatively easy fix.
Turned off the RADAR, and climbed the mast again. This time, unfastened the entire dome. Had to leave a non-weatherproof electrical connector exposed on the end of the cable; if it rains a few times, that will be ruined. Came back down, carrying the dome in one hand, and that was tricky. It weighs only 10-15 pounds or so, but the delicate internals are exposed, there's no easy way to get a good grip on it, and I need to steady myself with one hand while manipulating the ascenders with the other hand. Bruised my wrist pretty badly using it to steady myself against the rigging and mast, had to stop a few times to rest the hand gripping the dome, and swore a bit. Got down to deck without damaging the dome. Pic.
Turned on the RADAR again, and got same error message as there was when the dome was up on the mast and connected. So the dome was appearing totally dead/disconnected to the control unit.
Salad and leftover cold chili for dinner.
Went out on deck at 10 and saw the Southern Cross, following directions someone posted on Facebook: pic. Saw the pointer stars and the cross, but not the "false cross".
2012-04-25 (Wednesday)Leaned over to pick something up, and muscles in my lower back went ping ! Not a good start to the day. Boat rocking so much that it keeps irritating the hurt back muscles.
Cut and sanded and painted some wood for the chain-locker hatch.
Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar, and to get off the boat for a while. Told George the ballast is gone, so if that guy from Carriacou ever shows up again, he's out of luck. Ordered some migraine pills, for delivery to NJ. Couldn't find disassembly instructions for the RADAR scanner. Someone is trying to sell an identical non-working scanner for parts on eBay for $550 ! Looked at parts for the hydraulic windlass project.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietsoda for dinner.
2012-04-26 (Thursday)Put more paint on the wood for the chain-locker hatch.
Looked at the guts of the RADAR scanner, but decided to try a couple other tacks before taking it apart and probably ruining it.
Started cutting through the rope-gipsy on the windlass, using the Dremel, but there's a lot of metal to get through. Later, switched to a hacksaw. Made some good progress, but the bulk of the metal is in an awkward place close to the body of the windlass. Will try using the electric drill on it tomorrow.
Called Enza Marine on VHF all day to ask about RADAR, but they haven't answered.
Starting to get some good wind; there hasn't been enough wind to spin the wind-generator for a couple of weeks now.
Salad and a cheese sandwich and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-04-27 (Friday)Rain at 7:50.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. To ACE Hardware, bought some paintbrushes. Cheaper to buy interior/exterior paint here than have it shipped in. But how do they get "acrylic latex enamel" ? I thought something was either "acrylic latex" or "enamel".
Exchanged 4 books at De Big Fish. To IGA, and neither pharmacy has any migraine medicine in stock. Got groceries. No chocolate, so no smoothie today. Turns out I missed the early van, so had to wait a while. Stopped at Excel and CK's on the way back, so I went into another pharmacy. No luck there, they called other branches and no luck, then they said there's some other migraine medicine, much cheaper, they'll have it Monday from another branch.
Got back to the marina. Chat with someone about building a new pilothouse, turned to go onto the dinghy dock, and a bag slipped out of my grip onto the concrete. Of course, it wasn't the bag with the bread, or the oatmeal, or the cheese etc. It contained a big jar of olives, which smashed. EC$14 (US$5) wasted. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Back to the boat by 12:45, tired.
And 15 minutes later, George is on the radio saying someone (me) left a package of paper towels on the bus. He'll be back in the marina in a few hours. I guess I was really not firing on all cylinders on today's trip.
In midafternoon, drilled and drilled away on the rope gipsy on the windlass, carving away lots of metal. Tried the hacksaw too, and pride off a section of metal with screwdriver and seldgehammer. But couldn't get through the last couple of strips of metal, and even when I do, I might have to cut through from the other side too.
Finally got through to Enza Marine, but they can't do anything for my RADAR. Chatted with Jim and Ken about it, too.
Ashore at 5 or so to look for the paper towels George was supposed to leave for me, but couldn't find them.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Around 7:15, George came out in his skiff and delivered the paper towels to me. Very nice of him.
2012-04-28 (Saturday)Got a callback from another boat with the same RADAR I have, Furuno 1621. But they don't have the RADAR working right now. So not much help at the moment.
More drilling and pounding and prying, and finally got the rope gipsy off the anchor windlass: pic. The shaft-key turned out to be wood or wood-filler or something, but that wasn't what was holding it on. Just massive metal-galling.
Fiddled with the RADAR dome and the multimeter, but didn't make much progress.
Later, worked some more on the anchor windlass. All of the screws holding the access plate on are frozen, and their heads have narrow, shallow slots. This windlass is starting to look like a total write-off.
Huge catamaran "Hemisphere" came in at 5. Later, heard they're soon heading off to Croatia for the hurricane season.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-04-29 (Sunday)Rain off and on from about 2 AM to 5 AM. No leaks in the V-berth, so the water must have been coming in under the windlass, or down the hawsehole.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar, and for dominoes later.
Played a nice game of dominoes with Donna and Anne and Carolyn and Jim. Anne and I fought for the lead all the way, and she beat me in the last two hands. So she gets the dominoes pennant this week. Chatted a bit with Carolyn and Donna afterward.
Celery and leftover cold chili and a light rum-and-dietsoda for dinner.
2012-04-30 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Right after the net, went ashore and walked over to Prickly Bay Marina, to the Customs/Immigration office. Had to wait half an hour, chatting with guy from "Neshuma", until the officers showed up at 8:45. Paid EC$525 (US$200) for 7 months of cruising permit. Walked back to Secret Harbor Marina.
Caught the 9:30 shopping bus, which is going today because tomorrow is a holiday. I don't really need to shop today, but I'm using it to get into town; have to go to the main Immigration office to extend my visa. Got off at Sugar Mill roundabout. Walked up to the pharmacy, which had said they'd have my migraine pills today. But of course the pharmacist I spoke to on Friday won't be in until this afternoon, the pills aren't here, can I come back later (not easy), do I have a phone number (no).
Bought bananas at the Marketing Board store next door, and walked back to the bus stop and caught a bus to the Government Center. Arrived there a little after 10, filled out the Immigration form and submitted it, and started waiting. Several other cruisers, and various other people waiting.
And we waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually they started calling us in for short interviews. Chatted with one cruiser, who said he painted his hull-sides with oil-based exterior enamel paint from ACE Hardware, instead of marine polyurethane paint, and it worked fine; maybe I should do that.
Eventually I got called in, and a very slow lady asked me a few useless questions and slowly filled out a form while talking on the phone with someone about lunch. Down to the Treasurer's office, paid EC$50 (about US$20) for 2 months stay, back up to the Immigration office. Another 5 minutes of delay as someone was ahead of me, and then an officer took my documents and disappeared for another 10 minutes, as I was watching the clock and hoping I'd be able to catch the noon bus back to the marina. If I miss it, I'll have to walk a couple of miles in sandals that are giving me blisters, and it's hot today.
Finally out of the office at 11:50 or so; what should have taken 15 minutes has taken an hour and 45 minutes. Last time I did this, it took half the time and there was no interview. Down to the waterfront, caught a bus right away, to Wall Street roundabout. I can see the bus to the marina leaving from the mall, and I flag it down near the roundabout and get on. They had waited an extra 5 or 10 minutes looking for me, and that saved me. Back to the boat by 12:25, tired and hungry and wrung out.
Huge catamaran "Hemisphere" left in midafternoon.
Celery and then a cornbread-sausage-cheese-onion concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-01 (Tuesday)Very entertaining new net controller this morning, Ann of "Freya of Clyde", cheerful with a nice Irish or Scottish voice. Fun.
At 10, huge storm blew up from the SSW. No hint of this in the weather forecast yesterday or this morning. My anchor to the S might be dragging a bit, but no problem, since there's a lot of room to the N of me.
More rain a little after 1.
Got the five bolts out of the anchor windlass, using the Dremel to deepen and widen several of the slots, then the impact driver to get the bolts moving. But still can't figure out how to get the pin out of the clutch-disk. It's probably been in there for 30 years, and there's no good angle to get at either end of it. Tried pounding at it, prying, drilling; no good. May have to destroy the clutch disk; I guess this windlass is looking like a total loss anyway.
Salad and leftover cold cornbread concoction for dinner.
More rain starting at 5:40.
More rain starting at 2 AM.
2012-05-02 (Wednesday)At 9 or so, went over to "Summer Love" to exchange some books with them, and ended up staying until 11:30, having a nice conversation with Steve and Donna and seeing the boat. It's a 2000 Amel Super Maramu, gorgeous and loaded with appliances and woodwork and stuff. Nice chat about boating, politics, world events, etc. A few rainsprinkles at times, and then left 5 minutes later than I should have, and got pretty wet on the short trip back to my boat. Pretty good rain starting at 11:30.
Dinghied ashore at 12:30 to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar. Bought plane tickets to go to NJ in June/July. Not bad: $660 roundtrip to Philly, one stop in Miami. Ordered some stuff (sandals, etc) to be delivered to NJ. Skype-called Mom.
As I got back to the boat, Richard from "Odyssey" next door came over to say hi and offer me a fish that had jumped into his dinghy. He bought his boat here in October, and is working on taking up a teak deck.
Salad and cheese sandwich and PBJ sandwich for dinner.
2012-05-03 (Thursday)Have been reading a couple of delightful cruising books that "Summer Love" lent to me: "On The Nose" by Bob Cooper and "Bang On The Nose" by Bob Cooper. Small, humorous books written by a cruiser who was here in Grenada a year ago, about cruising in the Mediterranean. Very entertaining.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Light rain starting at 8. Very grey; I guess doing laundry was not a good idea.
At 9:40, big storm blowing up from the SW. Some very heavy rain for a while. Finally stopped raining around 10:30.
Light rain starting again at 11:05. Then at noon, another big storm blowing up, from the S. I guess the laundry on my lifelines isn't going to dry today. The storm didn't last long, but light rain kept going until 1:15 or so.
Clouds thinner starting around 3, letting enough glow of sunshine through to dry the laundry.
Chicken-onion-carrot-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-04 (Friday)Today is my 11-year anniversary of taking possession of "Magnolia" and starting to live aboard.
Weather forecast has light winds (so hot and humid weather) and lots of rain for the next week or so. Also biggest full moon of the year, starting tomorrow.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Off at the first roundabout, and walked to the pharmacy. The medicine was there; turns out to be Tonopan, 16 pills for EC$6.70 (US$2.60). No box, no indication of dosage per pill, just blister-packs. I'll look it up online to see what the heck I just bought.
To the Market Board store for veggies. Then to the resort to exchange 4 books. To the hardware store. Then got groceries. A chocolate-banana smoothie. Chatted with Donna and Jim and Anne. Into the bus, stopped at CK's, back to the boat by noon. Forgot to buy a loaf of bread.
Kept chasing birds off my rigging; they're dropping seeds and stuff on deck.
Headachey. Celery and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner. Pills got rid of the headache eventually.
2012-05-05 (Saturday)Very grey and humid and still weather.
Thought up a much simpler replacement for the anchor windlass: DIY Anchor Lever.
At 10:45, suddenly the grey moved away and it became a nice, sunny day.
Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar. Looked up those Tonopan pills I bought, and information is sketchy. But they are for migraines.
Headache. Celery and yogurt and banana-PB for dinner, and to bed. Normal pills didn't help, so I took a Tonopan, and that worked well !
2012-05-06 (Sunday)Rain at 7:30. Again at 7:50. Raining heavily from S by 8:05, for about 20 minutes.
Weather turned nicer. At 11, dinghied ashore for the "Jumble Sale". Not very interesting. Went for a walk and got some good exercise. Back to the boat by 11:45.
Back ashore at 1, to do some internet and dominoes. Played dominoes with Donna, Anne and Jim; Donna won. I was headachey by the end.
Chili for dinner. Took headache pills, and they sort of worked, but I was reluctant to take Tonopan two days in a row, so I didn't. Headache mostly gone by 10 PM or so.
2012-05-07 (Monday)Rain at 7 but sunny by 8.
I was net controller again this morning. A long net, about 35 minutes, and I ran out of note-paper halfway through and had to write on the backs of things.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Cut and chiseled the clutch-disc off the anchor windlass: pic. The disc is some kind of phenol-and-fiber construction, smelling like a old circuit board when I cut into it with the Dremel. After I got it off, I can see that the pin in it wasn't holding it on. There's a setscrew dimple in the shaft, but in a different place, with nothing pressing into it. The disc was being held on by friction and age.
And the shaft and faceplate still won't budge. Going to need dynamite to get this sucker apart.
Salad and tuna-salad and an apple for dinner.
2012-05-08 (Tuesday)Getting some small inert black insect-eggs falling out of the woodwork in the aft cabin. I think they've been in there for years; this happens from time to time. Guess I'll be ripping out the headliner back here, too.
Hot, still morning.
Still can't get any more parts off the anchor windlass.
Ashore at noon, to do some internet. Met Donna, who told me she sent me email to give me the remaining 2 weeks of their paid Wi-Fi access from the boat; very nice. They're moving the boat to another bay today and then house-sitting for a month up on the E coast of Grenada.
Suddenly thought of an even-cheaper anchor windlass solution: a boat-trailer winch and a couple of chain-hooks ! This has potential; could cost less than $100.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-09 (Wednesday)Rain from 5:30 to 6:30.
Hmm, the "Cruiser's Wi-Fi" subscription I got from "Summer Love" isn't working for me. Strong signal, and I can connect and log on, but after 10 seconds or so, it disconnects and starts connecting again. If I time it right, I can get a page loaded while it's connected, but not often. [On Friday, I saw Donna and she said it does that a lot, and often doesn't work at all on Sundays. And people are paying US$40/month for this ?] Other Wi-Fi signals in the anchorage work okay, until the boat swings.
Chipped some petrified phenol-type washers off the anchor windlass, but still no joy.
Cornbread-sausage-cheese-onion concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-10 (Thursday)Rain from 5:15 to 5:40.
Fiddled with the anchor windlass some more. I've been pretty lazy the last few days.
Fairly heavy rain at 2:45, a pause long eenough for me to empty the bucket into the tank, then more rain from 3:05 to about 4. Lighter rain later. Tony on "Cariad" arrived from Carriacou around 4, looking wet.
Apple and salad and PBJ for dinner.
Strong storm starting at 1:30 AM, with plenty of rain. But my wind-generator isn't spinning; must be something wrong with it. Rain frequently for the rest of the night. A deck leak on the port side of the anchor chain locker, running back to drip into the V-berth.
2012-05-11 (Friday)Grey, drenched morning. Aft/bigger water tank seems to be full; I think I've added 35-40 gallons to it in the last 24 hours. Two large black steel sailboats very close to each other because one has dragged, but one doesn't answer the VHF (later found out: there's no one aboard) and the other has no name. Richard on "Odyssey" lost his dinghy last night, but I saw George helping him retrieve it.
Opened up the wind-generator control box, but nothing wrong inside. Took off one wire to see if maybe the switch had shorted out, but still doesn't spin.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Got off at the first roundabout, and started walking. To three hardware stores, looking for paint and chain hooks and boat-trailer winches and epoxy. Bought a paint roller and some penetrating oil at ACE. Trailer-winch about US$65 (I think) at ACE. Couldn't find the mattress factory that Ken told us about. Got fruit at the Marketing Board. Exchanged 3 or 4 books at the resort. Got groceries at IGA. No chocolate at the smoothie shop, so no smoothie today. Loaded onto the bus, stopped at CK's, and back to the boat around noon.
Air so grey and humid this afternoon that you can cut it with a knife.
Finally got the faceplate off the anchor windlass: pic. Had to bang screwdrivers down behind it to pry it off. Was held on by being pressed onto the shaft, with a primitive bearing surface.
Climbed the mizzenmast and poked at the KISS wind-generator. Rotates a bit stiffly on its mount, and the blades were a bit stuck with friction, but I think it's okay. Don't think there's any way to lubricate this thing. Didn't spin by itself later, but maybe there's not quite enough wind. [A couple of days later, Ken said shorted wires / magnetic brake wouldn't affect the spinning resistance at the tiny RPM of my hand-spinning. So I'm feeling bearing friction.]
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-12 (Saturday)I expected to find a jammed or broken chain inside the anchor windlass, but it looks like the main shaft has galled solidly in place, freezing it. [A day later, Ken said it's probably a case of "use it or lose it"; by not using the windlass very much, I gave it the opporunity to seize up. I think he's right.]
Ashore at noon, to do some internet. Skype-called Mom and chatted with her. Tried to look up the KISS wind-generator problem, but it appears there's nothing to lubricate; probably need to replace the bearings. It's only 2-1/4 years old; too early to have to do that.
Around 4, a group of workers driving a pretty big excavator down the marina driveway and parking it near the docks. Must be planning to lift a boat up or out tomorrow; there's some kind of houseboat at the seawall in the marina. [Found out later, they're digging and installing a new septic system.]
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-13 (Sunday)Opened up the wind-generator's wiring-box on the mizzenmast, hoping to find a problem, but all is okay.
The Cruiser's Wi-Fi is working for me today ! [But within 45 minutes, it was mostly not working again.]
Some pretty strong gusts of wind this morning, and the wind-generator isn't budging at all.
Tried to get up a card game in the marina this afternoon, but no takers.
Listening to a podcast, found out that author Hugh Laurie who wrote a funny book I really like, "The Gun Seller", is the guy who plays "House" on the TV show.
Applied some current to the RADAR dome, but got no reaction (no motor spinning). The wiring diagrams are useless, just showing connectors and with half of the pins unlabeled.
Found the manual for the VHF radio; I had stashed it back into the box the radio came in. Been looking for it for a couple of weeks now.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-14 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Pretty good rain starting at 9:15.
In the afternoon, took out the headliner and some backing wood in the port lower side of the aft cabin, over my berth and nearby. Turns out those little black "eggs" are termite droppings ! Killed 4 or 5 live termites, too. Lots of droppings, but not that much actual damage to the wood. But I'm throwing it all away, anyway. Now I can get access to stanchions and other hardware mounted back there, and get at an occasional deck leak.
Sweaty, dirty, hot job, with wood dust and droppings everywhere. Showered afterward, but hard to get all of the droppings off. See, this is one of those jobs you never hear about in the cruising magazines and such, for some reason.
Celery and salad and cheese sandwich and a rum-and-dietsoda for dinner.
Lot of garbage in the cockpit now, and I had planned to do a garbage run to Woburn tomorrow, but suddenly I realize I probably don't have enough gasoline to do that.
2012-05-15 (Tuesday)In the afternoon, shifted everything out of the starboard side of the aft cabin, and took down the headliner there. No insects or droppings, a little water damage on the edge at the midline of the boat, but I'm still getting rid of this stuff. Taking all of the stowed stuff out was very useful, too. Several items to go straight into the garbage, several items to give away in the next boat jumble sale, and some things I'd forgotten I had, or misplaced. A reel of electrical wire I'd been looking for 6 months ago; good thing I didn't buy more. Towels and pillowcases I didn't remember, so now I can take those off the list of things to buy when I'm back in the USA. A fan I didn't remember.
Not as dirty a job as yesterday's operation, but still hot and sweaty and dusty. Cockpit about half-full of garbage now; pretty impressive pile.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Developed a headache during the night. Took pills around 2 AM, and they moderated it, but didn't get rid of it.
2012-05-16 (Wednesday)Tired and headachey. Took a Tonopan at 7 AM; headache gone by 8 or so.
A couple of shots of rain at noon, then hot.
Ashore at 1, to do some internet and spend some time off the boat. Should get some exercise, but it's hot and I'm a little tired. Got EC$20 of gasoline.
Huge rainstorm from the SSW around 1:30. Left the main hatch open (inside the pilothouse); hope too much rain isn't billowing and splattering into the main cabin.
Back to the boat after 5. No problems from the rain.
Salad for dinner.
2012-05-17 (Thursday)Brief heavy rain starting at 7:15. Took the flashlight and went looking for deck leaks. The one at the forward end of the V-berth is coming from an empty screw-hole in the underside of the deck with no hardware mounted there; must be coming from something else nearby and running through the coring. There's a stanchion-base nearby, in a tight spot in a corner formed by the bulkhead for the chain locker.
Another deck-leak at the foot of my berth in the aft cabin, and the same deal: water coming out of an open screw-hole in the underside of the deck, no hardware mounted there. Must be coming in through one of two stanchion-bases, then running through the coring.
Took down some backing wood under the deck in the aft cabin.
Rain starting at 12:45. More starting at 1:25. Started prying at bad, soggy wood in the upper port aft corner of the pilothouse. Pulled some chunks off. I'm afraid to go too far, might end up pulling off much of the pilothouse. It looks like a wood frame with foam-and-fiberglass over that, and it's ucky and soggy and gunky and buggy in there. Nasty.
Disconnected two of the three wind-gen wires in the engine compartment.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Fairly rolly much of the night.
2012-05-18 (Friday)No cruiser's net this morning; we're short a net controller. Lots of people coming and going as we change from cruising season to hurricane season.
Loaded up the dinghy with a lot of garbage (had to leave some behind) and headed out to Woburn, a long, wet ride into stiff wind and chop. Got there at 8:15 and was told they had picked up at 6 AM, so I couldn't leave any kitchen garbage. Got rid of the headliner wood and a lot of other stuff. Across to CCBM, got rid of a couple bags of garbage, exchanged half a dozen books at the bookshelf. Back to the boat by 9. At least I didn't get rained on. And did get rid of much of the garbage. Will do another run on Tuesday.
Fairly good rain at 9:15. Dinghied ashore afterward for the 9:30 shopping van. Richard is mad because that 9:15 squall popped up out of nowhere and may have ruined some painting he just did with expensive two-part paint.
To ACE Hardware, and bought a gallon of acrylic latex interior paint (EC$68, about US$26), and bearings for my wind-generator (EC$17 each, about US$6.50 each). Finally saw where the foam-mattress place is, and it's 1/4 mile away from where Ken said it was. And there's a second foam-mattress place nearby, too.
To Budget Marine, where epoxy resin is much more expensive than ordering it from USA (but I don't know if I'll have to pay a shipping hazmat charge). Exchanged 2 books at the bookshelf.
To the mall. No termite-baits at the hardware store or supermarket; ACE didn't have any either. Got groceries, and a chocolate-banana smoothie. Back to the boat by noon.
Chipped away at upper starboard aft corner of pilothouse; some bad wood there, but far better than the port corner. Put an ant-bait into the port corner, in the theory that it can't hurt.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-19 (Saturday)From 4 AM to 5 AM, random sudden bursts of heavy rain. Then a big sustained storm from 5 to 5:45, with wind from SW and W. Weather gorgeous by 7:30, sunny and breezy.
Removed two more pieces of wood, plus moldings, from the aft cabin. Now I can get at the underside of the three stanchions and outside trim I need to remove to get at that deck leak.
Rebedded the port forwardmost stanchion, to stop the leak in the V-berth. The bolts and holes were plenty wet, and there was little caulk on them, so I hope this fixed it. There are more possible sources of the leak, further forward and harder to deal with.
Celery and salad and a cheese sandwich and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-20 (Sunday)First Atlantic tropical storm of the season has popped into existence, off the coast of Georgia, of all places.
Loafed all day, then got working on the leak in the aft cabin in late afternoon. Got nuts off one stanchion base from the inside, but the other two have the nuts pressed way up into the underside of the deck fiberglass so that I can't get a wrench on them. Went on deck and used a screwdriver to take out the bolts. Took a while, but got all three stanchion bases up.
Then started taking out screws holding the teak trim to the top of the toerail. Got down to the last 4 or so, maximum number of open holes through the deck, when a big dark cloud popped up from the E, a wave of rain came in from the S, and it rained for about 15 minutes. Some water got into the aft cabin, but not too much. Forgot to check the V-berth, but I think that leak may have been eliminated.
After the rain, got the teak up, cleaned off the toerail, and put tape across all of the holes to cover them for the night. Must be about 30 holes through the toerail in this 4-foot stretch: 12 for stanchion bases, and a ridiculous number of screws holding down the teak trim. And the usual caulking job from the manufacturer: a line of caulk to hold the trim on, and almost none in the screw-holes, which is exactly backward.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-21 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Un-taped and unclogged the holes in the aft port toerail, to let them air out and maybe dry the coring a little. Many holes from past hardware that was installed and then removed. I think I'm going to seal all of the holes except those for the stanchion bases, and two screw-holes for the midline end of the teak trim. No need for all of those screws to hold the trim on; the stanchion bases will hold it on.
Fortunately, no rain today; stayed nice and sunny and hot. Cleaned up the teak trim I took off; a lot of work. Put caulk in all but one screw-hole, to seal them off. Let it dry, then caulked the remaining holes, put the trim on, put the one screw in, put the stanchion bases on and the bolts through. Then up and down from deck to aft cabin, putting the nuts on the bolts and tightening them up. A sweaty, messy job, and some of it had to be done after slithering up onto my back on the center console in the aft cabin, not a very back-friendly operation. Got it all done.
Ended up with 15 screws left over, so that's 15 holes in the toerail that didn't have to be there, and now are sealed.
Went ashore in early afternoon and took a nice walk. Got some good exercise.
Added water to the batteries.
Took off and rebedded a small piece of trim on the port-aft corner of the toerail.
Celery and salad and PB-sandwich and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-22 (Tuesday)Up early, loaded the dinghy with garbage, and headed over to Woburn. The usual wet, rough trip upwind. Got there before 7, garbage hadn't been picked up yet, got rid of all of my garbage. Over to CCBM to see if I could exchange books, but as I expected, they weren't open yet. Back to the boat by 7:15. Cockpit looks a lot better with all of the garbage out of it.
Loafed most of the day.
In late afternoon, started working on the wind-generator. Took apart the wiring junction-box. Then climbed the mizzenmast. Untied the lines that keep the generator from rotating too far from side to side. Tried to lift the generator up off the mount, with blades still attached, but it's heavy and pretty far in front of the mast. Something's sticking, and I kept mashing and bruising my legs and feet as I fought with it. Finally gave up, tied the generator into place, and went back down to deck. Will try again tomorrow or the next day, maybe with a different approach. Will have to look at the installation instructions, too.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Heavy rain at 2:15 AM, 3:30, 4:00. Looks like the leaks in foot of my berth and in V-berth have been eliminated. But now that the headliner is gone, I can see that there's a small leak on the starboard-aft toerail in the aft cabin, so I'll have to take up stanchions and trim on that side, too. And there's a tiny leak down the chainplate in my berth, as usual.
2012-05-23 (Wednesday)Headachey.
Rain at 10:55. More at 11:15. Big rainstorm from 11:45 to noon. Nearby kayakers look like they're getting a little more back-to-Nature than they expected: pic.
Took a Tonopan at 11, and headache easing by noon.
Removed two pieces of headliner-backing wood in the starboard side of the aft cabin.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Sudden heavy rain at 4 AM. Leak in aft cabin seems to be where the wires for the stern light go through the toerail. I think I'll fix just that, instead of taking up three stanchions and the trim to get at everything.
2012-05-24 (Thursday)Rain at 7. Huge rainstorm from SSW or so from about 8 to 8:10. Someone said it's the back side of a tropical wave that has passed over us, first of the season.
Totally grey day from mid-morning until dusk.
Cleaned out and re-caulked the place where the stern light wires come through the toerail. Got done and covered it with plastic about 2 minutes before the heavy rain started. No leak.
Another huge rainstorm from SW starting at 11:20.
Ran engine for 10 minutes or so; been a couple of months since I ran it. Started immediately and ran fine.
Dinghied ashore to get off the boat, and do some Wi-Fi in the marina bar. Almost got run over by a guy in a dinghy going fast close by my boat, trying to beat the rain on his way over to Hog Island anchorage. Why do people zoom so close by boats ? It's so dangerous, a big blind spot.
Pretty noisy in the marina restaurant today, with workers still installing the septic system, and the TV blaring, and kids running around. Sawdust from the workers blowing up into the restaurant and onto my computer.
Chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
Headache in the early AM; took pain-pills.
2012-05-25 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Out at the bank, walked over the hill to Scotiabank, got cash. Into FoodFair for a few items. To the mall. Exchanged 3 books at the resort across the street. Got groceries and a chocolate-banana smoothie. Back to the boat by 11:30.
Apple and celery and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-05-26 (Saturday)Loafed all day, reading and doing Wi-Fi.
A local guy who moors a couple of sloops here was fiddling around all afternoon, coming in on one boat, anchoring between Tony and me, later moving to raft up with his other boat. Around 5:30, he un-rafted and anchored again between Tony and me. And Tony went totally mental, screaming at the guy that he was too close, Tony would call the police if that boat touched Tony's boat, etc. I didn't see a problem. Sure, would have been better if the guy anchored 30 or 40 feet closer to shore, out from between us. But not a problem unless we get a huge storm and the boat drags.
Celery and salad and PBJ-sandwich for dinner.
2012-05-27 (Sunday)Loafed most of the day.
In midafternoon, climbed up the mizzenmast. Got the blade-hub assembly off the wind-generator and lowered it down to the deck. But still can't lift the generator body up off the pipe it swivels on. Gave up for today. Guess I'll have to take the whole bracket and generator off the mast in one piece, and try to deal with it once it's down.
Cornbread-sausage-cheese-onion concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Motion-detector is flashing "low-battery". Installed it Jan 10, so that's 4.5 months on a set of 3 AA batteries.
2012-05-28 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. Zipped through the standard sections with little problem, then when I asked "any other questions or announcements before we close ?", everyone piled in with the stuff they should have done in the standard sections. Typical.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Yow ! Deck hot under bare feet at 11:15. Summer is here.
In late afternoon, climbed up the mizzenmast. Unbolted the wind-generator bracket (with generator still attached to far end) from the mast. A tricky operation, with heavy generator at end of a lever-arm, working bolts out of the mast, unsure how it was going to swing or drop or twist when it came free. Didn't want to break the fiberglass tail on the generator, or drop the whole thing. Had one thick line on it, two thin ones, and wished I'd brought a second thick line up with me. Eventually got it free and lowered it down to deck with no damage to it and little damage to me.
Looking at the wind-generator on deck (pic), the front bearing looks totally exposed to the elements and totally rusty. Bad design, or did they forget a piece when they assembled it ?
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Several shots of plenty of rain during the night. Still have a bit of a leak from the stern-light-wiring area; guess I'll have to take up the stanchions and that section of toerail.
2012-05-29 (Tuesday)Grey, humid morning. Rain at 6 AM.
Bummer: nice paid Wi-Fi subscription I got from "Summer Love" has run out.
Now that's everything's down on deck, I was able to get a proper grip and pull the wind-generator up off the bracket with little problem. Just hadn't been able to do it 20 feet up a mast trying to wrestle with it at arms-length.
Took long screws out of the front of the wind-generator and pried the "cap" off. Sure enough, the big front bearing on the shaft is totally rusty and very hard to move at all. But there's what looks like a smaller bearing pressed into the fiberglass cap; that wasn't in the manual [it's a seal, and yes, it's in the manual]. And it looks rusty, too. Pics. Started raining around 4, just as I got everything open, so didn't have much time to investigate.
Big rainstorm from SW with rain spiraling in from all directions, starting at 5:45.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-30 (Wednesday)Cloudy, wet morning. Rain at 8 AM, then a big rainstorm from the S starting at 8:30.
Worked on the wind-generator some more, and got some numbers off the front seal. But can't get the guts out to look at the back bearing.
After lunch, dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar.
Lots of wind coming in from S around 1:35; storm coming. Blew hard for a couple of hours, but not a lot of rain.
Between petting the marina restaurant cat and having it sit on my lap, got a lot of cat-hairs on my computer.
Salad and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-05-31 (Thursday)Clear, sunny morning. Hot later.
Several readers have been emailing me about the parts for the wind-generator. I do know the part numbers, thanks, and have the new bearings already. One reader just told me there's a 3-year warranty on the generator, but I think shipping the thing off to Trinidad and back would be more trouble and more expensive than just fixing it here. But thanks for the help, guys.
Can't get the back end of the generator out of the fiberglass housing. It's pressed and forced into there. I want to see if the back bearing needs to be replaced. Can't tell by spinning the shaft, because now that the front end of the shaft isn't supported, the powerful magnets have the rotor pinned to one side against the stator. Maybe I'll have a shop replace just the front bearing, put it back together, and see if that fixes it.
Started the painting in the V-berth. Hot, did some edging work today, need to really buckle down and haul all of the clutter out of there and do a long session.
Big storm from SSW starting at 3. Brief, but stayed very grey, then rain starting at 3:40.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-06-01 (Friday)Headachey.
No cruiser's net this morning; we're short a couple of controllers.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Bought a gallon of engine oil (EC$61; about US$23.50) and a couple of other things at ACE Hardware, but they didn't have the seal I need for the wind-generator. At the boatyard machine shop, they said they can do my wind-generator, so I'll have to take it there next time. Exchanged 3 books at the book-exchange at De Big Fish.
Overheard a couple of cruisers talking about buying a Wi-Fi antenna setup from Rikky for US$250, said I thought I could buy it cheaper thrugh Sherri, and they got in my face a bit. Said they got a quote through Sherri and she's marking orders up 60% now, and Rikky is cheaper. Bad news, if true; I was planning a big order through her in July.
Stopped by a mattress place, but no foam. To the mall. Got groceries, had a chocolate-banana smoothie. Stopped at CK's, then back to the marina. Gave the lady from "Canel" out to her boat, through very strong wind. Back to my boat by 12:20, feeling tired. Wind very gusty.
Almost no Wi-Fi today. Very flaky.
Put new batteries in the motion-detector.
Celery and salad and cheese sandwich for dinner.
Still headachey; took a Tonopan at 6. Restless night.
2012-06-02 (Saturday)Headache; took pain-pills. And it's my birthday; 54 years old.
Turned into a grey, still morning, and I can't get rid of this headache.
Lunch, then napped from noon to 2, and felt a bit better.
Into the V-berth, and started painting. Did some edging, then got out the roller and tray. Had just poured paint into tray when someone was knocking on my hull.
Went on deck to find Ken and Lynn had stopped by. They asked if I would lend my extra, hard dinghy to the French lady on "Canel", who is desperate for a dinghy. Sure, why not ? I knew she was desperate for a dinghy, but hadn't offered this one, because it's in really horrible shape. But as Ken and Lynn said, even a crappy dinghy is better than no dinghy. Had to cut off and discard the painters; they had 20 pounds of muck growing on them, and were ancient and knotted anyway. Eventually they towed it away. Then I remembered I have crappy oars for that dinghy. Called them on VHF, and they said maybe the lady will come get them in a couple of days. She's happy to get the dinghy; hope they made it clear it's a loan.
Back to the V-berth, and started rolling paint on. Didn't go well; I was trying to re-use a roller. Had to tear it off the handle, and put a new roller on. Getting some splatters, and the V-berth was far too full to empty everything out of it. Got the port side done, realized I'd poured out twice as much paint as I should have, so did the starboard side too, reaching over top of stuff to get to it. Not too bad when done.
Still headachey; took some pain-pills just before dinner.
Celery and then chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice for dinner.
Swirling rain starting at 6:45.
Still a bit headachey during the night. Took a Tonopan at 2:30, and that helped for several hours.
2012-06-03 (Sunday)Still have fairly bad headache; more pain-pills.
Still can't get any Wi-Fi from the boat. Eventually got a tiny bit.
Sunny day. Feeling bad; went to bed for a while. Up at 11, feeling a little better. Decided to do some painting.
Into the V-berth and did some more edging and touching up spots. Need to roll a second coat onto both sides, and then do edging on starboard side.
After lunch, was getting ready to go ashore when the french couple came over, the guy in the hard dinghy and the lady in a tiny kayak. They've put a new but tiny outboard on the dinghy, and are very happy with it. I said they're welcome to use it for months, but I'm not sure I want to sell it. But later, I decided I probably will sell it to them, cheap.
Dinghied ashore to get some decent Wi-Fi in the marina bar. Outboard is having fuel problems; keeps stumbling and fuel-bulb doesn't pump properly.
Celery and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
Headache finally went away around 11:30.
Fairly heavy rain starting at 2:30.
2012-06-04 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Grey and rain at 9:30, sunny later.
More painting in the V-berth, edging, then rolling, then more edging. Declared it done. Aft cabin next.
Brief rain at 2, then sunny again.
Had been smelling gasoline; thought it was coming from some boat upwind of me. But found a mess on my stern deck; forgot to loosen the vent-cap on the outboard fuel tank yesterday when I hoisted the dinghy, and today's hot sun made the gas expand and forced some out onto deck.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-06-05 (Tuesday)Still have a low-grade headache; can't seem to get rid of it.
Loaded the wind-generator into the dinghy and dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Got off early and into an auto-parts store, but they didn't have the oil seal I need. To bank, back onto the bus, to ACE, then to Budget. Left the wind-generator at the machine-shop with the new bearings, instruction manual, and note about the oil seal. I'll come back for it on Friday.
Got a book at the book-exchange. To the industrial park, and checked out a roofing shop and a window-glass shop while everyone else was in a candle-and-soap shop. To the mall. Got some groceries, and a banana-chocolate smoothie. Back onto the bus, stopped at Excel Mall and CK's, back to the boat through a windy anchorage by 12:30.
In later afternoon, Eric and Jackie from "Compass Rose" stopped by to invite me on a bus-trip to see turtles laying eggs on the beach. I declined, because it's a two-hour ride each way, all the way to the N end of the island, and we'll probably get back at 2 AM or something; it will make me feel lousy for a couple of days. But nice of them to invite me.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
I think I'm changing my mind about selling the hard dinghy cheaply; it's my backup if something happens to my primary dinghy. Maybe EC$400 (about US$150) would be a fair price ?
Still can't get rid of this mild headache. Finally took a Tonopan at 11:30, and that seemed to work.
2012-06-06 (Wednesday)Grey, drenched morning with frequent rain. Then starting to clear a bit around 9, and was very breezey and sunny later.
Did some painting in the aft cabin.
Ashore after lunch, to do some internet and spend some time off the boat. Skype-called Mom and chatted with her briefly. Sherri stopped by and tried to talk me into buying some epoxy through her, but I'm not sure I need the epoxy any more, and I don't want to place my next order through her right now.
Salad and cheese sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-06-07 (Thursday)Sunny and windy morning.
More painting in the aft cabin. Thought I had plenty of paint-rollers, but they proved to be old enough that the foam was disintegrating, so I had barely enough for today.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-06-08 (Friday)Frequent rain before 8 AM.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Said hi to the lady from "Canel", and told her I would sell the hard dinghy for EC$400 (about US$153) if they wanted to buy it.
Pretty crazy trip today. Lots of people, so two vans, and mine was only 2/3 full. Since I'm hoping to pick up my wind-generator, that's good. We went to the bank, then a sail loft, then ACE Hardware. There, they shuffled everyone, and I ended up on a chock-full van to Budget Marine. To the machine-shop, and my wind-generator is done (that's good), but they couldn't find a new oil seal, and the charge is EC$200 (that's bad). About US$77, just for pulling the guts out of the housing, replacing the bearings with new bearings that I supplied, pressing guts back into housing. The guy added more oil to the bearings; he says new bearings don't come with enough oil in them.
Exchanged several books at the bookshelf. Off to the mall, but I hopped out at the roundabout and went off to Scotiabank to get some cash. Then to the small auto-parts store, but they don't have the oil seal I need. Quick stop for groceries, back into the van, and back to the boat before noon. Very windy in the anchorage again today.
Celery and leftover cold chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-06-09 (Saturday)A little headachey. Not good; the headaches seem to be coming more frequently.
Before lunch, took pills and a nap; felt a bit better after lunch.
Painted in the aft cabin; finished the port side. Just before I finished, the blades on my Caframo fan shattered and went flying.
Added water to the batteries; only a couple of cells took much.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-06-10 (Sunday)Tried to scare up a game of dominoes for this afternoon, but no luck.
Put a coat of paint on the starboard side in the aft cabin.
Gave myself a haircut.
Occasional rain starting at 4, then more rain starting at 5:20 and heavy by 5:30.
Tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Rain at 6:30.
2012-06-11 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. Half a dozen new arrivals, and I had a lot of trouble understanding the names of half of them.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Put another coat of paint on the starboard side in the aft cabin. Done.
Tried putting the wind-generator together partway to see if the new bearings are good, but partway isn't enough. Took it apart, took the oil seal out, decided that doesn't need to be replaced.
Ashore at 1, to do some internet. Breezy afternoon. More boats coming in today; I guess it's the real start of hurricane season in many people's minds. Got EC$20 of gasoline.
I haven't posted any pictures of the painting I've been doing, but someone asked for pictures, so here's the starboard side of the aft cabin: pic. Similar on port side, and in V-berth: I took down the headliner and discarded it, and painted the underside of the fiberglass deck. Took down most of the backing plywood too, but left some in place.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-06-12 (Tuesday)Bit of a headache this morning.
Listened to the start of the net. Guy from "Lady Domina" near me got on and asked something about a dinghy. He always sounds asleep or as if he couldn't be bothered to speak up on the radio. The net controller got him to clarify that he was asking about dengue fever. Lots of advice about treatment, then he clarified that he was asking if the authorities were going to spray to control dengue fever. No, they don't do that here.
Launched the dinghy, and pumped up the tubes. Loaded a lot of garbage into it, including the anchor windlass and associated parts. Left at 7:45, heading E into very strong wind. Rough, windy, wet trip. Over to the Woburn town dock. As I was threading my way in past skiffs tied up every which way, just as I got to the dock, a head popped up from under a skiff right next to me. Guy was snorkeling to scrape the hull. My prop was probably 6-8 feet from him, but it startled both of us.
Got rid of the garbage. Over to CCBM to exchange 7 books at their bookshelf. Back to the boat, an easier trip going mostly downwind. Back to the boat by 9.
Took some headache pills.
Felt tired and a little headachey all day.
Assembled the wind-generator. Good news is that it seems to turn okay with the new bearings; bad news is that one of the four screws won't go in all the way. Also forgot to add some grease on forward side of front bearing. So it has to come apart again. The four screws are long, and it takes quite a while to work them in or out. The machine-shop gave me the old bearings; looks like only the front one needed replacement.
Leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
2012-06-13 (Wednesday)No headache all night, then started getting headachey again at 5 AM or so.
Very dark grey morning; finally started getting a little brighter around 11.
Added another layer of plastic over the windlass-hole on the foredeck; don't want it to leak while I'm gone.
Some actual sunshine starting around 2 !
Backed up the laptop to external hard disk.
Used electric drill to try to enlarge a couple of holes on the wind-generator bracket on one side. Bracket always has tilted up slightly; want to make it level. Very delicate operation, since there's a long lever-arm involved. Just need to remove 1/64th of an inch or less of material, maybe. Gave it a shot, not sure I accomplished much. Will have to install bracket and generator to find out.
Salad and cornbread-cornedbeef-onion-cheese concoction and a dietcola for dinner. I'm trying to eat through the last of the perishable food before leaving on Saturday.
Finally took a Tonopan around 7 PM, and the mild headache I had all day was gone in less than an hour.
2012-06-14 (Thursday)Did a tiny bit of touch-up painting in aft cabin.
Frequent rain from 10:30 to 12.
Loafed all day. Just couldn't get moving.
Popped up at 5 to find sailboat "Fawkes" had anchored close in front of me, too close. Called them on the radio, but they didn't agree. They're tired from an all-day passage down from Carriacou.
Decided to accomplish at least one thing today. Climbed the mizzen-mast and installed the wind-generator bracket.
Tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-06-15 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:15. Told George I needed a ride to the airport tomorrow morning, and gave him a note to remind him. Left a book for Jerry the security guard. Took a walk over to Prickly Bay Marina to get some exercise. Wanted to buy an apple and banana to eat on the plane tomorrow, but they had almost no fruit, mainly limes.
Still a little headachey; took some pills.
Light rain starting before noon, then heavier at 12:30. Still going at 1:30. I want to put out a third anchor before I leave, but I don't want to do it in the rain.
Rain mostly stopped by 2:15 or so. Finished putting the third anchor out by about 3:30, with a weight in the middle of the line to try to keep passing dinghies from snagging the line.
Very still and grey and humid all day and into the night.
Cornbread-cornedbeef-onion-cheese-cheese concoction and a dietcola for dinner.
2012-06-16 (Saturday)Up at 5:30 AM, and getting ready to leave the boat for 3 weeks. Running down my check-list of items: close through-hulls, lock, dinghy, clean toilet, set electrical switches correctly, finish packing, etc.
George arrived in his skiff at 6:30, about 15 minutes early, as usual. Turned out to be a good thing. Started pouring rain after we got ashore and started driving. To the airport by 6:45, and paid him EC$65. Long, slow line through ticketing, then longer line through Immigration. More rain pouring down as we waited. Quickly through Security, and into the gate area by 7:40 for a planned 8:05 boarding and 8:45 departure. Can't get Wi-Fi in the gate area, but at least they have AC power.
Around 8:10, as I was using my laptop, I heard my name called over the PA, along with several others. I couldn't have missed the boarding announcement; this is a one-room gate area, no one else has been in line or anything. Went up to the gate, and found I was one of those "selected for extra screening by Homeland Security". An agent rifled through my hand-bag a little, had me turn on my laptop to prove it really worked, and another agent patted me down by hand. Took about 2 minutes, no problems. Right afterward, my flight started boarding.
Uneventful flight. Nothing served but drinks. Young woman in my row had just finished a 200-hour course in Grenada to get her international teaching certificate. Had to ask a few questions to find out it was yoga class. They did yoga about 15 hours a day, and she seemed to spend the rest of the time in bars and restaurants; she ran out of money and had to call home for more. She slept for most of the flight.
Airplane has signs saying Wi-Fi available, but then when I connected it said "unavailable because more than 100 miles from continental USA", among other possible reasons. Never did find out how much it would cost.
Into Miami on time, then walk-walk-walk, sky-train, through Immigration, baggage, Customs, went through Agriculture inspection by mistake, put bag back into system, through Security, walk-skytrain-walk, found gate. Into a cafe for lunch. Found AC power outlet. Wi-Fi costs $5 for 30 minutes or $8 for 24 hours. No, thanks.
Flight to Philly took off okay. In-flight Wi-Fi costs $10 for the flight, but HTTPS sites work without paying ! So about all I could do was Facebook. ETrade's HTTPS site wouldn't load. Could use HTTPS version of Google Search, but not follow any of the links.
Spent much of the trip reading "The Wrong Kind of Snow: How the Weather Made Britain" by Antony Woodward and Robert Penn. Some interesting tidbits from it:
- When the Gregorian calendar was instituted in Britain in 1752, causing a jump from Sept 2 to Sept 14 overnight,
there were riots, as people believed their lives had been shortened.
- "Between 1700 and 1850, smuggling is one of Britain's biggest industries."
- In 2006, in Britain, there still are about 400 farms and 200,000 sheep under restrictions due to radiation from the 1986 explosion of the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl.
Made it to Philly, picked up by my brother, went to his place in NJ.
The usual 10 pounds of mail waiting for me, plus some things I ordered. The Sumatriptan migraine pills I ordered from a UK online pharmacy (they actually shipped from Vanuatu, and were manufactured in New Zealand, and the value declared to Customs was less than half what I paid for them). A couple of pairs of sandals.
Ah, back to mod-con's: unlimited AC power, FIOS internet, hot showers, HDTV, air-conditioning (temp in 70's now but supposed to go to 99 next Friday), NPR.
2012-06-17 to 2012-07-07Some good meals out: chicken-swiss-onion-mushroom panini in a diner; large pepperoni pizza (twice); Indian; Reuben in diner.
Received three heavy boxes of used books from a reader via UPS; I reimbursed him for shipping. Total of 130 pounds of mostly science-fiction paperbacks plus some suspense novels, probably 220 books, for $87 of shipping. Sorted through them, taking out books I'd read already or didn't want to read or duplicates, and ended up with about 120 to keep. Before and after: pics. (Somehow, in the process, books that arrived in 3 boxes now take up 4 boxes !) I'll see if the library will take the ones I don't want.
Rented a car for a day ($50 plus $5 for gasoline). Big shopping trip to Walmart. Donated two boxes of books to the library (At first, they said "Books ? Well, I don't know, no one wants books any more, they're hard to deal with, no we wouldn't be able to sell them". Then when they saw them, they said "Sure, no problem".). Went to Mom's place and spent the afternoon chatting with her and watching the Greece-Germany soccer game. Returned the car the next morning, and was horrified to see a half-dollar-sized patch of paint chipped off the front edge of the hood. I don't remember seeing that when I took the car out, it's not noted on the paperwork, but then another guy in the shop said that's been there for a while, it happened in their lot. Whew ! Somehow we overlooked it when I took the car out.
Had a nice little immediate-family get-together, with five times as much as food as we could eat.
Headachey on 6/26; took some sumatriptan, and it worked.
My friend Stacy stopped by for a visit, and gave me some goodies for the boat: a Rosewill solar spotlight, a pool-thermometer to measure the water-temperature at various depths in my anchorage, and an LED lightbulb.
Sat 6/30: Yikes ! Tropical storm Invest 97 is threatening my boat, in Grenada. From Friday 8 PM data, three forecast models have the storm going fairly well N of Grenada, one has it going to Trinidad, another has it heading for Grenada. Max winds supposed to top out at 60 knots. Will have to monitor this. Boat has three anchors down, deck stripped for hurricane, but it would be better if I was there. [By Saturday evening, the storm has vanished from the weather sites. Poof !]
Watched the Euro 2012 soccer tournament. Also lots of Top Gear, Futurama.
My cousin Tim took me for 2 hours of kayaking on the Delaware River one evening. Lots of fun. At the end, saw a hot-air balloon floating past, and some people doing some kind of water-skiing thing using a custom high-speed winch mounted on the tail of a truck.
Did some walking in various nearby state parks. Weather always was a bit hot and humid and dull, temperature close to 90 F. Nothing like the 100+ F they've been having in much of the rest of the country. Nice restored house in one of the parks: pics.
Shipped two boxes of books down to Florida, to be shipped on to Grenada. Cost $50; don't know what the leg to Grenada will cost. And two weeks after sending a list of items to order to the agent in Grenada, I still don't have a quote. She keeps putting me off, promising to send a quote soon and then missing the deadline. I've called the agent's home office in Florida to get them to look into this. Don't know if that's going to help or hurt.
On 7/7, caught a 10 PM train from W Trenton to Philly airport, to kill 4 hours or so in the airport and then catch a 6 AM flight to Miami. Got to the terminal by 11:30. A bit headachey; took a Tonopan. A late flight came in a little after midnight. Workers cleaning the terminal. No Wi-Fi, but AC power.
2012-07-08 (Sunday)Check-in kiosks open and passengers showing up at 3:30; got my boarding passes; no charge for 1 bag. Ticketing open at 4. Bag checked and through security to the gate by 4:35. Free Wi-Fi there.
Routine flight to Miami. Slightly cool on the plane, and then the terminal at Miami is about 5-6 degrees too cold for my comfort. I should bring some very light jacket to deal with these over-air-conditioned places. I have a 7-hour layover. AC power but no free Wi-Fi in the terminal.
Found a few slightly warmer spots in the terminal, and used the AC power-towers several times to run my laptop. But it's cold in here; sometimes I'm shivering. Lots of interesting people to watch. Some lunch warmed me up.
Around 2, suddenly my flight was listed at 45 minutes delay; 4:30 instead of 3:45. By 2:30, it was listed at 4:55. Not good.
Finally got onto the plane and door closed around 5:15, 90 minutes late. Uneventful flight, chatting a little with lady next to me, stupid adventure-type movie on the overhead.
I'd been agonizing over whether to declare the stuff in my luggage: spotlight, thermometer, used boat-cushion, battery charger, LED bulb. Then I saw on the Customs form that you can bring in EC$300 (about US$110) of anything without declaring it. So I'm okay with not declaring it; if they find it, I can point to the form, and it's only about US$60 of stuff.
Landed around 8:40, 75 minutes late. Good to get out into real air; I've been in air-conditioning for 20 hours or so. Slow line through Immigration and Customs, but no problems. Out and found George the taxi driver by 9:30, to the marina, paid him EC$70, into his skiff and out to the boat.
Arrived back at boat around 10 PM; about 24 hours door-to-door. All looks fine aboard. Opened hatches, got toilet cleaned and working again, drank some water, read a book for a while in the cockpit, went to bed. Warm night, but no rain and a little breeze, and I slept well.
2012-07-09 (Monday)Up at 6:45, did a little Wi-Fi to get the weather info, contacted Ken to coordinate, and then I was net controller at 7:30. No problems.
Was going to change the galley water filter, but old one looked okay. Set the battery switches to bypass the solar controller, and also charge the starting battery. Started the refrigerator. Wiped a lot of dust off the solar panels. Started unpacking.
Did Wi-Fi. Lots of tries to contact the parts-ordering woman here, and her associate in Florida, with no luck. I think the woman here is ignoring me.
Boat anchored ahead of me is a steel ketch named "Irony".
Added water to the batteries, and they took a lot.
Chicken-rice-corn and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner. Used chicken from a foil pouch that someone gave me a long time ago; not bad.
2012-07-10 (Tuesday)Finally got the order-quote from the agent here. She wants me to push buttons on the internet to order most of the items, but will handle everything else (shipping, Customs, delivery to marina) for a tolerable price. Glad to get this going.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Two buses, and at the bank I took the bus straight to IGA mall. Chatted a bit with Dave from "Liberty". Across the street to exchange 4 books at the resort's bookshelf. Got groceries, then chatted with Richard from "Odyssey" and another cruiser, watched a little cricket on the TV, and had a banana-chocolate smoothie. Back to the boat a little before noon. Pretty windy in the harbor.
After 1, dinghied ashore to do internet. Ordered all of the items on my list, from Amazon and EBay and an online auto-parts store. For delivery to Florida, where it will be batched up and put on a boat to Grenada. Let's see, $350 for jib-sheet line and agent's fee and shipping and delivery charges. $200 to Amazon for Wi-Fi stuff, dominoes set, blood-pressure tester, MP3 player, boat-trailer winch. $44 to auto-parts store for two chain claw-hooks. $97 to EBay for engine oil filter housing and a six-pack of oil filters. And the two boxes of books should ship with this order (already paid $86 plus $50 for shipping them to NJ and then FL). Total of $827 plus whatever Customs charges.
Ken and Lynn stopped by to say hello. The new laptop they bought a month ago lasted only two weeks before dying; they shipped it back and maybe bought a different model. That's when being on the end of a long shipping route really hurts: when you have to do it multiple times.
Salad and cheese sandwich and apple for dinner.
2012-07-11 (Wednesday)A bit windy again this morning. Forecast has changed since Monday morning. I don't know why we bother reading the forecast beyond two days or so.
Took some water-temperature measurements at various depths, using a thermometer my friend Stacy gave me. At first it just floated in the salt water, then I added a large nut at the bottom to make it sink. I measured about every 2 feet down, starting at 1 foot under surface, letting the thermometer sit for at least 15 minutes at each depth. Results were 84 F from 1 to 5 feet deep, and 83 F from 7 to 17 feet deep. It's hard to read such a small difference on the thermometer, but that's my best reading of it. That's in the morning on a windy day; I'll try again when conditions are different. Stacy was hoping to find cooler water at depth, to use for water-cooled air-conditioning.
Worked on the wind-generator. Used the electric drill to run the long screws out and back in, but the bit keeps coming out of the slot in the screw-head. Still can't get one screw to go in all the way; some debris must be blocking the bottom of the hole. Could cut the screw shorter, or take the whole thing back to the machine-shop. Gave up for today.
Opened up the solar-recharged spotlight Stacy gave me (pic). Surprised to find it's a motion-detector light. Maybe I should mount it over the stern, so it would deter anyone trying to take the outboard motor off the dinghy ?
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-07-12 (Thursday)Took some pictures of boats here, for your enjoyment: pics.
Loafed most of the day, then worked on the wind-generator. And that job turned into a disaster. One of the long bolts won't go all the way in. So today I took it out, probed the hole with a long wire and found no obstruction, no debris. Since the hole seems to be threaded for much of the length, I decided to cut the bolt shorter. Got out the vise and hacksaw and cut 5/8" off the 5" bolt. Put it back in, it goes full-length, but doesn't tighten, just spins. So I was wrong about the hole being threaded; must have been fooled by the bolt being wedged against the sides. Decided 3 bolts were good enough, and caulked the cap-joint and bolt-heads, and put the generator away to dry for a day or two.
Fifteen minutes later, decided that was stupid. Those bolts are holding the cap in place, and the cap is holding the front bearing in place. Don't want the cap to break or shift, probably in a storm, letting the rotor hit the magnets, and letting water into the unit, destroying the whole generator.
So I brought the generator up again, wiped all of the caulk off, took the bolts out. Went to see if I had more rubbing-alcohol to remove caulk, and instead found a bottle of mineral oil that had fallen over and made a small mess in a cabinet. No more alcohol. Need to buy a new bolt or four, and see if I can get the guts out of the housing. Probably can't, so will have to take it back to the machine-shop. Wonderful.
Salad and PB-sandwich for dinner.
2012-07-13 (Friday)Messed with the wind-generator briefly, but it definitely has to go to the shop.
Loaded the wind-generator into the dinghy. Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Lots of people waiting, but three vans. Immediately stowed the wind-generator into a van, and people piled in right after me. Seven minutes early, and then it turns out we have only two vans, not three. Packed us in, and we just barely fit. But then we were off.
To the bank, then ACE Hardware. No 5-inch 10-24 bolts, as I expected. To the boatyard, where I dropped off the wind-generator with a big note explaining what had happened and how stupid I'd been. Into Budget, and bought blades for fan. Exchanged a few books at the bookshelf in De Big Fish.
Chatted with Ian, I think, who it turns out has had a series of expensive failures recently: starter motor died, new one obtained at huge expense died, multiple hour-long bus trips up to alternator/starter guy in Gouyave, battery charger died, solar controller died. Later, someone else talked about a brand-new sine-wave inverter that had died, and Ken mentioned a new laptop which had died. So a lot of failures going around. Some of these things are under warranty, but shipping back and forth may cost as much as the item cost new. Sometimes the warranty includes shipping only inside the USA.
To the mall. Into the hardware store to look for 5-inch bolts; no luck. Groceries at the supermarket. Came out and the van was loading, so right aboard. Stopped at CK's, then back to the boat by 11:30 or so.
Spent much of the afternoon working on the starboard-stern toerail. A long job, getting very sweaty in the hot weather. Took the three stanchions off, with two of the bolts fighting me. Fumbled my favorite, biggest screwdriver over the side; it made a big splash. Finally had to Dremel-cut one of the nuts off, unavoidably damaging the bolt. Took out about 15 screws. Cleaned off the top of the toerail, then caulked shut almost all of the screw-holes. They're not needed; the stanchions will hold down the teak trim board.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Ate out on the foredeck.
2012-07-14 (Saturday)Pretty funny: listening to a Car Talk podcast this morning, and a guy called in with question "is my car turning off women ?", and he's driving the same car I used to drive ! Honda Civic CRX HF. His is a 1991 and he's still driving it, while mine was a 1988 and I drove it for about 11 years. He's 55; I was in my 30's when I drove it. Otherwise we're very similar. The consensus was: yup, car and his clothes and everything else about him was turning off women. That was my experience, too.
More work on the toerail; moved the stern-light wire to a more out-of-the-way position. Started cleaning the teak trim.
Weather suddenly turned grey and a bit rainy at 11:15 or so. Feeling headachey; took some acetaminophen.
Ashore at 1, to do some internet.
Pretty good rain around 2:15, then an enormous storm from the S from 3 to 3:20 or so. Tons of rain, blowing sideways through the bar/restaurant. It's from a tropical wave that's passing over.
Back out to the boat around 5. On the way out, gasoline squirting out of the side of the outboard fuel-line's squeeze-bulb when I squeeze it. This explains the weird fuel-related behavior I've been seeing.
No damage from the storm. Crosswind blew a towel out of the pilothouse onto the side deck.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-07-15 (Sunday)Loafed all day. Couldn't get any Wi-Fi.
Cleaned more old caulk off the toe-rail teak.
Realized I have a very old spare outboard fuel line, with a new-looking squeeze-bulb in it. So I'll use that bulb.
Worked on the outboard squeeze-bulb. Sure enough, there's a crack in the bulb. Fetched the spare bulb, took apart the fuel line, tried to put on the new bulb. But it won't go on, and the hose started splitting. Looks like the old and new are slightly different sizes, maybe 1/4" versus 5/16" or something. Tried to pry apart old bulb to get parts out of it. Got frustrated and hot and sweaty, drew blood a couple of times on my fingers with the screwdriver tip, gave up for today. Probably should go back to using old bulb, but I may have destroyed it already. Irritating.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-07-16 (Monday)Totally grey and rainy, low dark clouds hovering overhead. Heavy rain starting at 6:30, more 20 minutes later.
I was net controller again this morning. Couldn't get any Wi-Fi, so had to get "Silverheels 3" to do the weather.
Occasional sunshine starting around 10. Grey again before noon; rain at 12:15. Sunny again by 2 or so.
Got the outboard fuel-line together, but then couldn't get it primed with gasoline. Got it going later.
Was going to buy new bolt and nuts and washers for stanchions tomorrow, but then realized I should look through the spares I have aboard. And it turns out I already have everything I need.
Opened new fan-blade and installed it on the Caframo fan.
Opened AA battery charger I bought while in USA. Didn't occur to me that AA alkalines are 1.5 V, while AA rechargeables are 1.2 V. But put one into a clock I have, and it works. For now.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-07-17 (Tuesday)Launched the dinghy, pumped up the fuel line, and started the outboard. Wanted to make sure it works, ahead of the time to go ashore for the shopping van. Fuel line does work, but "new" squeeze-bulb ALSO has a crack/leak in it !
Still can't get any Wi-Fi.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Bought a big screwdriver (about US$10) at ACE, but they have no outboard bulbs. To machine-shop in boatyard, which was closed. Tracked down the guys out on the dock, and they told me the boss is off-island for 2 weeks, so nothing is happening on my wind-generator. Would have been nice if they'd told me that 4 days when I dropped it off. Into Budget, and outboard bulb they have is 5/16", same size I have and too big for the hose I have, so I didn't buy it. Cracked bulb is working well enough for now, if I keep my finger over the crack when pumping it.
To mall area, and walked with another guy to Scotiabank to use the ATM. Back to mall. Hardware store there doesn't carry outboard bulbs. Got groceries, chatted, back onto van, back to marina. Back to boat by 12:30.
Ashore a bit after 1. Did internet. Skype-called Mom and chatted with her. Found half a dozen urgent emails from the shipping agent, from last night and this morning, asking details on my shipment pieces. Sounds like she left everything to the last minute before the boat is leaving from Miami to Grenada. Typical. Responded as best I could, but probably a box will be missing and come later. At least most of the stuff is indeed coming.
Played Scrabble with Holly, Lilly from "Tiger Lilly", and Rose from "Exit Strategy". Nice game, and we used an official Scrabble dictionary, which was a first for me. I tied the first game and won the second by a couple of points ! Fun time, but I prefer dominoes.
Bummer: delete key on laptop has stopped working. That usually means it's time to replace the keyboard (again). First time on this laptop, but in past a keyboard would last 1.5 to 2 years before keys started failing.
Wi-Fi got unusable around 5; usually in the bar here it's been very reliable.
Ran into the couple from "Canale" on the dinghy dock, and they want to pay me the EC$400 I asked for the hard dinghy, which they've been using for a month or two. Great !
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-07-18 (Wednesday)Tried to help "La Aventura" over radio with a laptop that won't boot, but he's running Windows XP, has no boot CD's, and is in a different anchorage. Then a boat right next to him joined in, and I was happy to pass the situation over to that guy. And he suggested a sensible thing I was too slow to think of: reseat the memory. I had already suggested running hardware diagnostics in BIOS.
Still can't get any Wi-Fi from the boat. It's maddening; I can connect to 3 or 4 signals, but sometimes they go away just after I've connected, or never connect all the way to the internet, or say they've connected to internet but 10 seconds later say they've lost the connection to the internet.
More cleaning of the toerail teak trim, cut a notch in it, applied caulk, mounted it, got the stanchions on and the bolts through, got the nuts on, mounted the propane platform on top. Done !
Salad and yogurt and PB-sandwich for dinner.
2012-07-19 (Thursday)Got a bit of Wi-Fi from the boat. Ordered a new keyboard for my laptop.
Did some more water-temperature measurements; seems to be 84 F at all depths.
Dinghied ashore around 10. Exchanged a couple of books at the book-exchange. Then went for a walk; long-overdue exercise. Up and over to the main road, and ran into Lynn. We stood and chatted for a while, then walked back together, past Prickly Bay. I told her I was measuring water temperatures; she just got certified as a dive-instructor here, and she says the water is the same temperature down to 100 feet. Chatted about various other things, and I gave her a dinghy-ride out to her boat. Hot today.
Added water to the batteries, and one battery took a fair amount.
Worked on hatch for chain locker. Drilled holes. Found I don't have any bolts that would work. Got out two jars full of stuff reclaimed from getting rid of the genset, headliner, toerail trim, and dumped it out and sorted it. Still no appropriate bolts, so I'll have to buy some.
Chili and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2012-07-20 (Friday)Lady on "La Luna" was net controller this morning. She reminded us that the first moon-landing was on this date in 1969, and said they have a special feeling for it because of their boat-name. But they don't say "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind" when they get out of their dinghy.
Ashore at noon, to do some internet. Marina bar/restaurant full of water; they're mopping everything down.
Salad and leftover chili for dinner.
Went ashore a bit after 7. There's a big charity concert in the marina bar/restaurant tonight, in support of a young local guy who plays violin and is going off to a top music school. As I approached the dock, I heard some solo violin, which I'm sure was technically good, but too high and screechy for my taste. Then they switched to a 3-person band with some pretty lousy singing. I stood outside for a minute, listening. Lots of people there. But I decided I'd rather go back to the boat and read my book and have a rum-and-juice. So that's what I did.
2012-07-21 (Saturday)Can't get Wi-Fi from the boat.
Sudden heavy rain at 10:30 and more through 11 or so.
Dinghied ashore at 2:45, giving Nick from "Irony" a lift, to go to the hash. A hash is a party/hike through woods, mud, creeks, hills, etc. Jammed everyone into a chock-full van, then off for a too-fast ride over twisty, hilly roads. This driver takes corners a little too fast for my taste, and tailgates. Anyway, we got there (Windsor Forest in St David's) in one piece.
During the ride, several people said last night's concert/party was a lot of fun, so I guess I should have gone to it.
Stood around for a half-hour as people chatted and then the leader yakked at us about various "fun" rituals they have. Let's get on with it ! I chatted with a couple of guys.
Finally we're off. Straight up a brutal road-hill, up and up. Then down a road, and onto a dirt/grass road with plenty of big muddy patches everywhere. Easy to slip and hurt your back while trying to catch yourself. I'm working to stay in the middle of the pack, so I don't get stuck behind the slowpokes at the tail. And it worked; we kept cruising along. Down onto a narrow, muddy trail, across a creek on a broad concrete bridge. A long, narrow trail up the hillside on the other side, and I ended up in the lead of our clump for a while.
Finally up to the top, and some confusion about which track was the right one; they put down some false trails for us, too. Easy walk along a road, then a junction with people yelling contradictory instructions at each other. We're close to the end. I just followed some people along a road, and it turned out not to be the marked trail, but took us back to the right place anyway. And passed by our van, where I was able to grab my bag with dry clothes, money, etc.
Not too many good view opportunities on this hash, but I took some pictures: pics.
Nick and I bought each other a couple of beers, which went down a treat. No rain on today's hash, so everyone's still dripping with sweat.
Then another 2 hours to kill while people partied, chatted, listened to more hash-ritual nonsense. Had some nice conversation with a guy named Mikey, who is an interesting guy. From London, originally, I think. A musician and composer. Has property in Manhattan, has bought land in Bequia and intends to settle there. Has a sailboat on a mooring in True Blue Bay; cruised for a couple of years. Is RV-cruising in the USA now; has RV's the E and S areas of the USA.
Finally we're into the van and going home. Except 1/3 of the people had to get out to lighten the load up that first brutal hill. Fortunately I was all the way in the back corner and didn't have to get out and walk.
Back to the marina. Paid EC$20 for the bus trip. Almost forgot to give Nick a ride back to his boat. Back aboard my boat by 8. Hoisted dinghy, opened up boat, took a shower, cheese sandwich for dinner.
2012-07-22 (Sunday)Headache. Took a sumatriptan.
Loafed all day.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-crannberryjuice for dinner.
2012-07-23 (Monday)Got 5 minutes of Wi-Fi, just enough to get the weather forecasts, and then it was gone.
I was net controller again this morning. And a new feature: gave the weather forecast through a repeater on channel 81 at 7:25, too. Supposedly for the fishermen, although I doubt anyone was listening.
Morning turned grey and rainy and still and humid. All of the energy went out of me; napped for a while.
At noon, very dark and lots of rain. And it kept raining until 4 or so, slowly tailing off and getting lighter and lighter. But the sky stayed dark with low grey clouds. Everything drenched.
A boring day. Batteries slowly getting drained, so I can't use the laptop. Juts lying in bed reading a book most of the time.
Started the engine at 4:30 and ran it for 30 minutes to charge batteries. Started and ran fine. But I tried cycling the bilge-pumps, and they don't seem to be working.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
Batteries running down during the night. So, started the engine at 1:05 AM and ran it for 20 minutes. Sky fairly clear, so maybe tomorrow will be sunny.
2012-07-24 (Tuesday)Very dark and rainy and low clouds again this morning. Sky at 7:25 looks like this: pic.
Started pouring rain at 7:30, then strong squall from NE at 7:45, and rain kept going to about 8:15. Then grey and fairly still.
Getting a bit of a glow from the sun, and a little solar power, by 10 or so. Some real sunshine by 10:30 or so. Good to open up the boat and get air through, and charge all of the batteries.
Ashore at 12:30, to do some internet. Played a game of Scrabble with Lily and Colleen, and got clobbered; I drew just about all vowels, and Colleen is a very good player. Big rainsquall came through around 3:30. Exchanged several books at the bookshelf.
Haven't been able to get to my credit-card's web site for the last couple of weeks, and a payment is due on the 28th. Cleared cache and deleted cookies. Spent about 20 minutes with their tech-support through Skype, getting disconnected a couple of times, with no luck. Tried three different browsers. I suspect something country-related must have changed on their end. Tried pinging their servers, and all pings to them fail, even to servers where the browser is able to load a page successfully, which makes little sense (maybe HTTPS is interfering ?). They don't seem to support email to tech support, only phone calls.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2012-07-25 (Wednesday)Sunny morning with a nice breeze. Supposed to pour buckets again on Saturday.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Got a lot of decent Wi-Fi. Shipping agent asked for copies of my boat-docs, so I think some of my parts are arriving.
Grey clouds coming over at 9:30. Had to take all of the laundry in, then put it back out.
Aha ! Was able to connect to my credit-card's web site and make a payment. They must have found and fixed a problem after I talked to them yesterday.
Watched a couple of nearby boats swinging extremely close to each other, repeatedly: pics. There's someone aboard one of them, watching out. The wind here swirls from odd angles, and these boats are on a single anchor with lots of rode out.
Before 3, I heard anchor chain rattling. Popped my head up to find one of those too-close boats has moved, but now someone new is anchoring in the same general area. And probably too close to me. But I don't feel like telling them so. Later saw that they seem to be okay.
Went ashore around 5 and took a nice walk to get some exercise. I tend to sit on the boat; not good for my health.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2012-07-26 (Thursday)In afternoon, got out the big putty-knife and the orbital sander, and attacked the pilothouse. Up onto the roof and scraped and sanded lots of peeling paint. Then down to deck and did the same on the outsides and up underneath on the outside. Messy job and I got a lot of sun. The sandpaper is 100-grit; wish I had 80 or maybe even 60. But it worked.
At 3:45, boats "Odyssey" and "Tiger Lily" bumping together stern-to-stern: pic. People went over in dinghies to separate them. More boats in this bay than last year, and the wind here is fluky and swirly.
Chili and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
Ashore at 7; there's a solo musician at the marina restaurant who's supposed to be very good. Hard to find a spot at the dinghy-dock, and the restaurant is full. Stood there chatting for a minute, then Ken gave me a free beer. Chatted some more, music finally started. Chatted with Sherri for a while. Music not to my taste; stuff like "Volare" and "Mack the Knife" and so on. Started to leave, chatted with George for a while, back to the boat by about 8:30.
2012-07-27 (Friday)Developed fairly bad headache around 5 AM. Took a sumatriptan around 7.
Pumped up the dinghy bow-tube. Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van.
Several days ago, a dinghy was stolen during the night from a boat in Prickly Bay, and some other items were stolen from another dinghy. This morning, a very distinctive pirogue with a 55-HP outboard on it is missing from Prickly Bay. Might have just gone adrift, or might have been stolen. Not good.
To a hardware store, but no outboard bulb or wind-gen bolt. To ACE Hardware, bought a couple of bolts for the chain-locker hatch, and a gallon of paint for the pilothouse (EC$78; about US$30). To Budget, where I exchanged a couple of books in the restaurant.
To IGA, where I got paint-rollers at the hardware store, then a lot of groceries at the supermarket. Stopped at CK's, where I got a couple of cans of nuts to take to Sherri's birthday party. Back to the marina before noon, but my can of paint is on the other bus, which will come later.
Half an hour later, bus that had had my paint on it came to marina, but my paint has been transferred to the other bus, which will come back still later.
12:35, a couple from another boat came by and dropped off my paint.
Read on Facebook: a cruiser was shot in the leg on his boat in Bequia, by intruders. Not good. I was there last year, and it seemed safe then. It hasn't been safe this year; lots of thefts, and now this.
Radio call at 1:30, ashore at 1:45, and Sherri arrived with a truck full of goodies for half a dozen boats. A bit confusing sorting through everything, and someone (probably USPS) sliced open my heavier box of books to inspect it, and left it half-sliced open; books bulging out of the corners.
Got my stuff and headed out to the boat. Decided to open the heavier box of books in the dinghy and throw the books up onto deck in clumps; was afraid I'd lose the whole box into the water, or lose several books, if I tried to hoist the whole box up onto deck. Finally got everything into the cockpit, and there's a lot of it: pic.
Added the books to my "in-pile" in the shower in the aft head, and now I have quite a pile there: pic.
Started checking off other items. Got the jib-sheets: pic. Got the chain-claws: pic. Got the new oil-filter mount and oil filters: pic. Got 3 out of 4 of the new Wi-Fi pieces: pic (the guts of it, the "bullet", is a lot smaller than I expected).
I didn't receive: dominoes set, blood-pressure cuff, MP3 player, Wi-Fi antenna, boat-trailer winch, laptop keyboard. First 4 items are coming in same box from Amazon. So I should be getting 3 more boxes.
Salad and leftover chili for dinner.
2012-07-28 (Saturday)A little headachey.
Skiff stolen out of Prickly Bay yesterday or night before was found a couple of bays away, up in the mangroves and fairly damaged. But it was recovered. [Later, heard the prop was destroyed, hull damaged.]
Wired the POE (Power Over Ethernet) device to 12 VDC, but no LEDs light up. Connected it to laptop and Ubiquiti Bullet, and got some activity. But I have to go online to download a manual for the Bullet. And then I'll still have to wait for the antenna to arrive.
Ashore at 1, to do some internet. Downloaded manuals for the Bullet. Couldn't Skype-call Mom because people around me were watching the Olympics. Swimming, gymnastics, tennis, maybe some volleyball. Didn't look very interesting.
The Norwegian from last year is back.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-07-29 (Sunday)Headache at 3 AM. Took ibuprofen, which did nothing. Took a sumatriptan at 7:15 or so, and didn't feel okay until after 9. Still tired.
Tried the Wi-Fi Bullet. It has power, but I think my laptop has its ethernet turned off, or the cables are wrong. Can't get the browser to connect to the Bullet to do admin.
Loafed most of the day. Rain at 3.
Second bilge-pump seems to work, with simple on-off test. Really should flood the bilge to test both pumps properly.
Gave myself a haircut.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still evening and night.
Frequent heavy rain from midnight-30 to about 4:30. Almost no wind.
2012-07-30 (Monday)Hot, fairly still morning.
I was net controller again this morning. Gave the weather forecast through a repeater on channel 81 at 7:25, too. Someone was listening; got a thank-you.
There's a storm developing, called "Invest 99". About 1800 NM E of here, fairly weak, could come here or go N of here or dissipate. Will have to watch it.
Was going to paint the pilothouse a bit today, but by mid-morning it's breezy from the SW and lots of dark rainclouds around.
By 2, the weather was more promising. Still plenty of clouds, but they're all white instead of grey. Got out the painting materials, and went at it. Cheap roller shed some fabric at the start, but then was okay. Painted the port 3/4 of the pilothouse roof; will have to move the solar panels to sand and paint the rest of it. A bit windy, trying to blow drips and splatters off the roller.
Then off the roof, and painted the outsides and up under the overhangs. A bit messy, with a few drips onto deck, and wind blowing drips unpredictably. Boat rocking at times, to throw me off-balance. Hard to touch up the edges, with the paint drying quickly; sometimes the brush takes off old paint instead of putting on new paint. Mostly done by 4, and it looks pretty good. Used about 2/3 of the gallon.
Gave myself more of a haircut.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-07-31 (Tuesday)Launched the dinghy early. Had a tough time getting it primed and started; crack in fuel-bulb is a little worse. Probably should have stopped right there.
Loaded it up with garbage, and took off around 7:30, heading over through Hog Island anchorage and to Woburn town dock to dispose of the garbage. Got about 2/3 of the way there, just past Hog Island bridge, when the motor quit and I couldn't get it primed again. Crack in fuel-bulb is much bigger, I guess. Tried and tried, and gave up when I started blowing in to shore. Got out the paddle.
Had to paddle slightly upwind to get out to the middle of the bridge; not easy. Then tide and wind helped me through the bridge. Paddled another 200 feet or so, past a couple of boats. Into a clear area in the anchorage, and someone in a skiff swung by to see if I needed help. But they're going the other direction, on a schedule to drop someone off, and I need to go all the way around to Secret Harbor. So no-go.
I tried the motor again, and finally got it primed and running. Headed for home, hoping it would keep going. Through the anchorage, through the reef gap, around the headland, and into Secret Harbor. Closer and closer, and then the motor quit about 200 feet short of my boat, and again I couldn't get it going. Paddled the rest of the way back.
Well, that was stupid, and I'm still stuck with the garbage, but it could have been a lot worse. Could have been stranded downwind in Woburn, with no way to get back except begging a tow.
Got a ride ashore from David to catch the 9:30 shopping van. Two vans, and we're crammed in. To ACE Hardware, and bought a small tarp and some paintbrushes. To Budget Marine, and bought a fuel-line squeeze-bulb (EC$50, about US$20). To the machine-shop, and the boss has just gotten back from his trip, and is completely snowed under. Told him I'd be back in a week.
To Scotiabank, and got cash. To the supermarket for groceries. Right onto the van, crammed as usual, one stop, back to the marina. Got a ride out to my boat, back aboard by 11:35.
Lunch. Put the new bulb in the fuel line. Seems to work, mostly, but fuel still is leaking from somewhere, maybe the ends of the new bulb. Good enough to get me ashore at 12:30 to do internet. But the internet in the bar isn't working. Back to the boat. Hot day.
Got some Wi-Fi from the boat, but it was very intermittent.
Nice-looking sailing dinghy: pic.
Tried that new tarp as a sun-awning, but it's not big enough and not opaque enough. Put the old one back in place (but it sheds flakes of plastic).
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-08-01 (Wednesday)That storm "Invest 99" looks like it is coming here, but maybe not as a strong and organized storm. Supposed to be up to 30 MPH now, 1000 miles E of here, moving at 15 MPH. Supposed to get 20-25 knots of wind on Friday and Saturday, maybe Sunday. Wi-Fi is balky this morning, so I can't see the forecast myself. [And readers, please don't try to email me info about the storm. If I can't get internet to see the forecast, I can't get your email either. Thanks.]
Up onto the pilothouse roof at 9 AM to detach the solar panels and move them, so I can sand and paint where they were.
Finally got some Wi-Fi. 2 AM forecast says Invest 99 intensity is 25 knots, forecast to be 78 knots in 5 days or so. Then the connection hiccuped and the map I was looking at disappeared ! Frustrating. Got it back. Four models have it coming over Grenada; two models have it going more north. Should be here in about 4 days, with central wind up to 75 knots. Not good.
I'd better start untwisting my anchor chains and raising anchor. I think they've dragged a little, and I want to be on one anchor and ready to move to shallower water closer to shore.
Untwisted the third anchor rode, the easy one, the rope rode. Then it started raining, at 9:30.
Got the third anchor up via the dinghy. Started trying to untwist the two anchor chains, and it's a mess as usual. Tried from the bow, from the dinghy, no luck. Put a line and fender/float on the secondary anchor chain and let it go. Got confused about which way the twist goes.
Started the engine and tried to get some play in the anchor chains. Then realized the engine wasn't moving the boat much. Shut it off, snorkeled under the boat, and scraped hull and prop. Lots of growth; hadn't realized it was so bad. Snorkeled down along the anchor chains, but I can't get deep enough to see how they're twisted.
Finished snorkeling, went aboard. Ran engine again, boat moves well now. Still not getting chains untwisted. Stopped for lunch.
Lots of radio traffic. Some boats heading over to Egmont Bay, some leaving for Trinidad. Nice to have some boats leave this bay, but more are coming in from other places. Half a chance the storm will come right up the channel between Trinidad and Grenada; hope no one gets stuck out in open water with the storm coming.
Wish I could get these anchors up and move into a shallow corner of this bay, up against the mangroves, before the spots get filled. And of course some local guys have put a bunch of unused moorings up there, just where I want to go.
Other than the anchors, I'm in reasonable shape. Engine and dinghy working, sails down, plenty of food and water. Should get a little more gasoline for the outboard. No wind-generator to lash down; it's in the shop. Need to re-attach the solar panels before the storm, but that's easy.
Storm could go N or S of us, or straight over, if it comes at all. So no telling from what direction the worst wind will come.
Snorkeled, ran engine, went out in dinghy again. No go. Gave up at 2:15. I need a diver. The depth is 22 feet or so.
Started calling on the radio at 2:30, but not getting a response. Finally "Blue Pelican" said they'd give the message to the service I was trying to reach. Then the guy from a boat next to me came over, looking to do some business. He snorkeled down to look at the situation a couple of times, came up shaking his head and saying he could probably get it done on just one tank of air, and asking US$200. Sounds outrageous to me; I told him I'll see what the local service wants. Shouldn't be a very difficult job: get down to the bottom, pick up the end with the rope tied to it, untie the rope, unwind that chain from the other chain, re-tie the rope. Lots of barnacles on the chains, so not a trivial job. But recently the local service spent all day cleaning someone's hull for about US$100.
I keep getting just enough Wi-Fi to upload the log file (and even that's a struggle), but not enough to get the weather forecast or do anything else online.
"La Luna" at 3:05 PM said in 2 PM update, the storm center was at 12N 48.2W and most models have it going NW, and thus N of us. I'm at 12.0N 61.4W here, so any N component in the motion will save us.
Got a tiny glimpse at the forecast myself, and it says storm motion is WNW. Then saw the whole 2 PM forecast, and most models have it going well N of us, in the Guadeloupe to St Martin area, and one has it going to Martinique, still well N of us. And forecast max winds have decreased from 78 knots to 64 knots. All good for us.
Ken and Lynn stopped by. Lynn complained that one of the marinas did some dredging, dropped the spoils in an unexpected place, and she blew out the dinghy prop on it.
At 5:30, the local dive/cleaning service called back, said they could be here midday tomorrow, it shouldn't cost more than EC$150 (about US$60). So they'll call me tomorrow when they're ready to come over.
At 5:45, heard on the VHF that 5 PM update has the storm still going N of us. South-most of the models has it going to St Vincent or St Lucia. But then someone came on and said there was a similar forecast for hurricane Ivan in 2004 before it hit Grenada.
A couple of boats left, heading for Trinidad. I'm sure some left earlier too, from other bays.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
I'm a bit nicked-up and sunburned from the efforts today.
2012-08-02 (Thursday)Cruiser's net said storm TD5 was at 12.7N 51.7W at 2 AM, moving WNW 16 knots with 1008 mb and 30 knots at center, might not strengthen as much as previously forecast. Forecast to go N of here, but it's a little worrying to me that it seems to have moved straight W since the data 5 PM yesterday.
Some complaints on the net that many boats haven't taken down roller-furling sails, some put out second anchors without knowing which way the wind will come from.
Got a little Wi-Fi. 8 AM forecast from wunderground gives 12.9N 53.5W, wind 35 MPH, moving W at 20 MPH, should be directly N of us on noon Friday with us just outside the boundary with wind between "less than 39 MPH" and 39-73 MPH. So it will come close by, and a southward tick in the path could mean strong wind for us. But even so it wouldn't be too bad. Still, I gave a message on the net saying we shouldn't take our eye off this storm just yet.
Up onto the pilothouse roof. Sanded the patch under the solar panels. Didn't realize my pack of sanding disks was a "variety" pack; I'm down to 120-grit paper. Painted on the roof, then at the top-aft-underside of the pilothouse. Touching up around previously painted areas, I realized I probably should do a second coat. Maybe not. Used up the gallon almost exactly doing this coat.
By 1:45 or so, paint on top of roof is dry. Went up there and put the solar panels back into place. Strong, gusty wind.
Got the 2 PM storm update from wunderground: center at 13.1N 55.3W, 35 mph gusts 45 mph, movement W at 19 mph, 1008 mb. Around 40-45 mph as it hits St Lucia 9 am Friday. Strengthens after that. So, still good for us here in Grenada.
No contact with the dive service by 2:10. Maybe they're not coming today.
Dive service called around 2:30, apologized for delay, said they were walking over from the next bay (their boat was stolen and damaged). I went ashore, and bought some gasoline. Mentioned to Jerry that the price has gone down a little in the last 6 months or so, to EC$15.3/USgallon (about US$5.80/USgallon), and he said flatly "there's a general election coming up".
Moorings has moved half a dozen sailboats into the marina, and another half-dozen other boats have come in for the storm. This marina has very solid docks, but is fairly exposed to the SE, and I wouldn't want to be in it during a storm. But I guess if you don't have good ground-tackle, and maybe you're responsible for several boats, this is the best option. Jerry said the Moorings boats came here because Port Louis Marina is full. And it occurs to me that Spice Island Boatyard looked nearly full even before the storm; probably couldn't haul out there to avoid the storm.
Picked up the dive people at the marina before 3. Was expecting a black guy, but it's a white guy with plenty of tattoos, and a pretty woman.
Out to the boat, they used my dinghy as a platform, and the woman dove while the guy snorkeled. Bad news: the two chain anchor rodes are horribly heaped and twisted. The woman worked on it for an hour, diving half a dozen times, with little progress. Eventually they brought the end of the secondary chain up to my bow, and found my primary anchor and tied the float-line to it. They'll come back next week and we'll have to raise both anchors, take them off the chains, then raise all of the chain in a bundle and untangle it aboard their boat.
They were happy to get a hot shower and cool drinking water and towels and such aboard my boat; they were chilled from an hour in the water, even though it is 84 degrees. We had agreed on EC$150, the guy was apologetic and asked for only EC$100, but I gave them EC$150 and promised more when they come back. Delivered them to "Lady Domina" nearby, the people who found their boat for them.
5 PM update on the storm: 12.8N 56.6W, moving W at 22 mph, winds 50 mph. So it's strengthened and ticked a bit S, toward us. Not good.
Showered and got my stuff together, and into the dinghy at 5:45. Long ride two bays E to Whisper Cove Marina. Saw a lot of boats not ready for the storm, still on single anchor or on a mooring, and boats out in the middle of big bays or in places exposed to long fetches in Clarke's Court Bay. I like to get my boat into extremely shallow water up against the mangroves somewhere, sheltered from 3 directions if possible. But it seems not many people here share that philosophy, or they've decided this storm is not a problem.
Met Ken and Lynn and Dave at the marina. We're invited to Sherri's birthday party. Hiked on a trail through the woods, then a long, stiff uphill to the main road. Down a little to Sherri's house. A lot more people than I expected, maybe a dozen cruisers, a dozen locals, half a dozen kids.
Grabbed some munchies and a beer. Too hot and crowded out on the back balcony, so several us congregated on the front walk. Soon after we settled down, there was a "boom" that shook the house. Sherri had lit the oven but too much gas had built up. Fortunately she got away with just some hair singed off her arm.
Heard some gossip. That troublesome Norwegian from last year has already managed to get himself kicked out of the marina in Secret Harbor, in less than a week, I think. Apparently they asked him to move to a different slip so a bigger boat could be fitted in, he refused for several days running, and they kicked him out. Now he's over in Prickly Bay.
Some good chicken curry and another beer, some birthday cake. Chatted with various cruisers. One guy, John, is from England, has sailed quite a bit around the Mauritius and South Africa area, is now on a slow circumnavigation. Started from Mauritius, went through SA, across to Brazil, up to Antigua, down to here, soon off to the Panama Canal.
I left the party around 8:45. Had a flashlight with me. Found the woods-trail fairly easily, to the dinghy, got going. Anxious trip back in the dark, a couple of local skiffs running with no lights in Clarke's Court Bay, cruising boats and new boats scattered everywhere in advance of the storm. Calm night, a little moon, and outboard kept running okay, fortunately. Back to the boat, hoisted and stowed the dinghy, opened up the boat, read in the cockpit for a while. Saw the other cruisers coming back from the party later, at least one dinghy running fairly fast with no lights on. I don't know how people can do that. I'm anxious running at slow speed with a flashlight.
2012-08-03 (Friday)At 4:30 AM, local radio said storm center is at 13.6N, moving W as usual. Good news if true; we're at 12.0N. Not sure of the time-stamp on that data.
Cruiser's net at 7:30 said storm is now called TS Ernesto. At 5 AM, center at 13.5N 60.7W, moving W 24 mph with 1004 mb and 45 mph at center, not very organized. Probably going to pass between St Lucia and St Vincent today. So looks like we'll be fine here.
Local taxi driver here at the marina announced that he won't be doing any more shopping trips out of here. I don't think most cruisers realized what he was saying. He's been feuding with a couple of the cruisers for the last year or so, tried to get a couple of them kicked off the island, wants to control everything here and gets offended if anyone tries to use a different driver. Someone arranged a special shopping trip yesterday with another driver, because of the storm, and now he's mad and cutting off his nose to spite his face. [Later, he was keying over transmissions of another taxi-driver trying to announce a trip.]
8 AM storm data says 13.5N 61.5W, movement W, 45 mph winds, pressure 1002 mb. It's forecast to become a hurricane just S of Jamaica, probably head up the Yucatan channel.
Daryl and Ann from nearby boat stopped by, to make sure I wasn't irritated by his (high) offer to deal with my chains a couple of days ago. No problem, and I guess he was right about how difficult the job would be. They have a storm-anchor across in front of me, which they'll remove before the dive service comes back and I have to put out my third anchor up there.
Fairly still morning, and getting grey around 9:30. Decent Wi-Fi for a while. Got darker and darker, and rain from 10:45 to 11:45. Then sun trying to get through.
Someone gave the 11 AM update on the storm: center at 13.7N 62.3W, about 100 NM due N of us, moving W.
Interesting rain-catching device on a boat next to me: hang a bucket under the dinghy's drain-hole: pic. Good illustration too of how much junk there is on the stern of a typical cruising boat: dinghy in davits, arch to hold RADAR dome, solar panels, GPS antenna, wind-generator, fishing poles, MOB equipment. Here's stern of a similar boat on the other side of me, showing most of the same stuff plus two bicycles: pic.
Light wind from SW most of the day. Then dark clouds and rain starting at 2:30, and very dark with heavy rain starting at 3. Stronger wind, but not more than 20 knots or so, from SW to SE. Rain kept going and going, and mostly done by 5. A little more at 5:20.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
Batteries didn't get charged much today; going to get low overnight.
No rain, and light wind from S, during the night. A bit rolly, as the anchorage entrance is to the S and we've had a lot of S wind today.
2012-08-04 (Saturday)Cloudy morning, but some decent sun. Wind still mostly out of the S; normal wind pattern hasn't quite returned.
Cruiser's net seemed to say TS Ernesto was only barely past us at 5 AM; thought it should have been further W by then. Already tracking next storm, TS Florence, but it looks like it will go far N.
Weather getting dark grey again starting around 10. Boat spinning and spinning in fluky wind. Sunnier by 11.
The couple from "Canel" stopped by at 11:30 and paid me EC$400 for the hard dinghy. So that's settled.
Grey afternoon; not getting as much solar power as I'd like.
Worked on the hatch for the anchor chain locker, but then realized I needed to run the electric drill, so put it off until tomorrow.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-08-05 (Sunday)Weather seems to be back to normal.
Very little Wi-Fi access.
Report from someone in Egmont Bay: last night a thief swam out to their boat, but got scared off.
Added oil to the outboard. Unclogged the exhaust water vent.
Went ashore at 11. Stopped at the "boat jumble" sale in the marina, left a couple of free items, chatted with a couple of people. Went for a nice walk to get some exercise.
Back ashore at 1:45 to do some internet. Found a setting on my laptop that probably was killing my Wi-Fi access this week. And Wi-Fi in marina seems to be fixed (a separate issue). Email from Sherri saying some more of my parts have arrived. Watched a little of the Olympics on TV.
Added water to the batteries, and they took a lot.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-08-06 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. TS Ernesto is heading for the Yucatan peninsula; TS Florence is heading N of the Caribbean, and going to weaken.
Grey morning. Heavy rain at 8:30, frequent rain until 10:15 or so. Only the glow of sun by 11:30 or so. A little sunshine by 12:45. Almost no Wi-Fi today.
More rain starting around 2. Sunny by 4 or so.
Lots of cheering and screaming from shore around 4, I think. Then someone came on the radio to announce that a runner from Grenada had won the gold medal in the 400-meter sprint in the Olympics ! First medal ever for Grenada, I think. Today was a holiday here, and later I heard that tomorrow has been declared a half-day holiday in honor of the medal. [Saw later on Facebook: "Caribbean sweep in the men's 400 meter dash! Gold: to Kirani James (Grenada); Silver to Luguelin Santos (Dominican Republic); Bronze to Lalonde Gordon (Tobago)."]
Ashore at 5:30 to meet Sherri and pick up more of the parts I ordered. Received the boat-trailer winch, BP cuff, Wi-Fi antenna, MP3 player, dominoes set. Only the laptop keyboard hasn't arrived yet. She's bundling up all of the paperwork, so I don't yet know how much duty I'll have to pay to Customs.
Back out to the boat, to find that Gordon has returned from Antigua; he was here last season, and I bought the kayak from him. Chatted with him a bit. He's off to see a girlfriend in Venezuela. He recently did a 24,000-mile passage on a freighter, I assume as a passenger. He's a tough old Welsh guy, a bit deaf but interesting to talk to. Recently he built a semi-pilothouse for his boat. I'll have to find out what materials he used.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-mushroom-rice and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-08-07 (Tuesday)Headache at 4 AM; took an acetaminophen. Took a sumatriptan at 7.
Launched the dinghy at 7:15 and pumped up the bow tube, then loaded it up with garbage. I have about 2 months worth of garbage; had to leave some boxes on the boat, to take next time. Off on the long trip to the Woburn town dock. A long, wet slog into the wind and chop. Made it there okay, was in time for the garbage pickup, and got rid of the garbage. Across to CCBM, left about 9 books and picked up 3. Back to the boat by 8:35 or so.
I do these long trips to get rid of garbage because the town dock is one of the few places you can get rid of it for free around here. I had 4 big bags and 4 small bags and a big box today; probably would have cost me about US$20 at the marina here. And I like to get over to the book-exchange at CCBM every now and then, too, in the same trip.
Dinghied ashore for the 9:30 shopping van. A couple of stops, to the machine-shop, and the guy has forgotten to look at my wind-generator in the last week. To the resort, and exchanged a couple of books at the shelf. Got groceries, had a banana-peanut smoothie, chatted a while. Crammed into the van, two stops, back to the boat a little before 1.
Sudden big squall from the S at 2. Another sudden squall at 3:30 with much heavier rain caught Nick on "Irony" next to me, out on deck working on something, with lines and towels out and hatches open.
Drilled holes bigger and put together the clamps for the hatch for the anchor chain locker. My measurements were off by an inch or more, but some adaptation got it to work: pic.
Opened up the new boat-trailer winch I received: pic. Didn't expect it to be left-handed (handle on left side). [Later, someone pointed out that it is in fact right-handed; it was shipped with the cable coming out of the wrong place, which fooled me.] And swing of handle means I'll have to mount it on a platform 6 or 8 inches above deck; have to design that. But I want to stow it in a locker when not using it; a big platform would make that harder to do.
Opened up the new MP3 player I received: pic. Very simple, charges from USB, just what I wanted.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-08-08 (Wednesday)Confusing cruiser's net this morning. We use USA channel 68 for hailing here, and used to do the cruiser's net on there too. Now we have two repeaters available to increase range. So we do weather on international 81 before the net, for the fishermen. And starting yesterday, I think, we do the cruiser's net on international 66. And the net controller no longer has to repeat every item. It will take a little time to get used to this.
Rain at 9:30, then grey. Weather has been very variable lately; 2 hours of sunshine, then sudden squall and several hours of grey. Then maybe more sunshine for a while, then rain and grey again.
Sketched a design for the platform for the trailer-winch.
Charged my MP3 player and loaded a couple of podcasts into it.
Aha ! Got a little life out of my Ubiquiti Bullet Wi-Fi adapter: was able to log in to the administration interface through the browser. I think one of the Ethernet connectors was not clicked all the way in. Now I have to figure out how to mount it on top of the pilothouse, and how to do the software setup.
Made a bracket to hold the Wi-Fi antenna up on the pilothouse roof. I want to clip it up there just while I'm using it, and take it back inside when I'm finished.
Ashore at 1:15, to do some internet. Hot afternoon. Had announced a dominoes game at 2 on the radio, but no takers showed up in the marina bar. Back to the boat by 5 or so.
Took apart the Wi-Fi bracket, put it together better, and painted it.
Chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
Very still evening. Some bugs flying in the pilothouse.
2012-08-09 (Thursday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Put another coat of paint on the Wi-Fi bracket.
Ashore at 8:30 to do a walk that Lynn announced. I expected more people, but it was just Ken and Lynn and Sylvia and me. And the women set a faster pace and split off to do a different route, so Ken and I walked and chatted. Into the "bird sanctuary", up past the horse stables, through someone's side yard, and there's a Visitor's Center hidden back there ! Closed and looks like there's nothing in it, maybe. Up a trail behind it, until we got confused and called out to hear where the women were. They yelled back that they were scrambling up a rock-side we wouldn't like, so we turned back and so did they. We met up back by the marina, after some good exercise and conversation. Back to the boat by 10:30.
Sudden rain at 11:30 out of a sunny sky made me scramble to get the laundry off the lifelines and close the hatches and ports.
Can't quite figure out how to configure this Bullet Wi-Fi adapter.
Just as I found the magical button I'd been missing in the Bullet admin interface, more rain at noon. Had to shut down the laptop, with rain coming into the pilothouse and solar power lagging.
Used the MP3 player for a while. Sound quality is great. Since it's absolutely the bottom-of-the-line simplest model, it lacks buttons to skip forward or back within a single audio file. Since I'm using it to listen to podcasts which can be up to an hour long, instead of 3-minute songs, that's a bit of a pain. Other than that, it's fine.
Nice and sunny for a while, so at 1:15 I fired up the laptop and started trying for Wi-Fi. Almost immediately, a grey cloud popped up over the hill, rain started, weather turned grey.
Messed around with the Bullet Wi-Fi adapter for an hour or more, and couldn't quite get it to work. Put the Bullet and antenna (pic) up on the roof, and I can see and select access points, but not fully connect to any of them. Some setting must still be wrong.
That Norwegian guy was on the radio, sounding completely drunk, saying his wife had flown back to Norway for a while, and he was in the marina bar looking for someone to drink with.
Headache in the late afternoon; took some acetaminophen.
Leftover chili and cheese sandwich for dinner.
Interesting-looking cloud formation hovering over the SW end of the island for a while: pic.
Still have headache; took a sumatriptan and went to bed early.
Pretty good rain from 8:45 to 9 or so. Several more bursts of rain throughout the night.
2012-08-10 (Friday)Dive service still trying to get new prop for their boat, so they won't be coming over today (or any time soon) to get my anchor-chain-tangle up.
A little rain at 8, and then grey and a fair amount of rain at 9:30.
Spent another hour trying to get the Ubiquiti Bullet to work. For a while, thought I'd gotten it into a state where I'd have to send it back to the manufacturer to be reset, but I got it recovered from that. Still no-go.
At noon, again grey and raining. Sunny and windy by 2. I think a tropical wave is coming through tonight or tomorrow.
Spent about 30 minutes over radio with Ken, comparing Bullet settings and trying to get mine to work. But we have different models of the Bullet, I think, and definitely different versions of the software, and his network setup is a little different too. Had my Bullet in the wrong mode, but after changing lots of settings and numbers to match Ken's, mine still doesn't quite work. I think it's something as simple as not doing DNS right. Gave up and he's emailing me a bunch of files and correspondence from a support guy in USA. I think Ken wants me to go back to an older version of the firmware; I'm not willing to do that. Has to be a way to get it working. It's close to working.
Got out my last 6-foot 2x4, and measured and cut and sanded and painted to make a platform for the trailer winch. Here's what it looks like, without paint, and not bolted together: pic. I'm going to put a couple of eye-bolts through the base of the winch, and run lines to them, so the platform itself will just stabilize the winch, not have to take the main load.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-08-11 (Saturday)Opened up the dominoes set I bought. Other than one manufacturing defect on the back of one tile, it looks fine. Announced on the net that I'd like a game in the marina tomorrow at 2 PM. We'll see if anyone shows up.
Opened up the blood-pressure tester I bought and tried it out. Seems to work pretty well, and my numbers look good, although I'll have to test over several days to see how consistent they are. Before breakfast:
First try gave 103/83 and pulse 75.
Second try gave 108/83 and pulse 76.
Third try gave 108/83 and pulse 77.
I wanted to test my blood pressure to make sure these migraines aren't due to something more serious.
Sherri called me on the VHF and said she wanted to deliver the laptop keyboard to me. Went ashore at the appointed time, waited over 45 minutes, gave up. She's so unreliable.
Put more paint on the wood for the winch platform.
Drinking water system has developed a slight problem: pump cycles frequently even with all faucets off. Must be a slow leak somewhere.
Ashore at 11, to do some internet. And Sherri was there, with my laptop keyboard. Someone called from Customs, so she was late getting here. She says 30 minutes late, but she must have been at least an hour late. Got my stuff, anyhow.
Remnants of tropical depression 7 are going to pass N of us tonight or tomorrow. We might get some 25-knot wind out of it.
Lots of rain starting at 1:15. Rain pounding down by 1:35. Stopping around 2:20.
Back to the boat by 2:30, grabbed a late lunch, then back ashore by 3:15. Onto the van to the hash. Stops at PB marina and CCBM marina, and we're full. Off to a golf resort N of Clarke's Court Bay.
Got there at 3:45 or so, hash supposed to start at 4. But usual delays and rigamarole, and we didn't get walking until about 4:30. A large contingent from the university today, 2/3 of them women, and some quite nice-looking. Several people brought dogs, too, which are underfoot. Today is a themed hash: many people are wearing the Grenada national colors and ersatz Olympic gold medals, in honor of the Grenadian runner who won gold recently.
Down some streets along the golf course, up a hilly street, then onto dirt. And through a long stretch of deep, wet mud that was sucking shoes off some people. I'm wearing sandals, which I've done on the previous two hashes, but today they loaded up with mud and my feet started sliding around inside.
Through the woods some more, then a rock-climb up a hillside. Tremendous view down onto the Lagoon and Carenage and St George's, and of course today I forgot to bring my camera. A short climb around to the other side of the hilltop, and a tremendous view down onto the Ross Point anchorage and Grand Anse beach.
More through the woods, along a hillside, and my sandals are giving me real trouble now. I keep sliding sideways in the mud, either feet slipping inside sandals or sandals sliding on mud. I'm drenched in sweat, my glasses are fogged, sweat is dripping off my face or into my eyes as I try to look down at the trail. I wipe my face and glasses several times, with moderate effect. Have to step aside to let some people past who want to go faster.
Finally out onto a street, and then my feet are sliding inside the sandals as I go downhill. More uphill, nice view of Clarke's Court Bay, I think, then a steep downhill through semi-muddy earth. At that point, I take off my sandals and do better barefoot. Onto a street, sandals back on, and trek back to the golf resort building.
Toweled off and into a dry shirt, then went for a Coke and a couple of barbecued chicken drumsticks. Scored a chair (not many available) and sat and enjoyed the view and sipped my soda on the nice back porch of the club building. Nice view of some of the good-looking women, too.
After an hour or so, I was ready to go home. But the band was just starting to set up, and forgot to bring a 220-to-110 transformer, so they were late getting started. Then everyone was partying.
By the 2-hour mark, I was really antsy. Another couple on our bus wanted to leave, too. But the rest of our crew shows no sign of stopping.
At about the 3-hour mark, I made a pest of myself and started telling everyone it was time to go. A couple of the guys gave me some attitude, but I'm not here to party all night. They'd stay until 2 AM if the band and the beer lasts that long. The usual maddeningly slowness getting the van loaded up and going. And then on the way back, we stopped at a chicken shack. But they had no chicken ready, which was fine with me. One guy still managed to disappear to buy some beer, making all of us wait another 5 minutes.
Finally back to the marina. Paid EC$10 for the ride. Unlocked dinghy, got going with my flashlight on. Two others roared off at high speed with no lights through the crowded anchorage; reckless. Back onto the boat by 9. Hoisted dinghy, opened up boat, showered, had a sandwich, read a book. To bed.
No more hashing for me; I've had enough of that.
Some strong SW wind around 3:45 AM, probably due to that storm going N of here.
2012-08-12 (Sunday)Wind from SW, so a bit rolly this morning.
Finally got some connectivity out of the Ubiquiti Bullet Wi-Fi adapter ! The Windows network configuration stuff the manual says to do was completely the wrong thing to do; leave the Windows settings in default state.
But I'm not too happy with the Bullet. It doesn't seem to hold connectivity much better than my old little Rosewill adapter (maybe I need to get the antenna higher). It assumes you will connect to one Wi-Fi network and rarely need to change to another, which is not true for me. It runs hot. And it is fiendishly hard to configure the software settings.
Blood-pressure readings this morning, after breakfast and while using laptop:
First try gave 107/84 and pulse 86.
Second try gave bogus numbers.
Third try gave 118/81 and pulse 84.
Fourth try gave 111/81 and pulse 89.
Ashore at 1:30, to do some internet and get a game of dominoes. About ten people showed up at 2, and we split into two tables. Nice game with Katie, Harry, John and Lilly. But Katie beat me, in my first game using my new dominoes set. I was leading through most of the game, then had a disastrous last couple of hands.
People in the marina bar/restaurant watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. Some hideous modern atonal music, and a few good oldies from Beatles and Queen and such.
Big black storm-clouds over the island, not quite getting out to the anchorage. A couple of huge lightning-strikes well inland around 6:45.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-08-13 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. A few hiccups with the repeaters and some other things, but a very low-traffic net and it was done quickly. Maybe everyone went to the 5 AM Carnival parade.
Grey and trying to rain by 8:30; actually raining by 9:30.
Not much Wi-Fi today, even with new adapter and antenna.
Loafed all day.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2012-08-14 (Tuesday)Was doing nothing in particular, and muscles in my lower back suddenly went "ping". Sore back. Hate that.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Loafed most of the day.
Into the engine compartment to look for the water system leak. Not easy, since crouching over in there makes my back hurt. Heard a hissing noise from around or inside the water-heater (which I don't activate anyway, but the "warm" water circuit runs through it). Then found a pinhole leak in a copper line on the sole about 4 feet from the heater. So I guess I'll have to replace the line, and maybe get rid of the water heater. I wonder if I can mix plastic tubing and copper lines in a water system ? Are the fittings compatible ?
Put another coat of paint on the wood for the winch-platform.
Took some blood-pressure measurements, sort of in the middle of dinner, and first two while in a reclining position:
First try gave 127/81 and pulse 76.
Second try gave 125/91 and pulse 76.
Third try gave 118/86 and pulse 73.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-08-15 (Wednesday)Back still a bit sore.
One of the brackets holding my companionway ladder in place is tilted, and quick investigation shows that the head of one of the screws holding it has sheared off, leaving the shaft of the screw inside the wall. This will be a challenge to fix.
Dinghied ashore a little before noon. Exchanged a bunch of books at the bookshelf (at this point, I've read a dozen or more of the used books I had shipped in). A couple of cleaning-ladies asked me to broadcast their info on the radio so they can get some work cleaning boats. Went for a walk to get some exercise, while listening to my MP3 player. Chatted a little with George about my water-system problems, and thought maybe this is an opportunity to rig up a solar water heater on the stern deck and plumb it into the internal water system. Will have to think more about that.
Following suggestion of a reader, it looks like I could unscrew fittings in the copper water line, take up the section with the pinhole in it, and solder it to fix the hole. I hope the 39-year-old fittings will come apart without damaging the tubing. And I hope no other sections are getting ready to fail.
Chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
During the night, thought of a much simpler solution for the water-line leak: a bit of rubber sheet hose-clamped around the leaky tubing.
2012-08-16 (Thursday)Had email from a couple more readers, suggesting soldering the water line or clamping rubber around it. Thanks for the ideas, guys.
Went into engine compartment and clamped a rubber bit onto the water line with a hose-clamp. Worked like a charm !
Dinghied over to Roger's Beach Bar on Hog Island at 2 to play dominoes. Only Ron and Jeanne from "Olive" there, but we had a nice game and good conversation, and I won by a nose. They're from South Africa, did a lot of sailing down there.
Around 3:30, a cruising sailboat went aground at the entrance to Secret Harbor, about 2/3 of a mile from us. We watched as a flock of dinghies went out to help. Ron and I have dinghies with puny outboards, so no point in us going out there. The boat stayed aground, and about 10 dinghies were there. Saw them hanging a dinghy full of water out to one side on the boom, and a dinghy taking their halyard far out to one side to tilt them over. Nothing working, and light swell making the boat rock side to side. Fortunately conditions are very light, and I think it's a sandy shoal that they're on. But if a squall comes from the wrong direction, it would be bad.
Finished our game and I got back to my boat around 5. Took a picture of the grounded boat (pic), and then just as a Coast Guard boat arrived, the cruisers got the sailboat free. It came into the anchorage and anchored. Turns out to be "Troubador". Later heard that they were using a chartplotter to navigate, which is not a good idea in such a narrow entrance, especially with buoys and good visibility available. And I'm sure those shoals move a bit over the years. [Later saw this picture, taken by Linda L. Moore: pic.]
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
Still, warm night; didn't sleep well.
2012-08-17 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van, with long lists of stuff to get. At ACE Hardware, got bolts/nuts/washers for the winch platform, a couple of paintbrushes, and some sanding disks.
To the boatyard machine-shop. Always fun to look through a boatyard, and this one is chock-full of boats strapped-down for hurricane season. Pics.
My wind-generator is done, but I had to talk the guy down from EC$250 to EC$175 (about US$67), because half of this second piece of work was due to his mistake in the first piece of it. Then he told me he's never seen a KISS with that little "drain hole" in the front plate, and he thinks that's how the water got in, and I should plug it up. Then it turns out he has installed in his boat a used copy of the same Perkins 6.354 engine I have in my boat, so we talked about that for a while.
To the mall. Supermarket is a madhouse this morning; people missed two shopping days this week because of Carnival. Got out, and onto the van without too much of a wait. One stop on way back, loaded lots of bags and generator into my dinghy, and back to the boat by 12:40. Hot and not much breeze today.
Worked on one of the brackets holding the companionway stairs in place. One screw sheared off right at the head, and the other one turned out to be sheared off too, halfway down the shaft. No way to get either of them out of the wall. So I drilled new holes just under the screws, through into the engine compartment, and replaced the screws with through-bolts. The screws on the other bracket seem okay.
Around 3:30, heard a loud hissing noise in the anchorage. Kept going for 15 seconds or so, and might have been coming from a boat about 200 feet N of me. Maybe a propane hose sprang a leak, or a SCUBA tank venting ? Nobody home on that boat, or several boats near it.
Started drilling and bolting together wood for the anchor-winch platform. A bit tricky, since the hardware store didn't have the 8-inch or 9-inch bolts I needed to go through with one bolt, so I have to use a 6-inch and a 4-inch. And of course the two bolts I grabbed out of the 4-inch drawr in the store turn out to be a 4-inch and a 3.5-inch bolt. And I have to countersink a lot of big bolt-end-with-washer combos, which is going to be a pain. Can't find the hole-cutter attachment for my drill, and that attachment never works anyway. Maybe I'll try the Dremel.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
Another warm evening and night; didn't sleep well.
2012-08-18 (Saturday)More work on the winch platform. Drilled holes, used Dremel to cut an eyebolt shorter (pic), used Dremel to cut notches out of several washers. Managed to pop the fuse on the inverter while drilling. Pic.
Ashore at 1:15 to do internet.
Another tropical storm, Invest 94, has popped up. Forecast to become a 100-knot hurricane and go a bit N of here, but current forecast has tracks too close for comfort. But a lot could change in the next 3 or 4 days; it's a long way away from here.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-08-19 (Sunday)8 AM forecast shows Invest 94's center is up to 14.4N (we're at 12.0N), so likely it will go N of us, in 5 days or so. But most forecast tracks have it going only 200 NM or so N of us, with 100-knot winds.
More work on winch platform, doing counter-sinking. Hole-saw attachment for drill actually worked, for first time in my memory.
Ashore at 1:15, to do some internet and get a game of dominoes. Nice game of dominoes with Anne, John, Harry, Katy and Trina. Lead changed hands quite a lot, and then I couldn't quite catch John at the end. Several beginners showed up late; we could have played two tables.
2 PM forecast on Invest 94 still has it going N of Guadeloupe, or further N, so not a threat to us here unless something changes. It's forecast to strengthen to winds of 108 knots.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-08-20 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. A long net, with lots of weather info, lots of "Treasures of the Bilge", and some discussion of my style of repeating key info even though we're using a repeater to increase signal strength.
Invest 94 still forecast to go to NE corner of Caribbean or further N, no threat to us here unless something changes. Forecast maximum strength has decreased to 94 knots, still very potent. We're supposed to have very light winds here Tues and Wed and then again Sunday and next Monday; will make it hot.
Received some pictures from my friends on "Angel Louise", currently on Danube river between Bulgaria and Rumania: pic1, pic2, pic3.
8 AM forecast still has Invest 94 going to NE Carib, maybe 80 knots if/when it hits St Martin or so, 100 knots later, just S of Puerto Rico. Center now at 15.6N 44.8W, moving W, central wind 30 MPH.
2 PM forecast: center 15.6N 46.7W, movement W, winds 35 MPH. Forecast to go to 90-95 knots about 3 days from now, somewhere around PR, then weaken. Models still have it going anywhere between Guadeloupe and St Martin.
More drilling and countersinking and sculpting on the winch platform, and then some painting. Need to exchange a couple of bolts for slightly longer ones before it's ready to use.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-08-21 (Tuesday)Fairly still morning, not much wind.
Invest 94, has ticked slightly S overnight, center now at latitude 15.1N, I think. But still forecast to tick back a little more N. Probably will hit Antigua directly, and go over Puerto Rico too.
I think there's still a slow leak in the drinking water system.
"Troubadour" left around 8:30, escorted by four dinghies: pic. And the dinghies escorted them far out and over toward Prickly Bay. I guess they're nervous, having run aground on the way in. Or maybe they're heading over to Prickly Bay to haul out because of damage ? [Later heard: they need to have their rudder rebuilt.]
Did a bucket of laundry. As soon as I put the laundry on the lifelines to dry, around 10, low dark clouds came over and hovered, killing the sun. Stayed there for hours, no wind, brief rain at 12:30, then sunshine came back around 1.
Measured the cable on the winch; it's probably 40 feet long, but I need only 9 feet or so. Kept the whole length, cut the hook off the end, swaged a thimble onto it. Put a chain-claw on it.
11 AM forecast for the storm (now TD9) has it going over Guadeloupe, I think, just short of hurricane force. Then just S of Puerto Rico. Forecast to be category 2 when it hits Haiti and Cuba.
Found another leak in the water-lines in the engine compartment, but it was tough to fix. After half a dozen attempts with rubber and a hose clamp, got it down to a very, very slow drip. Mopped up all of the water from the leaks.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-08-22 (Wednesday)The storm, now TS Isaac, is following the forecast track, so going well N of us.
Very grey morning with little wind. At 9, light wind from S and tons of rain. Kept raining and raining until a little after 10. "Silverheels 3" had announced a hike at 8:30; wonder if they're ashore getting soaked. [Found out later: Lynn was hiking ashore and getting soaked.]
After the rain, everything grey and drenched. Still no wind. Feeling headachey.
Weather stayed grey and damp all day; not getting enough solar power. Wind from SW in afternoon, making the boat roll a bit. Catamaran "Purrfect" is dead upwind of me and too close for comfort, but their anchor is holding.
I've been trying to get the dive service to come raise my anchors, but between them fetching a new prop and the weather being variable, we haven't gotten together yet.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
Around 6:30, ran engine for half an hour to charge batteries.
Around 2:30 AM, batteries getting low, so ran engine for half an hour to charge batteries.
2012-08-23 (Thursday)S wind of about 20 knots started around 5 AM, followed shortly by an air-horn as a boat was dragging or swinging into another. Kept blowing until 9 or later. Wish I'd gotten around to putting the wind-generator back up.
Grey morning with very light rain. This S wind is bringing the swell right into the anchorage and making the boats pitch and roll. Wind is supposed to go E later today, but the swell will keep coming from the S for a while, so it will be rolly.
Blowing harder, maybe S 25 knots, by 9:15. This gives you an idea of conditions in much of the anchorage: pic. That hurricane up north must be sucking all of this wind up that way. Didn't hear anything about that storm on this morning's cruiser's net, and I can't get any Wi-Fi to look at it myself.
Still blowing hard, maybe a little more from SW, by noon. Light rain, too. "Purrfect" again swinging close to me.
Not getting much solar power today, so can't run the laptop. Too rough and wet to go ashore and do internet. Reading a good book: "The Collapsing Universe: The Story of Black Holes" by Isaac Asimov. A bit dated (1977), but fascinating. Some things I found interesting or new to me:
- Electromagnetic and gravitation forces both decrease with square of distance.
Electromagnetic is far stronger, but positive and negative particles tend to be mixed evenly and thus cancel out, while
there is no limit to the amount of mass, and thus gravity, that can be aggregated in one place.
So the universe tends to be controlled by gravity.
- Electromagnetic force can be attractive or repulsive, but gravitation is always attractive.
We haven't discovered an anti-gravity force.
- Temperature at center of Earth is 5,000°C or more,
close to the 6,000°C temperature of the surface of the Sun.
Center of Jupiter is around 54,000°C.
Center of Sun is around 15,000,000°C.
Core of a star about to go super-nova can be 6,000,000,000°C. - Pressure at the center of the Earth is so high (3,700,000 atmospheres)
that inside the liquid nickel-iron core, the very center is solid nickel-iron, despite very high temperature.
And atoms down there are compressed to 85% of the diameter they have at the surface (the pressure
forces the electrons further inward).
- I thought our galaxy consisted of a few million stars. Actually, it's estimated to
consist of around 120 billion stars.
- The most massive, O-class, stars, can have a lifetime of 1 million years or less.
The dimmest stars can have a lifetime of 200 billion years.
(The universe is about 14 billion years old.)
("Lifetime" of a star is from start of nuclear ignition until nuclear fuel is exhausted.)
("Birth" of a star, from condensing gas cloud to start of nuclear ignition, can be a few thousand years for a very massive star, many millions of years for less massive stars.) - A star can go "nova" very quickly, sometimes in one day. The brightness can
increase by a factor of 10,000 in that time. It may take
years to dim back to its pre-nova state.
- Reactions in the core of a star produce two kinds of massless particles, photons and neutrinos,
both of which can leave the star, taking away energy.
But photons get absorbed by matter and re-emitted constantly, and may take a million years to
get from the core to the surface and escape.
Neutrinos can get out in seconds, because they don't interact with matter.
When a star goes "super-nova", probably what happens is that the core reaches such a high temperature that suddenly incredible amounts of neutrinos are produced. They escape, taking out energy, and the core "cools" and collapses, perhaps within a matter of minutes. The implosion brings down "cooler" matter from higher in the star, it heats as it slams together, and all of the nuclear fuel in the star fuses almost at once. It explodes and may shine as brightly as an entire galaxy of stars, temporarily. As much as 90% of its mass may be driven away. - First-generation stars and solar systems are formed from primeval matter from the Big Bang,
and consist mostly of hydrogen and helium. So their planets probably don't have life.
Second-generation stars and solar systems, such as ours, are formed from matter from super-novas, so include heavier elements. And thus can support life. - A planet can rotate fast enough that the rotational force counters gravity to
some extent, and there is an equatorial bulge.
Earth's equator rotates 40,000 KM in 24 hours, and bulges about 1/300 at equator compared to diameter through the poles.
Jupiter's equator rotates 450,000 KM in 10 hours, and bulges about 1/16 at equator compared to diameter through the poles.
Sun's equator rotates 4,360,000 KM in 600 hours, and doesn't bulge at all (perfect sphere), because of fairly slow speed and huge gravity. - Earth collides with and retains about 35,000,000 KG of meteoric matter per day. Loses some mass via atmospheric leakage, but far less than the gain.
Still have headache; took a sumatriptan, and it took quite a while to work. Took several blood-pressure measurements, but they're all normal.
Fuel level 5.2 inches at engine hour 4822.
Leftover chili for dinner.
2012-08-24 (Friday)Weather still grey and wet and rolly.
Cruiser's net says that storm, TS Isaac, is passing S of Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic as a 45-MPH tropical storm, but is forecast to hit the Florida Keys as a hurricane. A couple of other storm areas to watch, but none seem likely to come here.
Got some Wi-Fi. 8 AM forecast says TS Isaac will become hurricane shortly after passing over the Keys, and then go to Pensacola or so.
Headachey; took some acetaminophen.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Exchanged a couple of bolts at ACE Hardware. Got cash at Scotiabank. Groceries, a little chat, stopped for veggies on way back. Rough, wet ride out to the boat through the edge of a squall. To the boat by noon.
Ashore at 1:30 to do internet. Sunny afternoon.
Around 4, lots of people showed up and had a birthday party for a cruising kid, so I scored a piece of chocolate cake with ice cream. Yum !
Still have headache; took a sumatriptan, and eventually that took care of it. When I get a headache these days, I don't know whether it's normal or a migraine.
Salad and a cheese sandwich for dinner.
2012-08-25 (Saturday)Fairly sunny morning. Did a bucket of laundry, got it half-dry, then by 10 dark clouds were popping up over the hill frequently. Rain starting at 10:15.
Before the rain, finished assembly of the winch-platform, took it out onto the foredeck, and put it in position with lines and claws and such. Need to play with positions of lines and platform. In the pic, you can see lines 1 and 2 running back to cleats, and chain-claws 3 and 4 ahead of the winch. Chain-claw 3 is on the cable and 4 is fixed to the winch platform. Pull chain in using claw 3, attach claw 4 to chain to hold it, run claw 3 out again to pull more chain. All of the loads come to a couple of big eye-bolts underneath and fastened to the winch body, so the platform itself really doesn't take any of the load. But the cleats are farther back than would be convenient, one line runs over the cabintop a bit, and the platform may lift off the deck when in use. Will have to play with it.
Grey, damp and fairly still all day. Rain from 3:15 to 3:45.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Needed just an hour of good sunshine today to dry the laundry, and didn't get it. Batteries not well-charged, either.
Up after midnight, and ran engine for 30 minutes to charge batteries. Hung the laundry in the engine compartment to use the engine heat to dry it more.
Fairly heavy rain from 3:30 to 4.
2012-08-26 (Sunday)Sunny in the early morning. Put out the mostly-dry laundry to dry the rest of the way.
Got my laundry dry and inside before big dark clouds starting coming over at 9:10. Rain at 9:15, then sunny again.
Ashore at 10:15 or so to go for a nice walk.
Ashore at 1, to do some internet and get a game of dominoes. Nice game with Trina, Lilly, Capt Ron, Anne and Jim. Hard-fought, but I came in second to Jim. Bought EC$110 (US$42) worth of diesel (at EC$14.19/ImperialGallon, supposedly, which is about US$4.55/USgallon, I think).
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Strange: several of my 12V incandescent lights have stopped working. Others still working, and I thought all were on same circuit. Could 3 bulbs somehow have failed almost simultaneously ? Maybe a wire came loose in the electrical panel.
Huge, powerful squall from the NE from 1:30 to 1:45 AM. Another not quite as powerful from 3:30 to 3:45. Some more rain after that.
2012-08-27 (Monday)Still, grey morning, everything drenched.
I was net controller again this morning. Went well.
A reader pointed out that my winch-platform will try to flip forward as I use it, since the cable is pulling forward from the top and the lines to cleats are lower down and pulling backward. Will have to see if that becomes a problem. Maybe I could make the cable leave from the bottom of the reel instead of the top ?
Dumped diesel from jugs into tank.
Caulked drain hole and a few other spots on the wind-generator.
Looked at the dead-lights problem. Couldn't find anything loose in the electrical panel. It's not due to blown-out bulbs. The three fixtures backing on the engine compartment are dead; must be that some common wire has failed.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-08-28 (Tuesday)Took off in the dinghy around 7:30, heading over through Hog Island anchorage and to Woburn town dock to dispose of garbage. Stopped at CCBM marina afterward to exchange some books. Calm weather; pleasant trip. A selection of boats in the Hog Island anchorage: pics.
Ashore at 11:15 or so. Bought another EC$110 of diesel. Went for a walk to get some exercise.
Started getting ready to climb mizzen-mast to put wind-generator back up.
Dumped diesel from jugs into tank.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-mushroom-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-08-29 (Wednesday)Around 10:15, climbed mizzenmast, hauled body of wind-generator up, and got it onto the bracket. Went well. Will have to climb again to put the blades on.
Ashore at 11:30, to do internet and go to a talk about passagemaking. Just listened to the talk with one ear; it's not the kind of cruising I want to do. Emphasis on downwind sailing, month-long passages, seasonal route planning, HF radio, etc.
I'm trying to arrange a 2-month vacation to Barcelona around May/June of next year. Apartment rental might come to $2K or less, airfare another $1K or so (from Philly). Getting a little frustrated doing searches on a web site; sent email to a rental company telling them what I want.
Saw this nice picture of St. George's University: pic. Supposedly some students refer to it as "the Hogwarts of the Caribbean". It's on the south shore of Grenada, about 3 bays W of me. In the picture, the bay with a dozen or so boats is True Blue Bay. Next one to E, you can see just a little tip of it, is Prickly Bay. Next one E of that is my bay, Mt Hartman Bay. You can see the airport runway just N of the university.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-08-30 (Thursday)Called the dive/cleaning service ("Mopion") to see if they can come raise my anchors. But they both have a touch of flu. Ragga offered to come over and just haul the anchors up from their skiff, but I don't think that will work. I think it will take a diver, which is why I called them in the first place. And right now, they're not in shape to dive. So we'll try again in a few days.
Climbed mizzenmast, put blades onto wind-generator, tied the tail to limit the degree of rotation. Down, and connected the wiring in engine compartment and at base of mast. Probably will have to wait several days for enough wind to see if it works.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Huge almost-full moon came up over the E hill. Tomorrow it will be a "blue moon".
2012-08-31 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Got off at the bank, walked to CK's and vegetable stand and Marketing Board and book-exchange at a resort, then supermarket. Chatted with Tom from "Essential Part" and a little with Rick from "Island Time". Onto van, stop at CK's, back to boat by noon.
Caulked the junction-box for the wind-generator.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-01 (Saturday)Very still morning; probably going to be a hot day.
Ashore at 12:30 to do internet. Looked at lots of apartments in Barcelona.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Extremely still evening; not a breath of wind. A little buggy in the cockpit, but I burnt a mosquito-coil for a little while and that worked.
Somehow the incandescent lights in the aft head are working again. What changed ?
2012-09-02 (Sunday)Headache; took a sumatriptan, and that fixed it.
Dinghied ashore at 11 to go to the jumble sale. Took ashore a folding chair I've never used, with a "free" label on it. Restaurant pretty crowded and noisy, and a struggle to find a spot at the dinghy-dock, too: pics.
Went for a walk to get some exercise, and the chair was gone when I got back. Chatted a little with Ron; found out he got a perforated eardrum while SCUBA-diving a few months ago. Nothing very interesting at the sale, and it was a noisy madhouse as usual.
Ashore at 1:45, to do some internet and get a game of dominoes. But first the AC power was down, then no internet. Finally got it going.
Nice game of dominoes with Anne, John, Ron, Jim, Harry. I came in second to Jim again. Gave him the domino flag to fly for a week.
Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner.
Fairly rolly much of the night; we had wind from S today, which brings swells from S later, and this bay has entrance to the S.
2012-09-03 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. A fairly long session.
Hot day, and boat still rolly. Don't feel like doing much. A little headachey.
Cleared some stuff off the side deck. I'm getting ready to paint the hull-sides. First I'd like to minimize the rust running from bow (anchor chains), down the side decks, through the scuppers, and down the hull-sides. Probably impossible to really stop it.
Bread-sausage-onion-mushroom-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-04 (Tuesday)Dinghied ashore and went for a walk.
Received some pictures from my friends on "Angel Louise", who have arrived at Istanbul: pic1, pic2, pic3.
In late afternoon, dug out a spray-bottle of acid. Wasn't sure if it was still potent; tried it on a few rusty spots in the cockpit. But then I got some into a small cut on my finger, and yow! it's still potent. Into the dinghy and wiped down rusty streaks on the hull-sides with the acid. They don't look so bad, close up; I think they're more noticeable from a distance.
Salad and leftover bread-concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-05 (Wednesday)Around 8:30, called the dive guy "Mopion" on the VHF and asked when they could raise my anchors. Some back and forth, agreed on Saturday, then they called back and said how about this morning ? So I hustled to clear the decks and get ready.
They came at 9, with 3 people, but no dive gear, just snorkeling gear. We put out my third anchor. Then we struggled to haul chains up and get to the tangles, but not much luck.
Eventually they took my advice and we hauled up the primary anchor by the buoy we put on it last time, and took it off the chain. More hauling from the bow, not much luck. They wanted to run lines to a winch or something, but all of my halyards are wire, who knows what would break at the top of the mast if we tried to force the anchors up, my sheet winches are far back and not sited well for this, and I have no anchor windlass. Lots of disagreement about what to do.
Eventually, they pulled their skiff around under my bow. With two people standing on the bow of it, and the two others hauling from my bow, we were able to pull the first tangle up. Then the two on the skiff could start unwinding the chains. A long, slow process. The tangles were massive, and even the primary chain by itself had been severely twisted before I put down a second anchor and the two chains twisted around each other.
They worked all morning, hauling and untwisting, and started making progress. I kept suggesting I start the engine and motor to free the anchor or take pressure off the chains, but they disagreed. And the wind is very light this morning; not much tension on the chains except for all of the weight. I think we pulled up about 4 major tangles. I kept supplying them with drinking water. The two down on the skiff were doing most of the work.
Eventually, just before noon, chain started coming up more easily, and soon it let go and the secondary anchor came up, and we pulled the primary chain free. Success !
I paid Ragga EC$250 and promised another EC$150 when I get more cash. With the EC$150 I paid a month ago for their first try, it's cost me EC$550 (US$210) to get these anchors up. I guess the lesson is not to put down two anchors unless I'm in extremely shallow water and can snorkel to bring them up when twisted.
Straightened up the foredeck and deck a bit. Had some lunch and rested. Tired, sweaty, and my hands are all nicked up with little cuts. Around 12:45, started the engine, raised the third anchor, and put down the primary anchor. I was too close to "Purrfect", and on mostly-rope. Now I'm further from "Purrfect", maybe a little too close to the mangroves, and on chain. Might move the anchor a little in a day or two.
Ashore at 2 to do internet. Skype-called Mom and chatted with her.
Picked an apartment in Barcelona (apartment) and sent a request to stay there for 2 months next year. Owner has 24 hours to accept/decline my reservation. Cost of apartment is about $925/month.
At 4 PM, people started showing up for a salsa lesson in the bar/restaurant.
Got a message that the lady in Barcelona is accepting my reservation, but haven't received confirmation from the web site. Although I see the site has the apartment as no longer available on the dates I specified.
Chicken-onion-carrot-mushroom-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still evening and night, but no bugs even though I'm very close to the mangroves.
2012-09-06 (Thursday)Bad news: had a message from the woman in Barcelona, saying she accepts my reservation, but the price on the site isn't right, the real price is higher. Not good. [Turns out the price she's asking isn't much higher, since Euro is lower than I thought. And it has to do with utility and cleaning fees. I'm accepting it and trying to make the reservation go through.]
Spent a couple of hours trying to do Wi-Fi, and it got less and less feasible. Frustrating; can't see if the woman in Barcelona is responding..
Dinghied ashore at 2 to catch a van. Off to Port Louis Marina in the Lagoon for a fishing seminar followed by a lobster barbeque. One stop at De Big Fish, then to the marina. Don't know why they picked us up so early; we arrived at 2:30 for a 3 PM seminar.
I went walking around the Lagoon, over to Grenada Yacht Club to use their book-exchange. Wearing new sandals, and they're rubbing blisters in my feet. Hot afternoon, and there's not much breeze in here. On the way, saw what looks like a sister-ship of mine, a Gulfstar 44 sloop: pic.
Took some pics across the Lagoon to a few big boats in Port Louis Marina, including a very odd-looking trimaran ketch: pic. Also a 5-spreader sloop: pic.
Exchanged 5 books. On the way out, saw some successful fishermen: pic.
Back around to the marina. Seminar has started, but doesn't sound too interesting to me. Wandered around the marina, taking pictures of interesting boats.
Wooden sloop: pic.
Trimaran ketch "Ultra" (our hosts for this event), showing how a cruising boat can get overgrown with toys and other stuff on deck (awnings, kayak, standing board, chairs, coolers, davits, gangplank, etc): pic.
Horribly overgrown RADAR arch on a sloop. And it's attached only to deck and transom, creating a lot of leverage there; I would have attached it to the backstays too. In second pic, I outlined it so you can see things better. Pics.
Sloop whose main feature is a satellite dome: pic.
Sloop which looks very "vertical" to me: pic.
Nice ketch: pic.
Powerboat with interesting "antenna tree" on top: pic.
Powerboat with 8 fishing-pole holders across the back: pic.
Tiny book-exchange in the marina office; exchanged a couple of books.
Hot day with almost no breeze in here; everyone's wilting. I had a beer, and that helped. We have awnings up for shade, but the concrete dock is radiating a lot of heat at us.
Local guys showed up with lobsters: pic.
Dock guys here use a couple of Segways: pic.
Huge line to get lobster from the local guys. The 2-pound tails for EC$30 looked tiny to me, so eventually I decided not to go for that. Walked out to the supermarket, bought some sausage and bread, and also a tub of ice-cream to contribute to the potluck. Grilled a piece of the meat, got some salads and such from the collective table, and had a nice meal. The ice cream went in a hurry; I snagged to last little bit of it, and 4 more people arrived right after me and were disappointed.
Nice conversation with Rick from "Island Time".
Back onto the van, back to the bay, through the dark to the boat by 7:15 or so. Opened up the boat to let it air out and cool, and read a book in the cockpit. Drank half a dozen glasses of water over the next couple of hours, to rehydrate myself.
Another very still evening and night, but almost no bugs.
2012-09-07 (Friday)Got a tiny bit of Wi-Fi. My Barcelona reservation has been declined; maybe I can make it again at the new price. Nope: original price was $925/month, owner told me they were raising price to $1000/month, but they actually raised price to $1134/month. Sent a message, price changed to $1040 or so. Trying to book it again. Hard with such flaky Wi-Fi.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Got off at the bank, walked to vegetable stand and Marketing Board and Scotiabank, then supermarkets. Had a pineapple-mango smoothie, then early bus back.
Ashore at 12:30 to do internet. Made another bid for that apartment in Barcelona, but no response.
On the way back to the boat, saw "Mopion" and paid the EC$150 I promised to Ragga for the anchor-chain work.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Another very still evening and night, and a few bugs this time.
2012-09-08 (Saturday)Heard that on Thurs night, a boat a couple of bays over was boarded and a lot of gasoline stolen. The theft here seems to be getting worse. But the police have caught at least one outboard thief, after someone local turned him in.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Struggled to get a tiny bit of Wi-Fi, and eventually got a little. And the woman in Barcelona has declined my reservation for 2 months at $1020/month, hoping to get a much longer reservation from someone else, a student who might take it for 9 months. So the heck with that apartment.
Was going to raise anchor and move slightly today, but ended up loafing instead. Pulled in 15 or 20 feet of chain to keep me a little further away from shore.
Grapefruit and salad for dinner.
2012-09-09 (Sunday)Got some Wi-Fi, and looked for a Barcelona apartment some more. Hot day. Put away the third anchor.
Ashore at 1:30, to do some internet and get a game of dominoes. Found a nice Barcelona apartment for cheap, but can't figure out how far from center it is. Nice game of dominoes with Harry, Anne, John, Trina, Lilly. Close game until the last couple of hands, and John won and took away the dominoes flag.
Picked another apartment in Barcelona (apartment) and sent a reservation request for it. It's bigger and cheaper but further out of center-city than the first one I tried. Looked at a dozen Metro maps and couldn't figure out what zone it's in and how much it will cost to get into center-city, but I think it will be okay. [Had to chat to Airbnb Support; their site was demanding a phone number and wanted to do a real-time verification, but I don't have a telephone of any kind.]
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Didn't sleep very well. Still night. Headachey around 4 AM; took a sumatriptan.
Fairly heavy rain starting at 3:45 and again at 4:45. Air-horn blasting as two boats were bumping together, and a third boat was trying to wake them up.
2012-09-10 (Monday)Grey, still morning with everything drenched.
Got a little Wi-Fi. Email explaining that Barcelona's Metro is run by two separate companies, and I was looking at route/zone map from wrong company. Confusing. No response from owner of the apartment.
I was net controller again this morning.
Feeling tired; back to bed for a couple of hours.
Very grey and more rain at noon.
Barcelona reservation was accepted !
Rain at 1:30, then sunnier. Untwisted the secondary anchor chain and cleaned it a bit. Lots of dead, rotting barnacle debris on the foredeck.
Glued one of my sandals which is coming apart.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Pretty good rain from 8:45 to 9:15 or so.
2012-09-11 (Tuesday)Dinghied ashore at 10:30. Bought EC$20 worth of gasoline. Exchanged a couple of books. Went for a walk, which was a bit awkward because one of my sandals is coming apart (not the one I glued yesterday).
After lunch, started engine, raised anchor, and moved 120 feet or so more out into the middle of the anchorage. Want to get away from the mangroves, get sun on solar panels earlier in the morning, and maybe get better Wi-Fi.
Got in the dinghy and wiped down the boat's hull-sides with acid to get rid of rust and film. Hull is starting to look so white that I may decide not to paint it.
Salad and leftover chili for dinner.
Heavy rain from 10:15 to 11:30 or so.
2012-09-12 (Wednesday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore at 12:30, to do some internet. Looked at hull-sides as I left, and the acid didn't work too well; need to try again.
Bread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-13 (Thursday)Just an idle thought: Are any of my readers reading this log on a smart-phone ? Is there anything I can do to make that experience better ? For example, is the page-width of the log file okay ? Contact me. Thanks.
[One reader suggested inverting order of the log so that most recent entry is at the top. The log was ordered that way at first, but to read through multiple days in order you had to read down, scroll up, read down, scroll up, etc, which didn't work well. So I changed it to current order.]
Dinghied ashore and went for a walk.
Cleaned out the outboard exhaust water port; thing keeps crudding up and stopping the cooling water.
Saw a para-sailer pop up a few times over the hill to the E of me: pic.
From about 4:30 to 5:30, absolutely zero wind, boats pointing every direction, very hot.
Salad and leftover bread-sausage concoction for dinner.
2012-09-14 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. On the way in, swung by a small sailing dinghy that looked to be in difficulty. Indeed, his rudder had broken off and he was steering with an oar, but he didn't want a tow, and he wasn't trying to get ashore in time for the van.
To ACE Hardware, and bought several small tools, to replace a screwdriver I broke, and to put a couple more tools in the pack I take in the dinghy. Walked to vegetable stand, nothing good today, then to Marketing Board store. To supermarket, then bought a pineapple-mango smoothie and chatted with Jim and Anne and others while watching a little Premier League soccer on the telly. Caught the late bus, stopped at CK's, bought some avocados down the street. Didn't get back to the boat until 12:45.
Got some decent Wi-Fi. Great: new credit card has been sent to me in NJ. Have to figure out how to get it down to here.
Added water to the batteries.
Again very still and hot in the late afternoon.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-15 (Saturday)After the net this morning, someone said they'd found a rigging shop on the island supplying and installing the wrong brand of cones into Sta-Lok fittings, possibly leading to disastrous rigging failures later. They're putting in Norseman or some other N-name cones. [On Monday, that rigging shop came onto the cruiser's net and told their side of the story, which was different.] Very bad.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Dinghied ashore and went for a walk.
Ashore at 12:15, to do some internet.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice-curry-saffron and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-16 (Sunday)Hot, still, sunny morning. Recently about every third day has had wind of 5 to 10 knots, and we have hills on 3 sides, so it can get pretty still in the anchorage. Feeling a bit headachey.
Opened up the cheap tools I bought the other day, and there's a great feature on the $5 crescent-wrench: pics.
Storm "Invest 92" has popped up suddenly, not too far NE of us. Seems to be no threat to Grenada, but will pass less than 200 NM north of us down here at the S end of Grenada. A little surprising.
8 AM data on "Invest 92" has it at 13.3N 54.9W, not a tropical storm yet. Forecast to become a hurricane S of Puerto Rico.
Stowed the secondary anchor chain down into the locker.
Ashore at 1:30, to do some internet and get a game of dominoes.
Just as people gathered for dominoes at 2, the waitress banged her head on something, and then a few minutes later a refrigerator door fell off and injured her again. So there was a delay as people searched for first-aid equipment.
Nice game with Lilly, Shanta, Harry, Trina, Anne and John. Hot afternoon with little breeze. Harry won the dominoes game going away.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice for dinner.
Was reading my book in the cockpit, and ants kept appearing on the page every now and then. Eventually figured out ants were swarming along the upper inside edge of the pilothouse ceiling above me. Got out a spray-can of poison and committed anticide.
2012-09-17 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. A long session, with some contention on a couple of issues.
Wind is going to be variable and 5-10 knots for next couple of days, which means hot.
Got some decent Wi-Fi from the boat.
My friends on "Angel Louise", in Istanbul after going through the canals of Europe from London, have some major problem with one of their engines, and just had it lifted out of the boat and taken to a shop: pic. [Turns out: needs a new crankshaft. And front and rear oil seals, a piston-rod, etc. Yikes.] [They're searching the world for a new crankshaft; very hard to find (Yanmar part 129170-21001 for 3JH2E engine). And part prices and shipping costs are astronomical.]
Took apart the engine oil filter housing. A short struggle to get the hose-fittings loose; I guess they've been on there a while, and looks like no Teflon tape was used in the threads. And there was a compression-fitting and then an adapter on each side of the housing. Pics. New filter housing fits without any change to the hoses, which is very good news. Other end of one hose is slightly loose where it goes into the transmission oil cooler; I seem to remember that the way the fitting is oriented, it's impossible to get it completely tight. Maybe I can add some gunk to seal it better. Doesn't seem to be leaking.
I had been worried that the new filter was a lot smaller than the old filter, but now that I have them side-by-side, they're not that different. A small moment of dismay when I thought the new filters don't match the new filter housing, but there's a tricky two-adapter thing that makes them work.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still and warm evening.
2012-09-18 (Tuesday)A little headachey.
A little more work on the oil filter housing. Found a piece of wood for a spacer, drilled it, painted it. Found a bolt and nut to mount the housing.
Later, another coat of paint on the wood piece. Put the fittings into the mount with Teflon tape. Made sure the filter fits on properly. Didn't have an Allen wrench big enough for the plugs, so made do with a bolt-and-nut that fit in there. Would be nice to get them a little tighter.
Feeling hot and headachey.
Installed the oil filter mount. Looks good: pics.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-19 (Wednesday)Ashore at 10 or so to go for a walk. Hot.
When I put together the oil filter mount, there was an odd two-threaded-pipes adapter in the middle, connecting mount to filter. I put some Teflon tape in there, to keep the sleeves from vibrating loose. Last night, I decided that was bad: if that Teflon comes loose, it will go right into the engine. So today I unscrewed the filter, took out the Teflon, screwed the filter back on. Hope the engine vibrations won't make the filter come loose. But this kind of filter and mounting must be used on tens of thousands of engines.
Ashore at 11:30 to do internet.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-20 (Thursday)Tied some plastic bags around the oil filter area, started the engine, ran it for 15 seconds, turned it off. No leaks. Started engine again, ran it for about 5 minutes, all well.
Looked at the wind-generator wiring. The generator hasn't spun since I got it back from the shop. Mostly, we haven't had enough wind. But I'm starting to worry that something might still be wrong with it.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-21 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. To CK's, then veggie stand, then Marketing Board store, then cash at Scotiabank, then FoodFair, then exchanged books at resort, then IGA supermarket. Had a banana-peanut smoothie. Early bus back, stopped at CK's, back to boat by 11:45.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Wind gusting from all directions as I was cooking dinner in the cockpit.
2012-09-22 (Saturday)Tried out the anchor-winch a little. The strain tried to flip it forward, as a reader had predicted. Took the cable off, cut it shorter, and wound it onto the drum from below instead of above. Added a hook to the static chain-claw. Will try it again tomorrow.
Ashore at noon, to do some internet.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Finished a good book: "Is Anyone There ?" by Isaac Asimov. Very dated (1956 - 1967), but good. Some things I found interesting or new to me:
- If the human body were broken up into separate atoms and the different kinds of
atoms counted: (1) almost all the atoms would fall into a mere half-dozen varieties,
and (2) they'd be very common varieties. The body is mostly water, which is hydrogen and oxygen,
and those atoms are found in most of the other molecules in the body too. The
most important organic compounds are the proteins, which contain nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon.
The chief inorganic components are the bones, which add calcium and phosphorus to the mix.
Out of every ten thousand atoms in the body, there are:
6,300 hydrogen atoms.
2,550 oxygen atoms.
940 carbon atoms.
140 nitrogen atoms.
30 calcium atoms.
21 phosphorus atoms.
19 atoms of other varieties.
- The human body is composed of some 50 trillion cells.
- Within every cell are smaller bodies. The nucleus
contains chromosomes, which control the machinery of inheritance.
Outside the nucleus are mitochondria which contain the energy-handling
apparatus. In plant cells are chloroplasts which are living versions of
the solar battery, equipped to convert the energy of sunlight into the
chemical energy of stored food.
All these "organelles" may represent the remains of primitive "pre-cells". Such pre-cells may finally have come to exist in co-operation, forming complex structures much more efficient than themselves taken singly. These pre-cell co-operatives (what we now call cells) then took over the world. - Cells don't exist without chromosomes, but chromosomes (after a fashion) exist without cells.
These objects, which resemble bare chromosomes, are what we call "viruses". ...
Viruslike objects may have existed billions of years ago, before the evolution of cells,
and may have been capable of independent reproduction. They may have had
within themselves all of the capacity for growth and multiplication, and may therefore have
been somewhat more complex than modern viruses.
For the viruses that exist today have been spoiled by the very availability of cells. The modern virus is a complete parasite that has shed the equipment it needed for independent life and merely maintains itself, no more, outside the cell. Once it gets a chance to enter a cell of the proper type, however, it can make use of the cell's chemical machinery for its own purposes; multiplying itself at the expense of the cell's own needs and sometimes killing its host in the process. - Liquid hydrogen evaporates very easily, for it generates its own heat.
A hydrogen molecule (H2) contains two hydrogen atoms, each of which has a proton spinning in the middle. If the two protons are spinning in the same direction, that is "ortho-hydrogen". If spinning in opposite directions, that is "para-hydrogen". In ordinary hydrogen gas, 3/4 are "ortho". "Ortho" contains more energy than "para".
In liquid hydrogen, the "ortho" slowly converts to "para", liberating heat. - A 40-watt lightbulb emits about a quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) photons each second.
Red light is made up of photons that are only half as energetic as those of violet light. When photons of red light strike ordinary photographic film, they lack the energy to cause the chemicals on that film to undergo changes. When the more energetic photons of violet light strike the film, the chemicals break down and the film is fogged.
Photons of ultraviolet light are so energetic that they can damage the retina, which is why it is dangerous to look directly at the sun. They also are energetic enough to bring about changes in our skin that produce sunburn. - The atmosphere of Earth is unique; it is not like any other atmosphere within range
of our instruments.
The planetary atmospheres we know fall into four classes:- No atmosphere (Moon, Mercury, most moons and all asteroids in solar system).
- Hydrogen-rich "reducing" atmosphere (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Titan).
- Neutral atmosphere (Venus, Mars).
- Oxygen-rich "oxidizing" atmosphere (Earth).
How did they get this way ?- No atmosphere: body too small to hold an atmosphere, or too hot.
- Hydrogen-rich "reducing" atmosphere: cool and so large that they captured lots of the original cloud that formed the solar system.
- Neutral atmosphere: first, the planet held some of the original "reducing" cloud. Mars lost it because of too little gravity. Venus overheated, killed off any life that might have developed, ended up with lots of nitrogen and CO2.
- Oxygen-rich "oxidizing" atmosphere (Earth): first, the planet held some of the original "reducing" cloud. Then life developed, and sunlight broke water into hydrogen and oxygen through "photo-dissociation". Hydrogen escaped into space, free oxygen built up and was retained, and atmosphere became "oxidizing".
Timetable for Earth: lifeless for first 1-2 billion years; free oxygen production started 1-2 billion years after life started; oxygen at least 10% of current level at 3.6 billion years, which started biological revolution and started Cambrian period.
During the pre-Cambrian time, when little or no oxygen had been present in the atmosphere, life forms had obtained energy out of the complex organic molecules by breaking them down to simpler structures without any particularly radical change in the nature of their chemical structure. This process is "fermentation".
With a reasonable amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, however, some twenty times as much energy could be obtained by life forms that developed systems for combining food-stuffs with oxygen. With huge quantities of new energy available, life flourished and proliferated. -
Here on Earth, life has developed in many directions and has fitted snugly into a tremendous
variety of environments, taking on forms that could scarcely be invented by the wildest imagination
if they were not already known to exist.
Yet all the variations and modifications that exist on earth are in some ways only superficial. For all its wonderful differences, life on earth is merely a long-playing, imaginative variation on a single chemical theme, and life on any earthlike planet may prove to be a series of variations on that same perpetual theme.
The chemical theme upon which life plays its variations, here and possibly on all earth-type planets, is protein-in-water, supervised by complex nucleic acids.
On cold worlds with reducing atmospheres, the chemical theme for life may be protein-in-ammonia, or complex fatty molecules in methane.
On hot worlds, the chemical theme for life could involve fluorocarbons or silicones. - [On contacting extra-terrestrial intelligent life: Microwaves probably best way to do it.]
Right now (approx 1964), mankind on earth is producing power at the rate of 4 billion kilowatts.
Even if all of this were poured into a microwave beacon and sent out into space it would not suffice.
The beacon would spread and grow dilute, even though it were made as coherent as possible,
and by the time even the nearest intelligent beings had been reached, it would
have grown too feeble to detect. To produce beacons strong enough to detect would
require a civilization capable of wielding far more energy than we do.
If our energy output keeps growing at today's 3 to 4 percent a year, in another 3200 years, we'll match the output of the sun, and could then announce our own existence with beams that will stretch through the length and breadth of our galaxy.
2012-09-23 (Sunday)Rainstorm with huge lightning strikes went about 3 miles south of us around 5:45. Another one went about 2 miles south of us an hour later. Makes me question the wisdom of living in a boat with a 50-foot metal mast sticking up in the air.
Ashore at 12:30, to do some internet and then dominoes. Poured and poured rain just before 1. Again just before 1:30. Again just after 1:30. And then it kept raining, lighter, just about all afternoon.
Nice game of dominoes with John, Harry and Lilly. John won it running away, and Lilly had a record-horrible score of 805.
Wi-Fi in the restaurant stopped working before 2 and still wasn't working for me at 4:15. And rain still going. Rain paused for a while, and I made it out to the boat around 5.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
Rained much of the night. Up at 2:30 to run the engine for 25 minutes, to charge batteries. No leaks from new oil filter mount.
2012-09-24 (Monday)Humid, fairly grey morning. I was net controller again.
Glued another sandal that came apart.
In the afternoon, climbed the mizzen mast. Spun the wind-generator by hand a few times; it doesn't seem to be "sticky" or have a lot of friction. Finally spun it while wind had picked up a bit, and the generator took off and spun fast for 20+ seconds, as long as the wind lasted. So there's probably nothing wrong with it. Maybe the new bearings have increased the startup wind speed a little. Back down to deck. A couple of hours later, we had a brief puff of strong wind, and the generator started up by itself and spun for 10 seconds or so.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-mushroom-rice-saffron (forgot to add curry powder) and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-25 (Tuesday)Headache.
More than 11 years aboard, and I'm still finding out little things about my boat. Was listening to the VHF radio in the cabin this morning, went into the cockpit for something, and heard the radio being repeated through a speaker on the helm binnacle. Never noticed that before. [But a few days later, noticed that's not happening any more. What changed ? Intermittent connection somewhere ? Weirdness in the radio ?]
Update from my friends on "Angel Louise" near Istanbul: "there is no Yanmar crankshaft available in the US, Europe or Japan". If there was, it might cost up to $5K plus $1K shipping. No luck in a brief search to find a rebuilt engine, which would be up to half the price of a new engine anyway. The old one is 20 years old with 7500 hours on it, so they've decided to buy a new engine. They're getting a good deal (didn't give price), will get credit for the $1000 of new engine mounts they just bought, will get a new transmission with the engine, end up with spare parts, and get newer model (3JH5E replacing 3JH2E) and warranty. [Internet searching shows Yanmar 3JH5E as 38.5 HP, 3-cylinder, about $11K.] [Later heard from them that the whole thing (including engine mounts, labor, transmission, etc) cost them about $10K.]
Ashore after 11 to go for a walk. Sandal I glued a couple of weeks ago is coming apart in a different way; time to throw it away. Back on the boat, replaced it with another used sandal and did a little gluing on that one too.
Still headachey; took a sumatriptan.
Tried the anchor-winch again. Still not happy with it. With the cable running from the bottom of the reel, the chain-claw has a more tenuous grip on the chain. Maybe I should sculpt it a bit with the Dremel to make it fit better.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-09-26 (Wednesday)Still, hot morning, and the wind is going to be very light all day today and tomorrow. And I'm a bit headachey again; took some acetaminophen.
Used Dremel to carve one chain-claw, to make it fit the chain better.
Ashore at 1:30, to do some internet. Skype-called Mom and chatted with her.
Still headachey; took a sumatriptan.
Cornbread-sausage-mushroom-onion concoction for dinner.
Very still evening and night.
2012-09-27 (Thursday)Warm, still morning.
Used Dremel to carve second chain-claw, to make it fit the chain better.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
2012-09-28 (Friday)A little headachey.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Got off at the bank, walked to ACE Hardware (bought shoe gloo) and vegetable stand and Marketing Board and book-exchange at a resort, then another hardware store (bought anti-seize) and supermarket. Missed the early bus by 5 minutes, had to wait over an hour for the late bus. Had a banana-chocolate smoothie. Interesting conversations about conspiracy theories on the way back. Got to the boat at 1.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice-curry-saffron and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
2012-09-29 (Saturday)Went ashore and for a walk to get some exercise. Outboard starting was balky, both at the boat and at the dock. Fuel supply problem.
Ashore again at 12:15 to do internet.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
2012-09-30 (Sunday)Ashore at 1:15, to do some internet and get a game of dominoes. Played dominoes with Trina, Margy, Harry, Mike, Gary, Jim, John, Anne. Jim won and took the domino pennant. Tons of rain blowing sideways from about 3 to 3:30 or so.
My friends on "Angel Louise" in Turkey have their new engine in and working.
Tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
Rainsquall at 6:15.
2012-10-01 (Monday)Rain at 6:50.
I was net controller again this morning. Got almost no Wi-Fi, so I had the bare minimum of weather info. And in the rush after that, I forgot to announce on 68 that the net was starting on 66. Oh, well.
Chili and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
Rain at 7:15. Huge rainsquall starting around 10; lots of rain and enough wind to run the wind-generator for a couple of minutes. But it's still not running as freely as it used to, and it sounds a little different. Maybe the new bearings have to be worn in for a while.
2012-10-02 (Tuesday)Launched the dinghy at 6:30 and pumped up the bow tube, then loaded it up with garbage. Off on the long trip to the Woburn town dock. Pretty calm day; easy trip with just one shot of rain. Got rid of the garbage. Went for a walk, and got rained on some more. Back to dinghy, across to CCBM, had to wait a while for the bar to open. Exchanged 7 or 8 books. Back to the boat by 8:45 or so.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Headachey; took a sumatriptan.
Gave myself a haircut.
Leftover chili and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
2012-10-03 (Wednesday)Ashore around 10. Hot, humid morning. Chatted briefly with Ken. Then sweaty walk over to Prickly Bay, to the Customs office. Paid EC$300 (about US$115) for 3 more months on my cruising permit.
Rain at 12:15. Ashore at 12:30, to do some internet. Started raining hard at 1:20, didn't tail off until 2 or so. Bought EC$20 worth of gasoline. More rain later.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
2012-10-04 (Thursday)Plenty of rain starting at 6:30. But turned into a sunny day.
Removed rusty power connector from helm binnacle. Soldered new power connector onto handheld spotlight. Got finished, and it didn't work ! This thing worked a few months ago.
Later, opened up the spotlight, found no problem, closed it up. Tried it again and it worked. I think there's a tiny bit of play in the power connectors.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-10-05 (Friday)Ashore shortly after 7:30, and started walking towards town. Got in to CK's, and caught a van. Driver is a total leadfoot, blasting at high speed. Got out at the foot of the Botanical Gardens, and walked up to the Immigration office to renew my visa.
And that turned into a fiasco. Turned in the papers by 8:45, waited, finally went in for an interview with the officer by 9:45 or so. A youngish woman officer, not the nasty older woman. But she asked me a bunch of questions, and somehow got fixated on the fact that I was going to fly out and back in at Christmas. I've flown out and back three times since I've been here; this will be the fourth time. And this is the 3rd or 4th time I've been to the office for a visa extension. But now she wants to see my plane tickets for flying out on Christmas. That should have no bearing on my visa extension. I entered Grenada by boat and eventually will leave by boat. Round-trips in the middle don't matter; it's not like showing a ticket to prove that I have the means to leave the island and they won't get stuck with me. I've never had to show tickets before. I haven't bought the tickets yet. I try to say this doesn't make sense, she goes to consult with someone else in the office, and comes back unchanged. She tells me to buy the tickets, print them out, and come back Tuesday. Crap !
I leave, get 200 feet away, and realize that I'm sort of between credit cards right now, and may not be able to buy a ticket until I get my new credit card in the mail from NJ. Back to the office. More wait, get in to see the officer again, explain, try to convince her the process has never worked this way before, but no change. Out again around 10:15.
Caught a van to Scotiabank. Got cash at the ATM. Walked up to IGA and got groceries. Told Bernard the van driver about my visa problem, and he agrees that the officer this morning was wrong, says I should have demanded to see the boss. But I think that could backfire. Into the shopping van, nice chat with Bernard as we made two stops on the way back. Back to the boat by noon.
Around 4, gave myself a bit more of a haircut, then into the water and snorkeled under the boat, scraping the hull. Got it mostly clean, with a bit left to do around the prop and on the rudder and in a few other spots. Water is very warm. Big school of tiny fish darting around.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-mushroom-cheese concoction and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
2012-10-06 (Saturday)Ashore at 12:30, to do some internet. Sunny and breezy afternoon. Skype-called to Mom, but the connection wasn't good. Email from my brother, saying he's mailed the absentee ballot and new credit card to me.
Bought plane tickets for flying to NJ for Christmas; $703 round-trip to Philly airport. Not too bad. Now I have to get them printed so I can show them to Immigration.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
2012-10-07 (Sunday)Ashore at 11. Dropped of a couple of wire-reels at the "jumble sale", took a quick spin through the sale, then off for a walk to get some exercise. Back to the boat by 12.
Ashore at 1:45, to do internet and dominoes. Nice game with Gary, Chris, Margie, Darrell, Eric, Mike, Jackie. Eric from "Compass Rose" won; I had some tough hands, but it was a good game.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice-curry-saffron and a rum-and-soda for dinner.
Boat is rolly this evening; very light breeze holding boat sideways to slight swell.
2012-10-08 (Monday)Grey morning; rolly and I'm headachey. Took a sumtriptan.
I was net controller again this morning. Rainsquall sent some rain sideways through the cockpit near the end of the net.
Rain at 10:30.
Ashore to the marina. Got a guy in the office to print my airline itineraries; a lousy printing job, but beggars can't be choosers. Exchanged a couple of books.
At 12:30, loaded up the dinghy and started over to CCB marina. Wet upwind ride into stiffer wind than I expected. Got there okay, for a Canadian Thanksgiving turkey-and-potluck. Dropped off the two small cheesecakes I'd bought in IGA, as my contribution.
Full house, pretty warm with little breeze. Nice conversation with the guy from "Elephant's Child". Then sat down at a small table with two couples, a Quebecois couple named Pierre and Mimi, and a New Jersey couple I've met before but keep forgetting their names. We had a nice conversation and meal. The food was okay, nothing great but lots of variety and filling. The desserts were better: a very good chocolate cake, and my cheesecakes were good. Exchanged several books at the bookshelf. Back to the boat by 4:30.
2012-10-09 (Tuesday)Ashore at 7:30, to go to Immigration. Ken was dropping off Lynn at the dock, too. Expected a long walk to the bus, but my timing was perfect. A cruiser was driving his kid to school, and Lynn and I bummed a ride with them. They took us all the way to the supermarket in the Lagoon.
Lynn and I walked to a store where she bought some batteries, then walked to Immigration, getting there at 8:15. I explained that I'd been there Friday, they should still have my visa-extension application form, and handed in my papers and the printout of my airline reservation. 10 minutes later, the officer who'd given me trouble on Friday peeked out and handed me a form to take down to Treasury; my extension was being granted ! Went down, paid EC$75, back up, handed in the receipt, soon got my papers back. She cheated me a little, granting an extension only until the departure date of my airline ticket instead of the whole three months, but that shouldn't matter.
Walked to Grenada Yacht Club and exchanged several books at their bookshelf. Caught a van to the IGA roundabout. Plenty of time to burn, so I walked out to the beach and walked on the beach and got my toes wet. To the IGA mall, watched cricket on TV and listened to my MP3's for a while, enjoying the air-conditioning. Didn't know they had cheerleaders at cricket matches now.
Got groceries, and caught the 11 AM van back. Two stops, back to the boat by 11:45. Hot and tired.
Developed another headache. Ibuprofen didn't work, so then I took a sumatriptan, which got rid of it.
Salad and a cheese sandwich for dinner.
2012-10-10 (Wednesday)Got good Wi-Fi, so did that much of the day.
Added water to batteries. Investigated fault in nav-light circuit; must be in the helm binnacle, which is a rats-nest.
Charter-catamaran came in and anchored ahead of me, which makes me a bit anxious, given the fluky winds in here.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-11 (Thursday)Storm "Invest 98L" is ESE of here, moving WNW, which is bad. It's not supposed to get too strong, and is supposed to head NW soon and miss us, which is good. But this is the 2 AM forecast.
Ashore at 9 to go to a yoga class in the marina restaurant. First time I've tried yoga. More strenuous than I expected. I did pretty well on the flexibility and stretching positions, failed utterly at the standing-on-one-leg positions, then my back started aching and I ran out of steam. So I watched and did some simple positions as the rest of the people did the more difficult stuff. I did pretty well at the "corpse" position at the end. Class was given by Pierre-Yves from "Humido" (I'm probably not spelling that correctly), who I met at the potluck on Monday.
After the yoga, went for a walk. Back to the boat by 11 feeling well-exercised and virtuous.
Did a bucket of laundry.
8 AM forecast for "Invest 98L" has it coming a lot closer to Grenada than the 2 AM forecast did. Wind of 35 MPH at 8 AM, but the latest forecast doesn't given any forecast of the wind intensity.
Sunny day until 3 PM, when suddenly thick dark clouds came over and blocked the sun. Little solar power for the rest of the day.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Batteries getting low, so up at 3:15 AM to run the engine for half an hour. Lots of nice stars out.
2012-10-12 (Friday)Looks like "Invest 98L" has finally turned N, away from us. Still not very strong, but we'll probably get a lot of rain from it.
Ashore at 9 to go to a Tai Chi class in the marina restaurant. Tried the first 15 minutes, didn't like it, went for a walk instead. Bad timing: 5 minutes later it started raining, and kept raining. Got fairly wet, but it was a good walk anyway.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
After dark, wind started picking up, from S and SW, up and down from 5 to 18 knots, maybe. Effects of the storm that passed N of us today.
Around 4 AM, wind strengthened to 20 knots or so, and the wind-generator started running. Ran for about an hour, which is good; maybe this will get the bearings working more smoothly.
2012-10-13 (Saturday)Storm that passed N of us is now TS Rafael. For such a weak storm, with not a very low central pressure, we're getting more effect from it than I expected.
Very grey and windy morning. Wind from SSW and SW, putting me close to that boat behind me. That's an odd wind direction; tradewind is from E or SE. And that's the only direction in which I swing close to someone. So of course we seem to have quite a bit of SW wind in here. But my anchor should be well dug in by now, and the wind isn't really very strong. Still makes me a bit nervous when I'm only 75 feet or so directly upwind of that boat, in stronger wind than normal. And I'm sure it makes the people on that boat nervous, too.
Finally starting to get some sun after 9.
Lots of wind and grey, and some sun, all day. Solar and wind-gen combining to drive system voltage to 15.0 V at times.
Tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
2012-10-14 (Sunday)Went ashore and went for a walk to get some exercise.
Dinghied ashore at 2 to play dominoes. Quite a crowd: 8 at our table, and another table of 4 played nearby. I played with Mike, Ronnie, John, Chris, Harry, Eric and Josh. Close game, but I put together 3 or 4 good hands at the end, and won by 4 points ! I took the dominoes pennant out to my boat and hoisted it.
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-mushroom-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, still night; didn't sleep very well.
2012-10-15 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Ashore for yoga at 9, then went for a walk. Checked in the marina office, but they haven't received the letter I'm expecting from the USA.
Salad and leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-16 (Tuesday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Did too much Wi-Fi today, and my batteries didn't get charged well enough. Up at 5:15 AM to run the engine for 20 minutes to charge batteries.
2012-10-17 (Wednesday)Went ashore and went for a walk to get some exercise. Checked at the office; my letter hasn't arrived yet.
Light rainsquall every half-hour or so today; not enough to catch any rain, just enough to make me close all of the hatches and bring in anything drying on the lifelines.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-18 (Thursday)Someone was keying over the cruiser's net this morning. We shifted channels a couple of times, then the net controller got upset and ended the net. I think she should have just kept going.
Accidentally dumped a ton of cinnamon onto my oatmeal this morning; cooked and ate it anyway.
Ashore for yoga at 9, then went for a walk. Rained before and during yoga, then was clear for my walk. Checked in the marina office, but they haven't received the letter I'm expecting from the USA.
By noon, totally greyed-over and trying to rain, and stayed that way the rest of the day. Not much solar power. Pretty good rain from 5:15 to 5:50.
PB-banana for dinner.
At 9:30, ran engine for half an hour to charge batteries.
2012-10-19 (Friday)Fairly heavy rain starting just after 9.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. To CK's, glanced at veggie stand, then Marketing Board store, then exchanged books at resort, then IGA supermarket. Early bus back, stopped at CK's, back to boat by 11:45 through windy harbor.
Sunny for a few hours in the middle of the day, but then around 2:30 solid grey clouds came over and blocked most of the solar power for the rest of the day.
Went ashore at 3, to see if my letter has arrived. After some searching, they found it ! Arrived in yesterday afternoon's mail. I found a couple of good books at the bookshelf, too.
Headache; took a sumatriptan.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
At 2:15 AM, ran engine for 25 minutes or so to charge batteries.
2012-10-20 (Saturday)Great: new credit-card says I have to call from my "home phone" to activate it. But I Skype-called the number, entered my card number and last 4 digits of SS number, and they activated the card; no other questions, all automated.
A little before noon, launched the dinghy and headed over to CCB marina. There's a junior regatta today. Got there and kids were milling around; between races. As I expected, the bay is full of anchored boats and the race goes right among them.
Marina not serving lunch yet, so I went for a walk out to the main road, which was a fairly hot and uninteresting walk. A few interesting views: pics. Was hoping to see the jerk-chicken stand out on the main road, but it's not visible and I don't know which direction to walk. Various vehicles across from junkyard/repair place, getting absorbed into the vegetation: pics.
Back to the marina. A couple of interesting boats in the little boatyard here: pics. Had cheeseburger, fries and a soda for EC$25 (about US$10). Chatted with a couple of people, watched the Optimist prams and a couple of Lasers getting ready to start a race (pics), and then headed home. Back to the boat by 2:45. Hot afternoon.
Grapefruit and a cheese sandwich and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-21 (Sunday)Ashore at 2 to play Mexican-train dominoes. Good game with Harry, Jackie, Bobbie, Chris/Josh, Ronnie, Mike, John. I was a contender until the last couple of hands, but Mike won and took the dominoes pennant to fly on his boat. Halfway through the game, we found that Mike didn't know one of the important rules (double-blank costs you 50 points) although he's been playing for the last several weeks.
Filled out my absentee ballot; now have to figure out how to mail it.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-mushroom-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-22 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. Local taxi driver got on and ranted about a cruising couple he's been jabbing at for a year or more. Other than that, things went pretty well.
Ashore at 9 to go to yoga class in the marina restaurant. Stopped in the marina office and gave a guy EC$10 to mail my absentee ballot when he went to the post office today. I figure chances are 3 out of 4 it will arrive in time for the election.
Some of the people in the yoga class are amazing; they can really bend their bodies. I do my best, and sit and watch and do my own thing when the rest of the class is doing something I can't do or won't do.
After class, went for a walk. Lots of people in class and later were thanking me for doing the cruiser's net, and for the way I handled the brief unpleasantness this morning.
Ordered some items from Amazon to be delivered to NJ: lutein pills, books, Barcelona guidebook.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-23 (Tuesday)Darn ! On the net this morning, it was announced that people can take their absentee ballots to the US embassy and they'll FedEx it to USA. Too late for me; had mine mailed yesterday. That option had crossed my mind, but it was a little inconvenient to call the embassy, probably have to leave a message and get a call back, then walk there. The embassy did a similar mailing a week ago, and I'd figured that was it, I'd missed the one opportunity.
Dinghied ashore and went for a walk. Back at the marina, saw the cruisers who are the target of that taxi-driver, and they said he's tried again to get them kicked off the island by making a false report to Immigration, and now a couple of times he's driven his van very close to them as he went past. So I took the opportunity to ask another driver to see if he can talk to the guy.
As I returned to the boat, saw nearby boat "Oceana" re-acnhoring. They'd been near me for a while, then over the course of a week they slowly dragged closer and closer to the mangroves. I'd wondered how long they were going to let it go before moving. Now I have lots of space around me; boat that was moored nearby left a week ago. So I let out the extra 10-15 of chain I'd pulled in a while ago.
In midafternoon, a boat came in and anchored a little close on my W or NW side, and then "Santosha" came in and picked up the mooring just NE of me. So I'm in slightly tight quarters again. Marty from "Santosha" came over to check that we weren't going to swing too close. He said he just saw a 4-foot tuna killing a 9-inch fish under his boat; we're both amazed that a deep-water fish would come into this bay. Anyway, a little later I took the 10-15 feet of chain back in, to move my boat a little further from "Santosha".
Chicken-onion-carrot-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-24 (Wednesday)Headache; took a sumatriptan. Eventually worked, but left me feeling kind of "blah".
Rain at noon. A bit later, "Oceana" raised anchor, circled a few times, and anchored again maybe 50 feet from where they started.
Rain at 3:30.
Added water to the batteries.
Leftover cold chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-25 (Thursday)Grey morning. Cruiser's net got a bit messed up: first the repeater on 66 died in mid-sentence, then after the net moved to 68, some idiot was clicking over everyone.
Ashore for yoga at 8:30, then went for a walk.
I thought we would have another wrong-way hurricane this year, and I was right. It's hurricane "Sandy", now hitting the Bahamas as category 2. Started down near Colombia, I think, went across Jamaica and Cuba.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-26 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. A bit confusing today, because the main taxi-driver is having a snit-fit and so delegated today's trip to some other guys. I had some oil-filters to give away to the guy at the machine-shop, but I couldn't find anyone to carry them for me, and I didn't want to go there myself. Also, forgot my shopping list; it's back in the boat.
Got off at the bank, walked to Marketing Board, then book-exchange at a resort, then supermarket. Supermarket is a semi-disaster; yesterday was a holiday, so the produce section is a shambles and much other stock is low. Got most of what I needed.
Brief chat with Jim and Anne. Into the van, we packed it full of people and groceries, then off. Stopped at the Marketing Board to get more stuff, then stopped at CK's to get a ton more of stuff. Back to the marina with everyone holding multiple cases of beer or bags of groceries on their laps. Ride out to the boat was very windy and fairly wet. Back to the boat at noon.
Huge rainstorm came in from the S or SSW, but went a little W of us. Got some strong wind for ten minutes, and then much cooler temps afterward.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Fluky winds in early evening and after dark, and "Oceana" swinging a bit close to me, and with almost no anchor light showing. And well after dark, a catamaran came in and anchored reasonably far off me to the NW, putting the anchor down about 3 times before they were satisfied.
My batteries don't seem to be holding a charge as well as in past. Maybe they need to be equalized. I have a battery charger that can do it, but no genset, and my shorepower wiring is half-torn-apart. Maybe I should take the batteries off the boat and have them equalized somewhere. Will have to think about this.
2012-10-27 (Saturday)A cruiser here is offering to sell a Walker Bay 10 dinghy with sailing rig for US$1100. I'm tempted. It's a good price, but still seems like a big chunk of money, and I'm not sure how I'd stow it. [Later heard that it has the flotation-collar too, which makes it an even better deal.]
Loafed and did Wi-Fi all day. Maybe my batteries aren't in such good shape because I've been using the laptop a lot more recently.
Sort-of-fried chicken and rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-28 (Sunday)Wow, latest forecast has hurricane "Sandy" going right over my brother's place in Pennington NJ as category 1 on Tuesday morning. I'm used to worrying about hurricanes down here in the Caribbean, but they're not very frequent at the "other end" of my travels. Maybe I should mail a couple of my extra anchors to my brother.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Went ashore and went for a walk. Bought some gasoline. Brief chat with Lynn. Windy morning.
Ashore at 2 to play dominoes. Ten players, so we split into two tables and then exchanged a couple of people halfway through the game. Bobbie from "Campechano" was unstoppable; I think she went "out" in 6 of the 13 hands, got single-digit scores in several more, and had only one bad hand in the whole game. I had several disastrous hands where I sat there with no starter, just piling up points, and I think I came in next to last overall. Still fun.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-29 (Monday)Headachey; took a sumatriptan.
I was net controller again this morning. A long session.
After the net, dashed ashore for yoga at 8:30. A little tricky, because the marina cat decided my towel was a great place to lie. So I worked around the cat. After yoga, went for a walk.
Opened up the helm binnacle to try to diagnose the problem with the navigation lights. It's a mess in there, and the switch I need to get at is in the worst place, surrounded by other switches, covered by the steering pump, and not near any of the access holes. Tested it with a multi-meter, decided I need to unfasten the wires from it and take it out to test further, and I see no way to get those wires off without removing a whole line of switches and wires first. Took some unused brackets and screws off the binnacle, just to simplify the environment, then closed it up and gave up for today.
Salad and PBJ sandwich for dinner.
2012-10-30 (Tuesday)My relatives in the NJ / PA area seem to have come through hurricane Sandy okay, except that one relative in Freeport Long Island had a foot of water in their house.
Loafed and did Wi-Fi all day. I've been doing too much Wi-Fi now that I have a better connection.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-10-31 (Wednesday; Halloween)Various boats starting to leave Grenada; I guess hurricane season is over.
Dinghied ashore and went for a walk.
Chatted on the radio with Enza Marine, to see if they did battery-equalization. They don't. One tip: make sure batteries are very fully charged before starting equalization, to avoid large current and overheating. And maybe a couple of days with full charging and no load on my batteries (no refrigerator, no laptop) would do some good for my batteries. They'd never heard what someone told me the other day: "Europeans don't do equalization; that's just an American thing to do".
Weather greyed-over from 3 onward. Rain at 4, then still and grey.
A couple of dinghies full of trick-or-treaters came by at 5:15; I gave them packages of cookies. Pics.
[A reader points out: not a lifevest or throwable cushion to be seen in those pictures. A good point, and most cruisers, including myself, are guilty of this. Can't remember the last time I wore a vest, and my throwable cushion disintegrated a few months ago and hasn't been replaced. FWIW, it was a calm evening, those kids live in dinghies and swim like fish, and I'd say most cruiser dinghy-accidents involve alcohol. Still no excuse.]
Heard a cruise-ship horn from across the peninsula at 5:45; I guess it's cruise-ship season again.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still and humid night.
2012-11-01 (Thursday)Totally grey morning. Heavy rain and some wind from 6:15 to 7.
Ashore for yoga at 8:30. Each session varies, and today was little too heavy on the meditation and too light on the exercise for my taste. After yoga, went for a walk.
Then into the marina office, to find that a slip in the marina costs about US$1/foot/day. So taking a slip to equalize my batteries would cost me about US$44/day, which seems like a lot. Back to the boat; hot, still, humid morning.
Grey clouds hovering, starting at 1:30 or so, but they hovered just a little W of us.
Skype-called Mom and chatted with her.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-02 (Friday)Headache; took a sumatriptan.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. The taxi-driver who's been feuding with a cruising couple is showing off a warning letter he got from their lawyer; not a good situation for anyone.
In ACE Hardware, bought another garden solar light; I have two on the stern, and this one will go on the bow. To the boatyard, and dropped off three oil filters for the boss at the machine-shop; I don't need them any more, and he can use them. Into Budget Marine. Hypalon paint is ridiculously expensive: US$114 for a pint, I think (found it later on internet for $80 plus shipping; not cheap). Bought some Hypalon repair adhesive, and a spare fuel-bulb for the outboard.
To the Wall Street roundabout, walked to Scotiabank and used the ATM. To another hardware store, then into the supermarket, which was a bit of a zoo. Out and into the van, which sat for 15 minutes or so before leaving. Veggies at the Marketing Board, stop at CK's, back to the boat by 12:30. Hot and tired.
Put the new solar light on the bow.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-03 (Saturday)Very grey and rainy until 8 or so, sunny by 9.
Went ashore at 2 to play dominoes. Ten players spread over two table. I had a couple of bad hands, sat downstream of a couple of good and lucky players, and came in dead last. But it was fun.
Afterward, a cruiser bent my ear about that taxidriver-cruiser dispute that's going on. And flatly contradicted every fact I'd heard from the other side. So I give up; I don't want to hear anything more about it.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-04 (Sunday)Nearby boat "Oceana" swinging very close to me by late morning. They seem to slide around a bit, and the weird winds in here have us less than a boat-length apart at times this morning. And they're not aboard.
Ashore at 12:15; saw the couple from "Oceana" on the dinghy-dock, heading out to their boat, and told them we were swinging close.
Saw the tail end of the "boat jumble sale" (flea market). Sign says the floating tiki-bar that those guys were building last year (never finished) is for sale. Asking €50,000 for a catamaran hull that I'm told was submerged for a while, no rigging or spars at all, someone said maybe one engine works, not sure if the rudders are still on.
Caught the 12:30 van to a hike. A little confusion; although I called them a week ago to reserve a spot, I wasn't on the list. Fortunately someone else cancelled, because by the time we left the last marina we were full and someone got stuck with half a seat. 3/4 of the way up to the hike, we stopped to pick up a guide, then stopped again to pick up a second guide. So we were really crammed in there by the time we got to the summit. Out of the van, and put on sneakers for the first time in months. Maybe 9 months. Feels weird.
Out at the 1910-foot summit.
Pic at summit.
Pic from summit down to Grand Anse.
Pic near summit looking east.
Hiked up to radio towers for the view of some hills, then back down and into the woods. Today had been billed as a long but fairly flat hike, but it's the usual: narrow, muddy trails with lots of traffic jams as people go through tricky spots. I'm soon drenched with sweat. Up and down hillsides, good exercise. Some parts have very basic stairs in them, just a few boards pounded in to hold the dirt into the shape of a step.
Eventually up to a knoll with a picnic gazebo on it, and good views. Then down to the road, a little more hiking through woods and down stairs to Grand Etang lake. Such a relief to take off the sneakers and get into sandals again.
Water and beer and chicken-and-potato-salad for sale here. Loafed, drinking and eating and cooling off and having some nice conversations.
Crammed back into the bus and did the trip in reverse. Last stop was our marina. Back to the boat by 6:30. Lovely to take a shower, have some leftovers for a second dinner, and relax.
Glad to see that "Oceana" has raised anchor and moved fairly far away.
2012-11-05 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
After the net, ashore for yoga at 8:30. After yoga, went for a walk. One sandal lost a big chunk halfway through. Back to the boat, legs pretty achey and tired from all of the exercise yesterday and this morning.
By noon, "Oceana" is swinging a bit close again. So maybe they didn't raise anchor yesterday, maybe just the wind had them far away yesterday evening.
Before 1, low grey clouds came over, and just hovered there for the rest of the day. Threatening rain but never delivering it, sprinkling slightly every now and then to make me close the hatches, blocking much of the solar power, less breeze and more humidity. I hate this kind of weather.
Salad and a cheese sandwich and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Finally poured rain from 6 PM to about 8. Rain again before midnight, and again later.
Up at 1:15 to run engine for 20 minutes, to charge batteries.
2012-11-06 (Tuesday; USA Election day)Loafed and did Wi-Fi. Legs very tired from all of the exercise I've done in the last two days. Weather greyed out from about 2 to 3, but then got sunny again.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-07 (Wednesday)Yes ! Cruiser's net started by announcing re-election of Barack Obama.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Loafed and did Wi-Fi and read books.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-08 (Thursday)Ashore for yoga at 8:30. After yoga, went for a walk.
Loafed and did Wi-Fi and read books.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-09 (Friday)Not feeling well; headache and GI problems. Took a sumatriptan.
Heavy rain at 8:30.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Got off at the bank, walked to vegetable stand and Marketing Board and book-exchange at a resort, then supermarket. Interesting conversations about climate change and conspiracy theories while waiting for the van. Stopped at CK's. Interesting conversation with driver Bernard about election, renewable energy, Grenada. Got to the boat at 11:45.
Grey and rainy starting at 1, then mostly sunny later.
Applied a patch and some spots of glue to the dinghy bow-tube; it's been leaking.
Salad for dinner.
2012-11-10 (Saturday)Confusion this morning: no net controller. Lots of boats have been leaving, and some arriving, and suddenly we have controller vacancies on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It's fun to do once a week, but I don't want to do it more than that.
Ashore at 2 to play dominoes. Thirteen players spread over two tables. Around 2:30 or so, a huge storm rolled in and there was so much rain and wind that we couldn't see the boats in the harbor any more. Kept going for 20 minutes or so.
Our table was fast, but some players at the other table were very slow, and we had to wait about 45 minutes for them to catch up, so we could exchange a couple of players in the middle. And we didn't finish the whole game until 5:15 or so; some people were nervous that they'd end up traveling back to their boat in the dark. Penny and Dick, from the same boat, came in first and second. But they're leaving soon, so the third-place finisher, Jim, took the pennant to fly off his boat. I finished in the middle of the pack.
I went for a walk, to get some exercise. Back to the boat in the dark. Feeling tired and headachey.
Leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Feeling worse in the late evening. Eventually took a sumatriptan. Had to go to the toilet a lot. Didn't feel tolerable until 2 AM or so.
Rain from 10 to 10:15 or so.
Ran engine at 12:15 for half a hour to charge batteries.
2012-11-11 (Sunday)Still have a bit of GI problems this morning; feeling a little shaky.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Headachey by 2; took a sumatriptan.
Fruit and salad for dinner.
2012-11-12 (Monday)Headachey. Took acetaminophen.
I was net controller again this morning.
After the net, ashore for yoga at 8:30. Headache felt worse by the end of yoga, so I skipped my usual walk and went back to the boat. Took a sumatriptan and went to bed.
Rain at 10:45. By 11, my headache was gone, but I still feel tired and stomach is shaky.
Feeling quite a bit better by 1.
Spaghetti and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-13 (Tuesday)Loaded up the dinghy with three huge bags of garbage and the busted RADAR dome, and set off at 6:30. Long ride over to Woburn town dock, got rid of the garbage, long ride back.
Saw 3 or 4 boats leaving from our bay; heard half a dozen say good-bye on the cruiser's net. All the boats leaving today are heading N. Some head W from here, to ABC's and then Panama Canal. Or S to Trinidad.
Went ashore around 2 to go for a walk. More traffic than usual today, and a couple of very slow and unpredictable student-driver cars on the roads along with the insanely fast drivers; a bad mix. Had to stop once or twice and step into the grass to make sure I was safe from the traffic. Hot afternoon.
Saw Lynn at the dinghy-dock, about to start an hour of running on the dirt roads in the bird sanctuary. More power to her.
Back to the boat. Glued yet another sandal that's coming apart.
Salad and a PB-sandwich and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-14 (Wednesday)Still not feeling quite 100% healthy; a hint of a headache.
Did Wi-Fi and loafed.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-15 (Thursday)Still a slight headache; took a sumatriptan.
Went ashore at 8:30 for yoga. Last time, we had about 20 people, overflowing our area. This time, about 8 people. Anchorage is quite a bit emptier, too.
By end of yoga, the pill had kicked in and my headache was gone. Went for a walk, chatting briefly with Patrick and then Pierre-Yves and Mimi on the way.
Glued another sandal.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-16 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. To CK's, glanced at veggie stand, then Marketing Board store, shopped for pillow and water-jug, then IGA supermarket. Had a banana-chocolate smoothie. Early bus back, stopped at Marketing Board, back to boat by 11:45.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-17 (Saturday)Grey and rainy in early morning, then sunny.
Dinghied ashore at 2 to play dominoes. Only 5 players today; a lot of boats have left. Tarina trounced us, playing well but also getting very lucky draws any time she needed them, and playing on every spot I was about to play on. I came in third.
Chatted for a while with Eric from "Compass Rose". Went for a walk, but my right Achilles tendon wasn't feeling good, so I did only about half the usual route.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-18 (Sunday)Grey and rainy in early morning. Feeling a little headachey.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-19 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning. With all of the boats that have left, I was expecting a short session. But it was longer than 45 minutes.
After the net, ashore for yoga at 8:30. Then took a walk.
Grey and rainy in early afternoon.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-20 (Tuesday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Added water to the batteries.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-21 (Wednesday)Dinghied ashore and went for a walk. Chatted with George for a little while.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-22 (Thursday; American Thanksgiving)Ashore for yoga at 8:30. Then took a walk. Coming off the dinghy dock, someone on a boat in the marina was waving to a couple of us. We went out and found someone's dinghy drifting near the docks. A third dinghy came over and grabbed it, then I found the boat it came from and ferried the owner over to reclaim it.
A little before 1, into the dinghy and off on the long ride to Clarkes Court Bay Marina, for a Thankgiving potluck. Not quite jammed full, but a good crowd, and I sat at a table outside to catch a little breeze. Good timing; they started serving the food about 5 minutes after I arrived. Had a beer and a couple of plates of good food, and a small slice of very good pecan pie. The two small cheesecakes I contributed went well. Some nice conversation. Kitty and Nigel are just back from delivering a catamaran from Panama City Panama to Brisbane Australia, and they did some nice stops in the Galapagos and Fiji, I think, and then some fun in Australia.
Exchanged a bunch of books at the marina bar bookshelf.
2012-11-23 (Friday)Realized I left my little red cool-bag thing at the marina yesterday. Don't want to make the long dinghy-ride again just to retrieve it.
Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Very small group today; only one bus, maybe 8 of us aboard. Out at bank, walked to ATM and fruit stand and one supermarket, then to IGA supermarket. Had a nice mango smoothie. Stopped at veggie store and housewares store on the way back.
More keys failing on the laptop; guess it's time to install the new keyboard.
Boat's a mess inside, parts and books and papers and clutter everywhere. Spent an hour cleaning up one small corner of it; enough for today.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
LED reading light in cockpit conked out, sigh.
2012-11-24 (Saturday)Dinghied ashore and went for a walk.
Dinghied ashore at 2 to play dominoes. Ten players over two tables. I came in second, by one point ! Katherine of "Flawless D" won (again). They might be leaving soon, so I took the dominoes pennant to fly on my boat. Exchanged a couple of books in the marina office, but I've read everything interesting from there.
Investigated the cockpit LED lamp. Turned it on; doesn't work. Took bulb out. Tested voltage in the socket; fine. Put 12V to the bulb and it works fine. Put bulb back in socket, turned it on, and it works ! Huh ?
Worked a little on replacing the laptop keyboard, but couldn't figure out how to get it out. Will have to read the instructions again.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Was reading in the cockpit when the LED lamp suddenly quit again. Turned it off, waited 5 minutes, turned it on, it works again. Worked for less time, same thing again. I think the bulb is overheating and there must be a thermal cutoff inside it. Time to get a new bulb.
Huge rainsquall/storm from the SSW from about 7 to 8:15. Then rained frequently all the rest of the night, mostly from the N, I think, often with enough wind to spin the wind-generator.
2012-11-25 (Sunday)Totally grey, drenched, rainy, humid morning. Blecch !
Fair amount of sun in later afternoon.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Replaced LED bulb in cockpit with a new one, and it works fine.
Again rained frequently all night, often with enough wind to spin the wind-generator.
2012-11-26 (Monday)Headache. Took acetaminophen. Fairly sunny morning.
I was net controller again this morning.
Ashore for yoga at 8:30, stopping to lend a clamp to "Falcon" (they are trying to repair their dinghy). Then took a walk. Headache felt a little better by the end of the walk, but still there.
A cruiser called me on the radio, then emailed, then came by in dinghy from two bays E of here, then left to go to next bay W of here. They're having massive problems getting a local shop to fix their hydraulic steering, have been stuck here for a couple of months while it's not getting done right, are trying to find some way to get it done. My only advice was to persuade the shop to call the manufacturer's tech support and have them walk through the procedure. [Update three days later: the cruisers and the shop obtained "special schematics", read warnings in tiny print, and finally got it fixed. So it wasn't really the shop's fault, although their service could have been better.]
Still had headache in the afternoon, so took a sumatriptan, and that zapped it.
Straightened up mess on main table somewhat, and now I can actually see the surface of the table in some places !
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-27 (Tuesday)Headache. Took ibuprofen. Is this a migraine "rebound" headache ? [After reading a bit online, I think it's just that I have multi-day migraine headaches (have had for last 30 years or so), and sumatriptan is fast-acting but wears off fairly quickly. So one of my multi-day headaches may take three sumatriptans before it's over.]
At 11:30, gave in and took a sumatriptan. Headache mostly gone by 12:15.
Have been ordering some things online, for deliver to NJ. Now trying to buy plane tickets to Barcelona. But every time I select flights and try to commit, it says "whoops, price is $150 higher than we told you". Nope.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-28 (Wednesday)Slight headache.
At 10:30, took a sumatriptan and went ashore, through windy conditions. Found an orange pool noodle floating through the anchorage and grabbed it, but couldn't find the boat it came from [later found it is from "Compass Rose"]. Stopped at "Falcon" and retrieved the clamp I lent them on Monday. Chatted with George a little. Went for a walk.
Added water to the batteries. Lots of wind-gen output over the last few days has been driving system voltage to 15 volts at times.
Veggies and salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-29 (Thursday)Ashore for yoga at 8:30, then went for a walk. Chatted a little with Pierre-Yves on the way.
Ashore before 5. Picked up the cold-bag I left at CCBM last week; George just brought it from there for me. Had a drink, chatted a bit with Dick from "Lady Cybil", and listened to a talk by Nigel of "Falcon" about heading W from here. Huge crowd, probably 70 people. I stayed for 45 minutes or so and then headed back to the boat.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-11-30 (Friday)Dinghied ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Sailboat at the dock, having their broken mast lifted off by crane. Van got going, I got off at the bank, walked to ACE Hardware (bought a clock). Then to Marketing Board, and pharmacy (bought box of 100 Tonopan migraine pills for about US$50; didn't want to buy quite that many). To book-exchange at a resort, then another hardware store and supermarket. Right onto the early van. Stopped at CK's, then to the marina. Gave couple from "Moondance" a ride out to their boat.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-12-01 (Saturday)On the cruiser's net this morning, someone said a 287-foot motoryacht will be coming in to the marina here today. Maybe I misheard; might be 187 feet ? Still will be quite a sight to see, if true. They're going to do a K-turn and back in, supposedly.
Big yacht "Skat" came in around 9:15. But it's only about 150 feet long, I think. (Nope, I'm wrong, its Wikipedia page says 233 feet long.) Came in, spun around, backed in to marina. Pic.
Dinghied ashore at 2 to play dominoes. Eight players: myself, Carolyn from "Moondance", Eric from "Compass Rose", Anne from "Impressionist", Miss Kitty from "Falcon", Margy from "Inspiration", Tarina from "Haymede", Ron. Tough game for me and several others, and I came in 5th. Eric had a couple of bad hands in the beginning but then caught fire and won, and took the dominoes pennant.
Went for a walk.
Veggies and salad and cheese sandwich for dinner.
Around 1 AM, developed a headache. Took some Tonopan at 2:30, but it didn't seem to work very much, which is a bummer since I just bought so much of it. It used to work for me, and I hoped it would be slower and longer-lasting than the sumatriptan. We'll see.
2012-12-02 (Sunday)Loafed all day. Head felt okay by mid-morning, but pill made me a bit tired.
Cornbread-sausage-onion-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-12-03 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Ashore for yoga at 8:30. Forgot to put on bug-repellent, the marina restaurant is always a little buggy, and today it was worse because landscapers were weed-whacking right outside through most of the session. Gnats and other bugs bit me quite a lot; very irritating.
Took a walk. Bought EC$20 of gasoline.
Warm, still afternoon. We're having 5-10 knot wind this week; I miss the 15-20 we had last week, which cooled things off and made my wind-generator run.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still night. Fairly warm and a bit buggy; burned a mosquito-coil in the cockpit after dinner.
2012-12-04 (Tuesday)I helped out the net controller this morning, doing the weather and answering various questions for cruisers.
Dinghied ashore after lunch and went for a walk.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Another very still night.
2012-12-05 (Wednesday)Totally grey morning, thick low grey clouds hovering.
Ashore at 9:30 and caught a 9:45 van to the book-swap at Island Water World. Only 5 of us on the van. Dumped more than 20 books at the swap, and took away 7 or 8. Spent a lot of time in the marine store, but they were out of stock on the two little items I was looking for. Back into the van at 11:30, to a supermarket, and back to the boat by 12:30. Weather still grey and still and humid.
Some sunshine in late afternoon.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, still night. Batteries getting low.
2012-12-06 (Thursday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore for yoga at 8:30, then took a walk.
Went over to "Nanook II" after 11, to try to help Daniel and Brenda get their WirieAP Wi-Fi working. We tried stuff for 2 hours before giving up. [Saw Daniel a month later and found out manufacturer said the Alfa adapter must be defective; he had to get a new one shipped in from USA, and that fixed it.]
Salad and a cheese sandwich and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-12-07 (Friday)Skype-called Mom and chatted with her.
Rain at 11:45; we've had 90% chance of rain several days this week, and no rain until now.
Saw the International Space Station fly over at about 6:10.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2012-12-08 (Saturday)Fairly grey morning, but sunny by mid-day.
Dinghied ashore and went for a walk.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner.
Feeling headachey; took a Tonopan and early to bed.
2012-12-09 (Sunday)Totally grey morning, with rain from 7:40 to 11 or so, and still very grey.
Dinghied ashore at noon to play dominoes. I thought the rain would keep people away, but the rain stopped around 11:30, so we had a dozen players spread over two tables. And the sun came out by 1 or so. I came in third, but the other table was playing with fewer tiles per player for half the game, so I think they got lower scores that way. Eric from "Compass Rose" took the dominoes pennant home again.
Had a long chat with Eric afterwards. And we saw the owner of that megayacht "Skat" arrive; all of the crew lined up at the top of the gangplank to greet him and his party. I think it's an ex-Microsoft guy named Simonyi.
Chili and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
Feeling headachey at 3 AM; took a Tonopan.
2012-12-10 (Monday)I was net controller again this morning.
Ashore for yoga at 8:30, then took a walk. Got rained on a little.
At noon, very grey and huge strong rainsquall from NE.
In the afternoon, sunny and strong wind. Wind-generator sending system voltage up to 15.0 at times.
Online, tried to buy plane tickets for my trip to Barcelona next year, and my credit card got rejected. Now contacting the credit card company. Tickets are about $1050, maybe $200 more than I had hoped they would be, but I just want to get them done. [Turns out credit card company tried to call me, couldn't get through because I don't have a phone, and instead of sending me an email or web site message about it, just turned off charges to my card. Had to spend 15 minutes waiting to chat with them, 5 minutes chatting, then had to Skype-call to their Security dept to get card turned back on. Will try the ticketing again tomorrow.]
Added water to the batteries; they didn't need much.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
Lots of rain, and sometimes a fair amount of wind, from about 10 PM to 3 AM.
2012-12-11 (Tuesday)Up at 5:15, launched the dinghy and pumped up the tubes and loaded it up with garbage. Off a little after 5:30, with a little light of dawn in the sky. Did the long ride over to Woburn town dock, where I got rid of the garbage. Very calm morning, but rainclouds to the E. Made it back to the boat without getting rained on.
Then had to gather weather forecasts online and do the weather for this morning's net controller.
Dinghied ashore at 9:15 to give George a note, asking him to pick me up from the boat and take me to the airport on Thursday morning. That megayacht "Skat" was taking in dock-lines and about to leave. Fairly strong wind mostly pressing them onto the dock, but I'm sure the captain will just move the joystick and the boat will move to the side and off the dock.
Backed up files from my laptop to external hard disk. Took forever.
Heavy rain from about 2:40 to 3:10, then more again around 4.
Salad and sausage-macaroni-cheese concoction and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
Plenty of rain during the night.
2012-12-12 (Wednesday)Grey and raining at 7, then suddenly sunny.
Went ashore for a walk in late afternoon. Got rained on in the dinghy in both directions, but dry while walking.
Veggies and yogurt and sandwiches for dinner.
Getting ready to leave tomorrow. Shut off refrigerator and cleaned it out. Packing suitcase, locking up outboard and propane tank, clearing stuff off deck.
2012-12-13 (Thursday)Up at 6, packing and cleaning and clearing stuff off deck. Last-minute crisis: couldn't find my belt, can't remember where I stashed it about 5 months ago; found a backup belt. Picked up by George at 7:30, to the airport, and into the gate area by 8:05 for a 9:50 flight. Free Wi-Fi !
Big crowd in front of the gate as we started boarding. Waited until it mostly died down, went to shut down my laptop, and it said "Installing update number 1 of 7; do not turn off the computer". No ! I pressed the power button and shut off the computer.
Boarded the flight, ahead of people with three service dogs, and two of them were in the row right in front of me. Very well-behaved, but one of them kept sticking out into the aisle and getting bumped.
Landed at Miami, not too bad through Immigration and Customs, then a pretty slow line at Security to board the next flight. More and more people got into the "priority" lines and made us wait. Finally got through and found my gate, about half an hour before the boarding time. My feet feel weird and cramped in my sneakers; I've been wearing sandals for the last 5 months or so.
Laptop started up okay, which is a relief. No free Wi-Fi here. Installed the updates, rebooted, copied more audio files to my MP3 player, everything okay.
Flight to Philly was smooth. Arrived early, then had a long wait to be picked up by my brother (he ran into a lot of bad traffic).
2012-12-14 through 2012-12-30Sorted through ten pounds of paper mail that has accumulated. Trip to Walmart to buy a couple of shirts and other items (impulse buy: $1 for T-shirt (pic)). Opened packages of stuff I ordered a few weeks ago: swimsuit, Wi-Fi antenna cable, lutein pills, seven books (including a Barcelona guidebook), shorts, two pairs of sandals.
On the 14th, had a headache, took a Tonopan. Another headache on afternoon of 17th, took acetaminophen. Took a Tonopan on morning of the 18th. I haven't had a diet soda since the 13th, on the flight from Grenada. Bad sinus headache night of 18th and through 19th and 20th. Took a Tonopan on morning of 20th. More into 21st; this is brutal. Had a caffeinated soda on evening of 21st; no change. Slightly better on morning of 22nd, after taking acetaminophen. Headache finally gone on evening of the 22nd.
Restaurants: dinner at Triumph in New Hope (I had pork belly, yum, yum). Take-out: hoagies; good Chinese food in S Orange; Trenton pizza; sinful hamburger at Ewing Diner (took half home in a doggie bag); nice Mideastern lunch in Lambertville; lunch at Greek restaurant in Yardley.
To S Orange, where we had the five siblings and Mom all together (rare). Then up to S Orange again on Christmas Day.
Received a dozen "net controller" T-shirts from my friend Stacy (front, back).
After many tries, and extensive use of Photoshop, took an up-to-date picture of myself that looks reasonable: pic.
Bought tickets from Philly to Barcelona next year: $971 roundtrip.
Saw the James Bond film "Skyfall".
Thought it was going to arrive after I left, but the yoga mat I ordered arrived on the last day I was here. Still haven't received a couple of LED bulbs I ordered.
On the evening of the 29th, started the long trip back to Grenada. To the W Trenton train station on a cold night to catch the 10 PM train ($10). To Philly airport by 11:20 PM, to wait for ticketing and Security to open at 4 AM or so, for my 6:05 AM flight. No Wi-Fi, but I have laptop, MP3 player, and three books.
Ticketing opened at 3:45, Security not until 4:15 or so. Through to the gate by 4:40 AM. Free Wi-Fi in the gate area. Uneventful flight to Miami, bouncy crosswind landing, out into terminal by 9 AM. Next flight is at 4 PM.
Waited, people-watched, ate chocolates, had a pork-onion sandwich for lunch. Cold in the airport, even though I'm wearing my winter coat. Waited for the long boarding line to get smaller, stepped up to the gate, they said "you're not checked in", and my heart sank. But I got onto the flight, which was crowded but uneventful. Cold on the plane, too; glad I had my coat on.
To Grenada by 8:30 or so, through to the taxi by 9:15 or so, and to the boat by 10. A bit of a search to find my keys in my bag, but got the boat open and everything is okay. Warm, still, clear evening with a big moon.
2012-12-31 (Monday)Loaded up and turned on the refrigerator. Checked the galley water filter, but it didn't need changing. Unlocked and launched the dinghy, and it took a while to get the outboard primed and started, but it ran.
Headed ashore for yoga at 8:30, but the outboard quit half a dozen times, had to keep trying to prime and start it, had to paddle in the last 100 feet. Late for yoga and it was crowded, but I joined in, and the new mat is a good thing.
Ducked out of yoga 5 minutes early so I could get on the shopping van. Changed clothes, got on the bus, and then we sat there for an extra 15 minutes as we waited for someone, lots of confusion. Finally got going. Got off at the Wall Street roundabout, walked to the ATM, got some veggies, then to IGA. Got lots of groceries, had a mango-passionfruit smoothie, onto the van. To veggie store, then CK's, then marina. Outboard hard to start and quit twice on the way out to the boat, but got there by noon without too much trouble.
Fresh water system has sprung a leak on one of the copper lines in the engine compartment again. Maybe one of the patches I did has failed.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Lots of rain from 10 to after midnight. Nice fireworks at midnight from somewhere pretty close by (Prickly Bay ?) right through the rain. Plenty more rain through the rest of the night.
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