Jan 31
Today was pretty much a lazy day on MoonSail. Barb did some productive work, removing everything from the shelves in the mail saloon, checking for mildew, wiping everything, and restacking. She found a few pictures that had gotten wet and were ruined. Makes us re-think keeping irreplaceable pictures aboard. Fortunately the ones lost were not that important.
The boat came with fabric fan-fold drop-down window coverings, that cover each port for privacy when we are in a marina. They were already getting a bit dingy before we left the boat, but now they were downright ugly. We had seen this when we launched in November, so we ordered new ones while we back in the States. Of course, the new ones are just enough different that it meant drilling new mounting holes and having them not as nicely stowed when not in use as the originals. But, that's life on a boat.
Other than that, we both enjoyed relaxing and using the great internet service we have here in the marina. That will come to an end once we start moving, so it's like being slowly weaned from reality.
Being Tuesday, we decided to do 2-for-1 pizza night at Angie's Al Porto restaurant again. We have gotten away with showing up without reservations in the past, but since we have a local phone now, we figured what the heck, and called for a reservation. I originally made it for 2, but then Dick & Mary from Alacazam hollered at us, so I changed it to 4. Shortly after making the reservation, the phone rang. Our first incoming call on our Antiguan phone. I thought it must be the restaurant confirming the reservation, but it was Woodstock Boats, letting us know the freezer was working. I told them we'd be down in a day or two to get it.
Dinner was great. It had been raining again today, but the showers stopped long enough for us to walk from the marina to the restaurant, which is all of maybe a quarter mile. We were seated next to a table of ten other cruisers. Dick and Mary knew a couple of them and chatted a minute. There was a couple there that we had met before also, but it didn't surprise me that they didn't recognize us, and I didn't go out of my way to say hi. You get the gist. Angie waited on us, and as usual the food and service was great. We asked about Nicole, a girl who had worked at the dockside bar when we were here in 2009, and found that she had gone back to Canada after apparently getting "Island Fever". (Island fever is when some people just can't handle being on a small island too long.) Angie expressed her disappointment with Nicole's leaving, explaining that she gave her a car, a place to stay, a phone, and paid her. I then asked if I could work for her.
It rained quite a bit while we at dinner, but stopped just as we were ready to leave, so we had a dry walk home and bid Dick & Mary goodnight.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 1
Another day of little progress. There are still tons of task to be accomplished, but somehow with the pace here, and no real deadlines, some days just never get started. We did have a burst of energy in the afternoon. We had stored a bunch of stuff in the shower-half of the main head. Since we are at a marina, we have been using their shower facilities, and not unpacked our shower yet. Today was the day to do that. Extra shore power cables went to the deck locker they belong in. All the little dinghy parts, like the seat, both anchors, paddles, gas tank, and tiller extension, went in the dinghy. The five six-gallon diesel jerry cans went on deck. I had to think about how I had them secured and figure out which lines I used to tie them down.
Once all that stuff was out of the head, Barb could clean that half. The whole head is now usable, although we still won't use the shower until we leave the dock. (Better test it though.)
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 2
We decided to make today car rental day to pick up the freezer. Last week when I went to Pineapple's Car Rental, they were not open when they said they would be, but Hertz was. But, after my experience waiting to return the car to Hertz, I decided to give Pineapple's another try. They didn't have a "cheap" ($40US) car available (which would be a tiny thing like last time), but they had a mid-size (Toyota Corolla) which seemed like a huge sedan for $10US more. Sure. The paperwork was quick and simple and I was out of there in half the time it took me at Hertz.
We headed along the coast road to Falmouth Harbor. We got behind another rental car (you can tell from the license plates) who was obviously not comfortable with driving on the left, or the right-hand-drive car, or both. I passed him at my first opportunity. It occurred to me just after the pass that I had not checked my mirror (on the "wrong" side) to see if the impatient bus behind me was already coming. There were no horns blown, and the bus followed me around the other rental car, so I guess I didn't accidentally cut him off. Have to pay more attention to that.
We got to Woodstock Boats, and I went in to tell Karen the front desk lady that I was here to pick up the freezer. She took me through the office and hooked me up with Jim to go to the part of the shop where refrigeration stuff is done. When I saw Jim, I thought he looked familiar. It took me a minute, but then it came to me. He and his wife Kelly and two kids, lived aboard in Grenada when we were there. Kelly had been one of the ladies leading the exercise sessions at the marina in 2007 when we first got there. We saw them again here in 2009 and I knew Jim was working here, but didn't know where. Turns out they have a new (3rd) child and have moved into a house here. They still have the boat, but will haul it soon while kids grow up. The story with the freezer is simple- it had no Freon in it, so it didn't cool. The tech filled it with Freon and a dye they use for finding leaks, but there was no sign of the dye after he started it up. So, it's a good news/bad news deal. Good news is it works. Bad news is, Freon doesn't disappear, so sooner or later, it will quit again. Good news is since the dye is in there, when it does quit again, we should see where the leak is. And, it only cost $100 US, so if it keeps us in ice another couple years, yea!
We like the Mad Mongoose for lunch, but it was only 11:00 once we were done with the freezer, we have a list of other stuff to get near St. John's, so we decided to tour the east side of the island on our way to St John's and find lunch along the way. We headed to the southeast corner of the island, hoping to get a view of Green Island and Nonsuch Bay, which we have heard good things about form cruisers, but not been to.
On the way to this corner of the world, we would come close to the Antigua & Barbuda Humane Society's Donkey Preserve. We had seen signs for the Donkey Preserve on the road between the airport and Jolly Harbor before, and we wondered what it was all about. I mean, how many donkeys could need rescuing on a small island? Well, it turns out, lots of them. Donkeys have been used as "beasts of burden" for years on the islands. They carried the sugar cane from the fields to the mills, acted as modes of travel pre-cars, etc. Now, there are lots of them roaming wild, and they turn into pests or get hurt. As we traveled east from Falmouth Harbor, we kept seeing the signs for the preserve. We eventually came to the turnoff where the sign said "1 mile" to the preserve. This was one mile of dirt road, with potholes that the rental company would probably not know I took the car through. After 3/4 miles, we turned off the rough dirt road to a really rough dirt road for another 1/4 mile. Then we came to a gate with a sign that said to blow your horn to open the gate. We blew, and sure enough, it opened. We pulled up another couple hundred feet of bad road to a small building and a corral full of donkeys. There were several vehicles here, because it turns out that Thursday is the day the vet visits, as well as the other volunteers who are here daily. A young lady came out and greeted us and asked us if we wished to meet the donkeys. Well, of course we do! That's what we came for. As she led us to the corral and opened the gate she started explaining why the donkeys needed help, and what the Humane Society was trying to accomplish. She explained that the donkeys in this corral were the ones who had become acclimated to captivity. Once they get the hang of it, they love it. They like attention, and many will see a new visitor and come right over to be the one getting petted. All the donkeys have names, although of the 164 they currently have, the young lady volunteer (who had only been working there a short time) didn't know lots of them. The vet, who was working over to one side of the corral was watching us, and when the volunteer didn't know a name, the vet would help her out. After walking around the corral for a while, with one donkey following me most of the time, we exited to the little building where you could wash your hands, and buy a souvenir. One of the souvenirs was to "adopt" a donkey. For a donation of $25US, you get to pick one of a dozen donkeys whose detailed stories are on the wall and the website. We adopted Sammy because he was cute and I liked the story about his mother being a little hussy.
After the donkeys, we were getting hungry. Back on the main road, we saw signs for Harmony Hall which is a small (6 rooms) resort and restaurant. After a few miles, we were on another dirt road following these signs. These roads remind me of our journeys in the Turk & Caicos several years ago. We followed the signs to a sign that specifically said "Parking for Harmony Hall", although we couldn't see any buildings nor any view worth having lunch at. Once we got out of the car, it wasn't obvious where to go. I surveyed the scene and realized there was a concrete road leading uphill. I told Barb, that I bet at the top of the road was something worth seeing. Well, I was right. The foliage made it deceptive, because it was only fifty feet up the hill to the entrance to the resort, where we found a sign directing us to the right for the restaurant, and the left for rooms or the art gallery. We went right and were met by a waitress who directed us to one of three small seating areas, each overlooking the water. In the middle of this was an old sugar mill structure that has had it's interior converted to a yacht club, and stairs added around the outside leading to an observation deck on top. We chose a great table, and were only the third table occupied in the whole place. We had a wonderful lunch overlooking the western end of Nonsuch Bay. It was one of those times where we feel like we are much more privileged than we really are.
After lunch we proceeded to use our cartoon tourist map to try and actually navigate our way around the island. To explain this, the silly maps that you get from a rental company here are more advertising than map. They may have 30% of the roads on them, and the fact that there are no street signs on the roads adds to the level of difficulty. We had heard another couple at the restaurant asking about Half Moon Bay's beach, saying it was supposed to be #2 in the world. We accidentally found it. It looks like a very nice beach, but I'm not sure I would give it #2 in the world.
From Half Moon Bay, we found our way back to the road that cuts more or less southeast to northwest where the city of St. John's is. Our list of other things to be obtained today includes a gauge for the propane tank that may be obtained from a welding supply place I have directions to, and some household stuff we hope to get at the Townhouse Mega Store where we found the coax connectors last week. The first stop will be the Mega Store. As we pull into the parking lot, it looks suspiciously empty. As we park I see the sign on the front that states the hours of operation. Monday - Saturday, 8AM to 6PM, EXCEPT Thursdays, when they close at 2PM. It was now 2:30PM. Why?? We have long ago learned to be amused by these things, but it doesn't make them any more understandable.
While we are in the neighborhood, be planned to stop by the "big" Epicurean grocery store. Epicurean is the store in Jolly Harbor. That is their satellite store, and by island standards, it's in the top 5. But, their main store in Antigua is just outside St. John's, the "big city". We found Woods Mall, where we had been to the big Epicurean in 2009, but in it's place we found a department store. We found a couple of the kitchen things we needed here, but were confused as to whether the Epicurean was gone, or were we in the wrong place. Back outside, we were sure this was where the Epicurean had been. Since we saw Epicurean Dr. on a street sign as we approached the mall, I guessed they had to have built a new store, and it had to be close. We left the mall parking lot and turned north. Within a block we found Epicurean Dr. again, and across the field we saw a huge new building. This store rivals any supermarket in the States. We walked around in awe (by island standards) of how big it was. It's probably four times the size of the one in Jolly Harbor. True to island standards, there were some bare spots on some shelves, but this place was wonderful. It's obviously built to cater to the highest population concentration on the island, and not cruisers, or even the mega-yacht trade, but I bet the mega-yacht folks justify a rental car or taxi to get here. While here we ran into Terry, the owner of the Starfish Espresso store at Jolly Harbor. I have been meaning to take a picture of the Starfish Espresso sign to show the obvious copy of Starbuck's logo. Follow the link and I don't have to take the picture.
When we left Epicurean, our last stop was to find the welding supply place to hopefully get a pressure gauge for the propane system on the boat. Our gauge doesn't leak, but the whole housing and face has rusted away. It doesn't keep the propane from working, but I would like to replace it. Darius at Budget Marine drew me a detailed map of where this place was the other day. Unfortunately, I left that little map at the boat. I thought I could remember enough to get us there, but unfortunately, I was wrong. So, that task will remain for another day.
We headed back to the boat before it got dark. Driving on the left, in a right-hand drive car, on narrow pothole ridden roads, is fun enough, but I don't want to add "dark" to the equation. Back at the boat, I got online and found an e-mail from the Westerbeke dealer in TX who is getting our parts. The important parts have been shipped FedEx International Priority, and I have tracking number!
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 3
We were up and lounging around this morning, when suddenly I remembered that I had to return the rental car. I finished my coffee, went to the fuel dock to get gas, and returned the car. The young lady who did my outbound paperwork saw me park the car and met me before I got to the office to check me in. The whole procedure was better than the Hertz experience, and next time I'll give Pineapple's the business.
When we contracted with Abu of Caribbean Marine Painting to do the bottom painting and hull polishing before we returned in November, he had also quoted us on polishing and waxing the deck. We declined that at the time. Yesterday we stopped at Budget Marine and picked up some one-step polishing/wax stuff for old oxidized surfaces. (Hard to believe MoonSail is almost 20 years old and I've owned her 15 of those.) So, Barb started polishing little bits at a time of the topsides. To explain, it's not the whole deck. Most of the upward facing surfaces of the deck are finished with a non-skid surface so when you walk on it wet you don't slip. It's mostly only the little strips between these non-skid sections that have to be polished, with a couple of larger sections thrown in.
While Barb was polishing, and it may have appeared I was simply playing computer games, I really was researching why I had to install a new GPS antenna for our new AIS system. AIS is a system that identifies you and other ships with details regarding speed, direction, etc. The point is to avoid collisions. It was mandated for commercial vessels several years ago, and recently became affordable for pleasure craft also. One of the things it uses is GPS to know where you are. Of course, we already have a GPS antenna installed for our general navigation, so I didn't see why I had to install another GPS antenna. I never did find a good explanation of why one GPS couldn't be shared, but I found a number of sources that said it could not. So, I started plotting where to put this antenna. On the rear arch that has all our other antennas and electronic stuff, I have a TV antenna that is now obsolete. In the Islands, we never even try to watch local TV. If we are in a marina, we may hook up to cable if they have it, but that doesn't use the antenna. So, I figure I can replace that TV antenna with the second GPS antenna, and use the old TV cable to pull the new GPS cable.
At lunchtime, we decided to go to Melini's Italian restaurant. We have had excellent dinners there, but haven't been there for lunch. On the way we see the lunch special sign at Peter's BBQ, and they had fish and chips. So, we detoured there. We both ordered the fish and chips. Apparently the cats who hang around there also knew the special was fish, because two of them were at our table as soon as we were. One of the two was very vocal today. I have never seen any of them obviously beg or talk to you, but this one wouldn't shut up. Once our lunch came, I gave each of them a tiny piece of fish. Part of me wanted to give them more, but it was good, and I was hungry. Unlike in the past, they both let us touch them a little. We must have been here too long if all the cats are trusting us.
Back at the boat, I started looking into the antenna cable pulling. I removed the covers in the aft cabin where the davits attach to the boat. The new cable has a connector already attached, and I eyeballed the hole to see if the connector would fit through it. I removed the TV antenna and cut the connector off the end of the cable. I taped the new GPS cable to the old cable and while Barb fed it in the hole, I pulled from inside. When it got to going through the hole in the hull where the davits mount, there just wasn't enough room. Damn the guys who design stuff without any clue to what it really takes to install it. We pulled the cable back to the original position and considered the options. The best option was to cut off the connector so just the cable thickness had to go through the hole. But before cutting off the connector, I wanted to be sure I could replace it. Off to Budget Marine I went. As opposed to my last connector foray to Budget, where I couldn't get what I needed, they had about 50 of these connectors. So, off came the original, and the cable got pulled through the davits and into the aft cabin.
By now it was time to quit for the afternoon. Dick & Mary from Alacazam came by to tell us they were leaving in the morning and say goodbye. We went to happy hour at the dockside bar, and then had a simple cheese and crackers dinner since we had big lunch.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 4
Barb started the day polishing again. Since I was feeling a little guilty about not working when there was plenty to do, I left the computer and went to work. My first task was to complete the pulling of the new cable for the AIS GPS. Having the old TV antenna cable to use as a messenger made the job lots simpler. As Barb fed the cable, I pulled from the engine compartment and got it to there. As feared though, the cable that came with the antenna only makes it to the front of the engine compartment, about 10 feet shy of where it needs to go. So, I'll have to make another trip to town to find more cable and connectors.
My next project was to apply new waterproofing to the bimini. (The bimini is the canvas roof over the cockpit.) It is supposed to be waterproof, but after a number of years it loses the water repelling ability, and you get drips inside when it rains hard. The bimini is almost ten years old, and I re-waterproofed it once in Grenada four years ago. The stuff you apply is a watery clear liquid that you use a paint brush to apply. It is supposed to have six hours to dry before "using" which I guess would mean before it rains. We have had scattered showers that last about thirty seconds each every couple hours for the last two weeks, but it looks clear as far as I can see, so on goes the stuff. Late in the afternoon, when a shower did come, we enjoyed seeing the beads of water rolling off the top and no drips in the cockpit.
At 17:00, we headed up to the dockside bar for happy hour. Being Saturday, the local yacht club had their weekly regatta today. Festus, the marina manager has a boat that he keeps in the very first slip by the bar. He and friends participate in the weekly regattas. As we approached the bar, Festus and two other guys were enjoying beverages in the cockpit after the race. He said hello to us and invited us aboard for a beer. Well, it can't hurt to get to know the marina manager even better, so we joined them for beers and conversation. Festus's crew was Eddie. The other young man wasn't crew, but hangs around the marina doing odd jobs for anybody. He made sure to tell us if we needed anything to let him know. Since he was with Festus and Festus didn't say anything when this offer was made, to me that implied that he was ok. Festus keeps a close eye on who offers work in the marina. When the young man left before us, I asked Festus and Eddie what his name was. Neither of them knew. Life in the islands.
We went on to happy hour for a few more beverages. Being Saturday, the place was packed with the regatta participants waiting to hear the results. We were lucky to find to chairs at the bar and watched the show. Later we had dinner aboard. We had lunch aboard today too. That may be our first two-meals aboard day. It's so easy to eat out when there are several convenient restaurants nearby. While we were at happy hour, slightly after dark, we heard a loud noise like a lawnmower. It was the mosquito spraying truck going by. I'm not sure about the ecological soundness of the spraying here, since the cloud put out by the truck envelopes the restaurants and bars for a few minutes. But if it kills any of the little bastards, it's ok with me.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 5
It's Super Bowl Sunday. Barb did some more polishing and finished the starboard side of the topsides. She has done the starboard side, because it's primarily in the shade all day. The sports bar here has been advertising a Super Bowl party for two weeks now. In just the last day or two, the other places have also put up signs that they will have the game on. We had pretty much decided we weren't going to watch, since it starts at 7:30PM local time, and we probably won't get the US commercials, so why stay up late? We went to happy hour at the dockside and found it typically quiet since it's Sunday. Seems like some of the locals who regularly come there don't come on Sundays, and condo renters come and go on the weekend, so the new people haven't found the place yet. We were immediately engaged in conversation by a guy we had not seen there before. Dave, had just arrived from New Jersey for five weeks in a condo. While we were they were setting up a portable projection TV for the game. I thought that if we could see it there for free, maybe we'd stay up. Dave suggested getting a couple pizzas from Melini's next door, so he went to order them. We ate the pizzas and watched while the guys were having trouble getting the TV signal from wherever they were plugging in. We were tired of conversation with Dave, and still not sure about the commercials we would see, so we went back to the boat. By now though my interest in the game was piqued, so I looked at my Internet options for watching. NBC for the first time ever streamed it live on the Internet. BUT, being outside the US, I couldn't get it. That confirms to me that they have a Caribbean feed and we would probably not have seen the US commercials. I went to NFL.com to see if I could watch there somehow, and I saw that I could listen. After much anguish dealing with a website that is way too busy, and $15, I got to listen to the game from the radio feed. I'll look for commercials later on YouTube.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 6
We got up this morning, turned on the coffee and the computer and received some terrible news. Our old boss at BMC, and good friend, Ed Breaux had passed away yesterday. Ed came to BMC after I worked there, and in fact, he started the same day Barb did. He came from New Orleans, and had worked with several other guys in our group who had also come from New Orleans. Some of us were a little wary of the new guy at first, but he fit right in and turned out to be a good manager and friend. When Barb and I made the decision that we were going to go cruising, we let Ed know this more than a year before we left. We didn't want to just give two-weeks noticed and leave everybody in the lurch when the time came. Since our decision was partly driven by the fact that we had lost a couple friends from work too early, Ed understood why we wanted to go while we could and fully supported our decision. We kept in touch while we were out the first four years, and when we came back to the States looking to work again in 2009, Ed was the first person we called. While he wasn't able to hire us back into his group, I went back to BMC in another area. Since I worked from home, even though I was in Houston, I only went to the office occasionally, but always stopped by to say hi if Ed was in. In the past few years, Ed, like I, had lost a fair amount of weight, and was paying attention to blood pressure and cholesterol, and each time he saw me he asked me if I was doing the same. He was a few months younger than me, so he figured we were in similar boats, so to speak, as far as the health things we should pay attention too. When the time came for me to leave BMC again a few months ago, I sought Ed's counsel, even though I was no longer in his group, as far as discretely checking out some things with HR and just reinforcing my decision. As usual, he was supportive. He wasn't in a position yet in his life to retire, but he was enjoying time with wife and had done some traveling in the past couple years. Traveling was where he was yesterday. He and his wife, and several other friends were taking a cruise that was a musically themed cruise with several artists from the blues genre that he loved. They had boarded the cruise ship in Miami when Ed didn't feel well and went to their cabin. He was later found there after apparently suffering a heart attack. Our hearts go out to his wife and family and friends. We will miss him, because he was one of the people who "got it" about why we are out here.
I was now faced with the choice of sitting around all day doing nothing and moping about Ed's death, or getting my ass up and doing some projects so we could get off the dock. I chose the latter. I have been putting off climbing the mast to fix the VHF antenna, using the excuse that I'm waiting for the wind to die down. Well, this is the Caribbean, and part of makes it so nice is the Trade Winds. And they pretty much always blow. So, today's the day. The past few days we have had our handheld-VHF on all the time monitoring the two hailing channels. The VHF is like your phone on a boat, and one of the good things is that it is like an old party line. The bad part of that is whatever you say is probably being listened to no matter what channel you switch to. But the good side is that if you need help, everybody has their radio on, and you'll get help faster than making a phone call.
Once I am at the top of the mast, it's inconvenient, although not unmanageable, to realize you forgot a tool you needed. So the first order of business was to think about the tasks to be accomplished, and the stuff needed. There are three tasks to be accomplished while up in the air. The VHF antenna connector needs to be put on the cable and connected, the anchor light that doesn't work needs to be replaced, and then SSB cable needs to be reattached to the backstay. Actually there are four, because there is a tangled flag halyard on the backstay that needs to be straightened out when the SSB cable is dealt with. As I thought through each task, Barb put the tools required in the canvas tool bag that would go up with me.
As we thought things through, I wondered about the anchor light. I could try to diagnose why it wasn't working, or just replace it. I chose replacing and walked over to Budget Marine to get a new one. On my way back, it occurred to me I should warn the office that my FedEx paperwork for the engine parts should come today. As I got to the office, the FedEx guy came out. Yea! I went in and signed the stuff I needed to and turned it over to the agent who will get the parts released from Customs, hopefully without duty paid.
Back to the mast, we hoisted the mast steps that I use to climb the mast. I have probably described mast climbing before, but there are several options. Some boats, not many, have steps built into the mast. This usually sucks, because the rivets eventually corrode, they catch the sails, they generate wind noise, and they look silly. There are new built in steps that fold up into the mast that sound great, but I've never seen them and they would be on a much higher-end boat than ours. Then there is the old sit in a boson's chair and have some strong person winch you to the top method. If you have an electric winch, this isn't a bad option, but we don't have one. Barb can't winch my big butt all the way to the top. Occasionally, if the job to be done at the top is very simple, you can enlist a kid to be hoisted, making the winching greatly easier. (Thanks Dayla.) But usually, whoever goes up also has to know what to do when they get there, meaning it's the big 'ole Captain going up. The method we have are steps called Mast-Mate. They are basically steps made from a heavy webbing that are hoisted up the mast and then you climb them. To be safe a second halyard is attached to a boson's chair and the deck-hand (Barb) just has to take up the slack in that line as you climb. Easy for the deck-hand, a little strenuous for the climber. Once at the top though, you sit in the chair and relax. I'm not fond of the climbing part, but the height doesn't bother me at all and I kind of enjoy sitting up there.
The first order of business was to take some pictures. This gave me a chance to catch my breath and if I didn't do this first, there would be a good chance I would forget.
First real job was the antenna cable. I trimmed the coax to the appropriate lengths for the connector, and screwed the connector on. These connectors require soldering the center core wire into the connector pin. I bought a battery operated soldering iron just for this job. Battery operated soldering iron is an oxymoron. In the 15 knot wind, I was getting no solder melting at all up there. In frustration, I gave up with the iron and literally jammed a little piece of solder into the hole, in the hopes that it would just mash the wire against the pin and make a good enough connection. We'll see.
The next job was the anchor light. Unfortunately I did a very good job of attaching the anchor light when I installed it on the ground before we put the mast back on the boat. I also forgot that I need sockets, not a crescent wrench to take the masthead plate off so I could maybe remove the light. So, I made the executive decision that we could live with an anchor light hung from the rigging like we did the last year we cruised.
Last job is the SSB cable and flag halyard untangling. My plan was to hook myself to the backstay while at the top, and then slide down to where the cable attaches. Once up there, this plan didn't look so good. Especially since I had not made sure the halyard was long enough to get me to the bottom. So, I just had Barb lower me. Coming down is easier. I don't use the steps. I just sit while Barb lets out the halyard on the boson's chair . Once back on deck, I started puzzling over how to get up to where I needed to attached the SSB cable. I found that the halyard was long enough to reach me on deck at the back, so I put the boson's chair on, attached it to the halyard, and attached a shackle to the hooks on the chair and the backstay. Then Barb winched as I did my best to pull myself up and make the winching easier. There were a couple of roadblocks in this sliding up the backstay where I had to use a second shackle to clip in above an obstacle, then undo the original one and keep going up. It actually worked out pretty well, and I got the cable connected and the flag halyard straightened out.
Once back on deck it was time to test things. While I sat in the cockpit catching my breath and stretching my back which was immediately tightening up after the work was done, Barb turned on the main switch for the VHF. She said there was nothing on the display. This would not be related to the antenna connection, so I figured there was another problem to deal with. I went below to look at it. I already have the whole nav station panel opened up, so I disconnected the power cable to the VHF and used my meter to see if there was voltage. There was, leading me to think there was something wrong with the radio itself. Then it occurred to me that there is an on/off switch on the radio in addition to the main panel switch. Ah the things we forget in three years gone. I called the dockmaster on the radio to verify it works, and it did. We'll see later how good the range is, which will be indicative of how good the connections are.
Next, I got the remote microphone for the VHF, which is one of the soft-rubber things that have gotten moldy. I used Simple Green to clean it up nice, and plugged it in. Nothing happened. After a few minutes I remembered we have a spare remote mic. Back when we first left we had a problem with the cable between the radio below and the plug in the cockpit where the remote plugs in. To replace the cable I had to buy a whole new mic and cable kit. I found the new mic, plugged it in, and it worked fine. I turned off the handheld, and put the main radio on scan mode. Later in the day we heard a routine announcement from the Antiguan Coast Guard in St. Johns, which we had not been hearing on the handheld. So, it looks like the antenna is good.
Next, I cleaned up the SSB mic cable which is not only moldy looking, but the rubber is actually flaking off a little. Hopefully the wires themselves are ok. The "other end" of the SSB is the ground plane. It's black magic about the best ground plane to use. There are several different ways to accomplish it. I had always used a strip of copper foil to a keel bolt, but that has gotten very corroded. While in the States, we found a new product that is simple to install and promises to work as well as any. So, we bought one, and I installed it in a few minutes. Tomorrow, we'll see if we can hear the weather guy or check in with the Coconut Telegraph Net.
I subscribe to a Yahoo Group that is dedicated to owners of the several different variations of Catalina boats that were started with the model that MoonSail is. One of the other members had recently mentioned that he would be at a resort in Antigua, so I had invited him to stop by. Today he and his wife did. Paul & Patty came by and spent a bit of time with us. They have a Catalina 380 which was the follow-on to the Catalina/Morgan 38. It's the same hull, but the 380 is an aft cockpit, whereas we have a center cockpit. The difference inside is a larger aft cabin on our model. They are from the Toronto area and sail on Lake Ontario. They are a few years from retirement but hope to someday sail to the Caribbean. We enjoyed their visit, as I hope they did.
Our friends Chuck & Micki from coram Deo returned from the States today. We joined them for a happy hour drink and then returned to MoonSail where Barb made her first left-over make-over dinner. As usual, it was good.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 7
I didn't do much in the way of useful projects today, but, mid-afternoon, I got a call on the radio from the marina office. The agent was there with our package. I went up immediately and met him. Since the parts are for a "boat in transit", there is no duty to be paid. But the agent charges a fee to do all the paperwork to make it happen. That fee was $70 USD. Once paid, Mr. Walker, the agent, said to go downstairs to the van parked in front and tell the guy in the van to get my package. When I saw the box, I was concerned that it wasn't large enough to possibly have the head gasket (the most important part ordered) in it. I carried it back to the boat and opened it to find a very creative packing job. The head gasket was in a cardboard protective sandwich placed diagonally across the box. All the other parts were packed around that. Yea! I went over to the yard to tell the mechanic that the parts were here. They still have to finish reassembling the head and will hopefully get to the boat tomorrow.
Being Tuesday, we made plans to go to the two-for-one pizza night at Al Porto. We checked with Chuck & Micki to see if they wanted to join us, but they had already been invited to join another couple there and had 6 PM reservations. So, I called to make our reservation, and was told that there were only 8 PM seatings available. That's later than we normally eat, but I took it. We went to happy hour and learned more of the island scoop from Dave, who seems to know everybody's story (or so he says). We headed to Al Porto about 7:30 and it was packed. We waited just a minute for our table. Being so busy, it took a bit to get our waitresses attention because she was swamped, but the pizza was good as usual.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 8
I seem to have picked up yet another cold. This make the third or fourth I've had in the last several months. I blamed the previous ones on the fact that I had traveled and been in airports, but I can't use that excuse for this one. The other night when we had drinks at Melini's, the bartender mentioned he had a cold, so maybe I can blame him, although I didn't kiss him.
I saw Dennis the mechanic on the dock, and he said he had to finish up another job he was working on, and he expected to be to us in the afternoon. As these things go, he didn't get done with the other job until late in the afternoon, so he stopped by to say he would see us in the morning.
We went to happy hour and then returned to the boat for a cheese & crackers dinner.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 9
Dennis showed up about 9:00 to get to work. First he brought just the head with him. He went to work getting the head bolted on the engine. I was happy to see that he had enough room to be able to properly torque all the bolts. I had been concerned that the large torque wrench might not fit. By lunch time, he has the head on and tightened down. He went to finish a quick job he had been working on, and have lunch, and we went to lunch. When we returned from lunch about 13:00, Dennis wasn't back yet. He showed up about 15 minutes later, with a large box with the rest of our parts that they had cleaned up. He got to work reassembling everything. I was a little concerned at his organization, or lack thereof, but things slowly came together. All this work is stuff I could do myself, but I would be so sore afterwards, that it's worth paying somebody else. The access to the engine is pretty good by sailboat standards, but there is still a lot of up and down and bending and laying on the floor etc. (See the pictures for the access.) I do a feel a little guilty though, because we learned Dennis had been in a car accident last week and his back is hurting some. We had seen the car, which belongs to Carl the owner of the engine shop, and it had been rear-ended very hard. Dennis was in the backseat, and was lucky to have not been hurt more. Anyway, by 17:00, he had all the cooling system parts back on, and wanted me to fill the engine with plain water so we could make sure there were no leaks. We did that and will see if it stays full overnight.
We went to happy hour and then to Melini's for dinner. Chuck & Micki showed up right after we were seated, so they joined us. We had very nice meal and conversation, then returned to the boat.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Feb 10
Well, I was going to publish the log yesterday, and I figured it would be the biggest cliff hanger since Jr. got shot on Dallas. But, being lazy, I didn't get it done, and now that I have the answer, I have to yell about it. The engine is alive! Dennis arrived about 8:30 this morning. He wanted to get it done so he could take off early, being Friday. He got to work in his normal fashion putting things together. We had found a leak where a hose clamp had to be tightened, so the idea of starting with just water was a good one. Dennis started putting the alternators back on, the intake manifold, then the injectors and fuel lines. He had to drain the water and remove a hose to get one of the alternators on because he had pinned the wires to the alternator under a hose. He also brought a cool oil change suction device that removes the oil through the dipstick tube. For you boaters, this was not the silly little hand pump thing you get at West Marine. This was a two-gallon container, that you pump a few times creating a vacuum, and then watch the oil fill it up. Too large to carry as a routine deal for my tastes, but it worked nicely. By noon, I was getting pretty hungry, and asked Dennis if he planned to take a lunch break. He said he was so close that he wanted to finish. So we went up to Peter's BBQ for lunch, leaving Dennis busily working on mounting the heat exchanger properly, which is a trick I had to learn myself years ago.
When we got back from lunch, the engine was not purring nicely as I hoped we might find. Instead, Dennis was still busy, but ready to add water and oil. I helped him fill the water and oil, and we were ready to try to start her. Barb got the honors of turning the key and pushing the button. She held the key to the start position, which warms the glow plugs and runs the electric fuel pump. There was some fuel leakage around the lines to the injectors, so we stopped and Dennis addressed this. We tried again, and this time cranked the engine, which turned over nicely, but didn't start. After a few tries, I remembered that the fuel valve at the tank was closed! I went and opened it, and we tried again. We could hear a different pitch from the fuel pump as now it was able to actually pump some fuel. The system should be self-bleeding, which means unlike some older diesel engines, you don't have to mess with cracking the fuel line fittings at each injector to bleed the air out of the lines. But, she wasn't starting. Now, as some of you are familiar with diesels know, there are only three reasons a diesel won't run (assuming it turns over). And those three reasons are fuel, fuel, and fuel. So, we apparently were not getting fuel to the injectors. I was having visions of the fuel pump needing work, which is kind of like the Swiss watch of a diesel. We had not messed with the fuel pump, or it's timing, but who knows what might be gunked up or stuck in there. But, Dennis insisted that even though the Westerbeke allegedly needs no bleeding, that air in the lines was the problem. He kept cracking open lines as Barb keep running the fuel pump and/or cranking the engine. We also kept spraying WD40 in the intake, like you would use starting fluid in a gasoline engine. The more we cranked with no results, the more worried I got. I kept seeing even more dollar signs rolling by. But, after a while, there was a hint of an attempt to kick over. Next time, there was a definite effort to start. I started to get a little more hopeful. Dennis told Barb to open the throttle halfway and try. (Some people routinely give some throttle before starting. We never have.) It actually started and raced a few seconds, then died. After several more iterations of this, she started and kept running! All day, there have been off and on showers, so I have been opening and shutting hatches and ports to keep it cool below. I'm hot, and poor Dennis is wearing a jumpsuit over his regular clothes. By now, it was 14:30, and Dennis decided he really needed to eat. Being a typical island guy, he mentioned he had no money but would go see what he could find. I gave him $20 EC (about $7US) and told him to take a break. While he was gone, Barb and I had a celebratory beer in the cockpit. While we were enjoying that, it started to rain again. I jumped up to go below and close hatches, forgetting that the stairs to below were not there (removed for access to the engine). I free fell a couple feet, catching myself with my arms (mostly my right) on the edge of the companionway. Even though my feet could touch the top of the galley counter, my weight was swinging me away from that and Barb had to grab one hand to counter-balance me so I could get a foot planted. It's hard to envision I'm sure, but I was lucky to not have hurt myself other than my right shoulder hurt a bit. (This is the second or third time I have done a similar fall.) Dennis was back in about 30 minutes, ready to go again. I didn't mention my fall to him. We ran the motor some more to warm it up, and then he adjusted the valves (something you have to do with the engine hot). When that was done, we started her up again and she purred like a kitten. I think it really sounds better and smoother than it did when we left it, although that may just because after spending all this money, I want it to sound better. Seriously, the engine has 2700 hours on it, and has never been touched. Things like valve adjustment and injector cleaning are supposed to be done every 500 hours. Maybe there is something to that schedule after all. Dennis packed up all his stuff and left about 16:30. There are a few things still to be sorted out, like the tachometer wire isn't connected, and the water temp gauge isn't working, but I can sort that out myself. I helped Dennis carry his tools and stuff back to his car, and gave him a little cash tip for his work. I have no idea yet what this has cost me. I don't know the hourly rate, nor the hours spent, since some have been back at the shop, but bottom line is that it doesn't matter. It had to be done. In a true shoemaker's kids story, Dennis's car wouldn't start when he got in. The car isn't his, but an old beater that the shop uses to run around the marina and boat yard. A friend drove up at just the right time to give him a jump start and I left.
We had plans tonight to join Chuck & Micki, and Al & Maggie from Sweet Dreams for dinner at the Sugar Ridge resort which is just outside Jolly Harbor proper. There are two restaurants at Sugar Ridge, one way on top of the hill, and one with a slightly less spectacular view, although it was great. Sugar Club is the "lesser" of the two restaurants at Sugar Ridge, and it was a very nice place. Tonight is their Seafood Night. Barb and I both had seared tuna for dinner, and I had a shrimp and lobster appetizer. It's time to celebrate. When we got back to the boat, as we boarded, I paused in the cockpit and started the engine. Just because I could!
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.