Recently in Boat Maintenance Category

We stayed in Cartagena a few days longer than originally planned because we were waiting for a part to be shipped to us. Our primary fresh water pump died an ignoble death on our passage down to Cartagena. It had been giving warning signs for some time, and I have no excuse for not having bought a spare earlier. We thought the original problem was simply a broken diaphragm, which was the subject of another parts shipment back in the Grenadines. We performed the diaphragm replacement and the pump stopped leaking, so we thought it was fixed. But, there was another problem.

Anyway, we identified a company which said they could get the part we ordered (two of them, one as a spare) in the US delivered to us in a week. But, they were not very good at "tracking" the package's progress. We essentially did not know if they actually had the product here in Colombia until Monday night. Then, we didn't hear from the until late last night - but, around 7 PM they finally delivered it to me at the marina. Whew! By 8 PM, I had removed the old pump and installed the new one. And, it works beautifully!

Now we'll be able to leave soon for the San Blas archipelago in Panama (click on thumbnail above to visit in Google Maps - Google doesn't have high-res aerial photos of the area - yet). These islands are some of the most beautiful tropical islands in the Caribbean. There are supposedly 365 islands there - one for each day of the year. The islands (and surrounding tropical forest-lined shore) are occupied by the Kuna Indians who believe in keeping their lives simple, live off the sea and the land, do not use modern technologies, and keep their culture separate from foreign influences. They are reportedly very friendly as long as you don't harm their environment or violate their rules. For example, each Kuna family owns specific coconut trees (they use coconuts as a form of trade, and a source of food and supplies). It is forbidden for visitors to pick up and use coconuts for this reason.

We are looking forward to being able to jump in the waters again. The port here at Cartagena does not have very appetizing water, so we haven't been swimming in nearly two weeks! We'll have a to wait a bit for a weather window and to get cleared out of customs.

As I've mentioned before, we will have VERY limited Internet connectivity while in San Blas during the next couple of weeks. I'll still hopefully squeeze out a few blog posts - but, you'll have to wait until we get to Colon, Panama for me to upload photos. We won't be able to reply to our E-mails during this time as well. It will be a vacation!

We haven't been very productive from a tourism perspective so far in Colombia. We arrived on the weekend and spent two days before we found the agent we had been looking for to help with getting our clearance. Fortunately, some friends of ours were here the first evening (but, left for San Blas the next morning) and gave us some insights on local conveniences and information. Of particular use is the local marina's guide to cruisers, which is available on their web site here. This is the best online guide I've seen by a marina to date. You may not find all the services you want here, but at least they have information on what is available.

Unfortunately, the marina - Club Nautico - is in the middle of doing a major re-construction. For some reason the local government put it to a halt at the worst possible time. So, they are operating out of a rustic shack of an office and the main facilities are in shambles - no showers, no bar, etc. And, they aren't allowed to continue construction (no building permit?). The docks are still in place, and have power and water though. And, the staff are doing their best to maintain services for the boaters.

Cartagena doesn't seem to have full-service chandleries (marine stores). There are two nearby stores, but they only have a subset of the usual items found in chandleries catering to serious boaters. I couldn't even find 3M's popular 5200 glue/sealant at the two stores, nor the usual oil we use for our engines, and I haven't been able to get the cruising guide for Panama I expected to buy here. More importantly, and this isn't as surprising, they don't have the pump we need - to replace the one that drives the water pressure on our starboard hull. I spent two days trying to determine the best way to have a new one sent to us here. We finally ordered two of the pumps (one as a spare) in the US, and are having it sent to Miami. An outfit there sends it to Colombia in the main port. Then it is brought down to Cartagena, clears customs, and is finally brought to us - where we pay the fees for the shipping, handling, and customs. If all goes as planned, it will be here by next Tuesday. We may also see if the old pump can be overhauled.

Meanwhile, we have gone to a few restaurants. We even went to Centro - the old part of Cartagena - and had a nice dinner and walked through the scenic area one night. Cartagena is a beautiful city, and we look forward to seeing more. Karen has been a bit out of commission having consumed something that didn't agree with her. We're hoping she'll be well enough today to do some sightseeing. There is a wonderful grocery store with nice Internet cafe nearby that has been our favorite haunting ground outside the boat.

We have a couple of candidates for crewing on Tahina for the upcoming long passages. If you think you may meet our criteria/dates, please contact us soon.

There is a young married couple, who are photo journalists, with whom I've been communicating with for several months now on the chance we could get together. Turns out they are in Colombia right now. They may be joining us for a couple of weeks as we depart Cartagena and go to San Blas in Panama. Then they would leave us when we reach the Panama Canal. We hope to pick up some traveling tips from them as they have done two round-the-world trips (not by sailboat). And share some photography tips as well.

The weather here has been hot and muggy. It hasn't been helped by the lack of wind the last couple of days (and more still air the next few days). We have actually been running the A/C while charging the batteries with the generator the last two times (something we never did in the windward islands).

For several weeks, we've been keeping an eye on the weather between Aruba and Cartagena. There's an area just north of Cartagena that is notorious for strong winds. A river comes out to sea near Barranquilla and the contrary currents and temperatures apparently churns up some wind. We've regularly seen gale-force (> 30 knot) winds appearing in this area in recent weeks. Our package finally cleared customs in Aruba on Tuesday afternoon (Monday was a holiday). We picked up our new anchor light, but it was too windy to go up the mast to install it. But, the weather forecast for Cartagena was looking pretty good for the next day. There were still some 20-25 knot winds in the forecast, and it was all following winds and seas. NOTE: this is a long post! We decided to stay well offshore to avoid risks of piracy sometimes reported out here, and to reduce the risk of weather effects closer to Cartagena. Check out the map of our GPS track below.

Meanwhile, another boat in the anchorage, named m/v Antipodes, came over and invited us out for drinks. Jim and Lara's boat is a motor trawler live-aboard, and they have come from San Diego to Aruba in the past few months. They plan to attempt a circumnavigation as well. Only 18 motor trawlers have ever made it apparently. Their boat is registered in North Carolina, so naturally we had to meet them. They also have worked in the information technology business as well. And, the most amazing coincidence is that they know Pat and Ali from s/v Bumfuzzle (an amazing couple who I followed on their web site when they circumnavigated a few years ago). In fact, they met them in person a few times. I really enjoyed hearing their first-person accounts of what they are like.

I spent the rest of Tuesday preparing a route and planning our arrival in Cartagena. We got up Wednesday and first sent me up the mast to install the light. That went very smoothly and it worked perfectly. Next I drove Coconut down to Barcadera port and cleared out of customs. One more trip to town to take in trash and get some cash. Then we got the dinghy up and prepped for departure. We weighted anchor at about 10:30 and headed out. Shortly after we left, we had two dolphin swim over and join us at the bows a bit. I always consider it a good thing when they visit us on a passage.

As mentioned the other day, we had a nice sail to Aruba on Sunday (see GPS track in the link). After a good sleep in the marina, we got up and worked all day Monday, and Tuesday morning, getting the boat cleaned up and ready for our guests who arrived on Tuesday afternoon. We took advantage of the access to water at the marina to give Tahina a thorough washing. She was covered in dirt from the desert-like environment of Bonaire. And, lots of salt as we hadn't had rain since we left Grenada and had three salty passages to get to Aruba. She was gleaming like new by the afternoon.

In the afternoon on Monday, I climbed the mast to investigate putting a new anchor light on Tahina. But, after looking closer I decided we needed to order the same anchor light we had before and have it shipped here. It would be the easiest way to get it installed. While up the mast, I took some photos of the really nice little port with the marina. In the series of photos I took below you can see the hotel, mall, restaurants, bars, shops, and cruiseship dock (complete with just one cruise ship in port).

In the afternoon we took laundry downtown to be done for us. We discovered there was a movie theater, a Taco Bell, Subway, Haggendaaz, and other reminders of home here. Not only that, but Avatar was showing. So, Monday night we went to watch the movie at last! We loved the movie! We also treated ourselves to Taco Bell. And, you won't believe it, but it tasted really good here. They must have Aruba or Venezuela influences because it was really tasty with a much different spice compared to the US.

On Tuesday morning, we continued the cleaning on the boat. Karen went to the grocery stores to do a big provisioning project, and I went to get the laundry later. Karen had me a bit worried when she was nearly an hour late, but thankfully our neighbor in the marina (s/v Lucid - an American owner who's been down here for two years) offered to check on her and managed to pick her up and bring her to the marina with her huge load. We were ready to leave at noon and checked out of the marina. But, the marina dockmaster suggested we just stay until our guests arrived - no charge.

We took a bus to the airport and Andy and Aliza arrived pretty much on time with all their luggage - including a load of stuff we had ordered and a bunch of our mail. First thing after we got back, we left the dock and went to a nearby anchorage for the night (next to the airport). Andy, while wallowing in the wonderful warmth of Aruba, was kind enough to pull out our goodies from his luggage. It was like Christmas! New spare parts! Hardrives for backups! Engine filters! Wow!

More photos to share - here are photos from our excursions from Bonaire to Aruba. Including photos from our brief stop at Curacao. We traveled there on the same day as "A Small Nest" with the family from Belgium. We had their kids over cupcakes and ice cream and to play Wii on Saturday afternoon. You can also see some of the ships we had close encounters with during our passages. And, there's a shot of Captain Frank washing Tahina in there as well:

On Friday we left Bonaire to make our way west to Aruba. My friend Andy and his wife Aliza are flying down for a few days of warm weather and sailing on Tahina. We had made the arrangements weeks ago, and were slowed down for repairs and a new computer back in the Grenadines and Grenada This is why we had limited time to stay in Bonaire.

We did manage to stop in Curacao for a quick look. Curacao is much more developed than Bonaire and has a sizable, and growing, population. You could see construction trucks and cranes all over the island. There are many more cars than buses on the roads. They have a huge bridge over the main port entry - big enough for ships to go under. We were enjoying looking, and taking pictures, of the island so much, that we passed the entry to the anchorage called Spanish Water. We ended up having to turn around and motor against wind and waves to get back to it. In our defense, the entry is almost impossible to spot from offshore.

We stopped in Curacao partly because there was a chance to get a new anchor light at the Budget Marine chandlery. I tried to catch a bus to the store, but it didn't show up when expected. I was told it was only 2-3 miles, so I started walking, but fortunately a boater drove up and offered me a ride. It was at least 5 miles.

Earlier in the morning, I went to take a shower in our guest bathroom (so I wouldn't wake Karen). The shower drain pump stopped working. Uh oh! So, I checked out the wiring and found there was 12V going to the pump. So, I removed the pump assuming the pump was bad. While at the Budget Marine, I managed to get a suitable pump replacement (it turns out two spares I had bought back in the US were not the right size). Back at the boat, I spent a few minutes setting up the wiring, and then put in the new pump. Nothing happened - but, I noticed when I pushed on the wiring it would sometimes make a slight noise. Our friends on A Small Nest also came to Curacao on the same day. We invited their kids to come over for Wii and ice cream we had bought. When their father Willem brought them over, he offered to help diagnose the pump problem. We did some testing and found both of the new pumps worked. The problem seemed to be the 12V power wire. It had slightly less voltage than the other wires. I went to pull on the wire to get a closer look, and a 6 inch piece of the wire came right out. On the end was green gunk - the wire was corroded! We had found the problem. We soon had a new power wire in place, and the pump worked perfectly. I'm a bit perturbed about the corrosion though. Good marine wire shouldn't do that, and this wire was put in by the boat builder.

Yesterday, Sunday, we left before dawn and made our way slowly out the Spanish Water entry in the dark. We soon were having a nice downwind sail to the NW along the Curacao coast towards Aruba. It was about 80 miles to the main port of Aruba and we wanted to arrive well before dark. We had a great sail and made good time. There was only a brief period where the winds died down and we ran a motor to keep our speed up. Once we got to Aruba we had a great run in the lee up the coast making 11-12 knots on a beam reach!

We called Aruba Port Control on the radio several minutes before getting to the port. But, they didn't answer until we were entering the harbor. They told us we had to go back to the Barcadera commercial port to clear into customs. So, we turned around and sailed 4 or so miles back. Once there, we found a small ship dock with 5 boats already parked - and no room for Tahina. There was more dock space to the west, but it was behind a fence and the water was shallow. A coast guard boat came by and said we should wait for a boat to leave. We waited for over 30 minutes trying to hold position with the wind. Finally I called the port again. Fortunately, the local marina listened in and told us that although the water was shallow, if we would move in close to the dock on the closer end it would be deep enough. He was right, and we were soon docked. Customs and immigration were speedy and I was in and out almost as fast as I could fill in the forms. That was nice!

We motor-sailed back up to the main port and called the marina. They told us where to dock, but explained they were leaving for the day. So, we tied up ourselves. The ironic part is that the water was even shallower at the dock, and I'm sure we touched sand in the process. As we were arriving, the sound was incredible. It turns out the first Carnival parade was going on at the street next to the marina. But, as we were finishing tying the end of the parade went by and was followed by a series of trucks that picked up all the pedestrian barriers and the parade was gone.

As we were cleaning up and having a late dinner, the Superbowl had started. They had it projected on the side of a nearby hotel, and loud enough we could hear the commentary. But, we enjoyed seeing a taste of good ole US of A. We're glad to be in Aruba with a couple of days to clean up the boat. And, we've now completed a brief visit of the ABCs. I would definitely enjoy being able to spend more time at the other two islands. But, hopefully we'll have a chance to see a lot of Aruba during the next week.

Yesterday, Friday, we accomplished all the priority tasks we had planned for Grenada. We had to sacrifice a few of the minor tasks in order to accommodate our schedule. But, with a lot of hard work, help from the other cruisers here, and frequent trips to shore with the dinghy, we got it done! So, we're ready for departure.

We're kind of sad to be leaving our new friends already. But, unfortunately, we have to get going or we will miss one of the best dive sites in the Caribbean - Bonaire. We hope to be able to spend at least 3-4 days there. We're hoping to leave either today or tomorrow - depending on the winds/weather.

After getting things cleaned up in the boat mid-evening, I took the dinghy over to talk to the other cruisers about our plans. Ended up at s/v Grace, and the crew from Ascension were visiting there. Grace is also headed west and we may end up at the same island in a few days. We had a really nice chat again about cruising experiences, teaching kids on boats, plastic in the oceans, pollution around the world, and even Patrick O'Bryan books (author of "Master and Commander"). It was amazing listening to Ascension - who have traveled around the world - describe with passion the travesty of pollution they have seen, and the disregard of the local people for the consequences of dumping trash and plastic into the sea. They also described beautiful atolls in the Pacific with trash all over the beaches - these are islands with no people on them!

Below is a summary of some of what we got accomplished yesterday:

We finished re-installing our jib sail. I spent the early morning soaking the jib sheet lines in a bucket of softner to remove salt and stiffness. Karen and I installed a new furling line in the morning, because the old one had some chafe. Thanks again to some help from Gord on Ascension, and help from Karen, we got the new sail up, and I went up the mast to properly affix the special steel halyard we have for our jib and adjust the furling system stopper at the top. We weren't done with all that until about 4 PM because of other parallel tasks.

I picked up a new engine starter battery because the old one was starting to not hold a full charge (and it was suspect because of a problem with our battery system when we first bought Tahina). Although, I had to go back to the store and exchange the new battery because it turned out we needed bolt connectors instead of posts. And it turned out the new one had 1/16th inch larger bolts. But, that wasn't a problem since I bought new butterfly nuts. The local bus didn't hesitate to pick me up with my battery in a rolling crate. I had to pay double-fee for a drop at the boatyard, but that meant it cost me about $2 US. A lot cheaper than a taxi.

We also finally got the custom security bars we had made for our two ventilation hatches. These bars are intended to give us more comfort at night in areas where crime is sometimes reported. The two hatches are quite large and accessible, so making it impossible for someone to just crawl through is a prudent move. We got the idea from another catamaran we met.

Karen got some last minute grocery items to make sure we're ready for a few days with limited grocery supplies. One thing I wanted to mention is that when we went to pay the rigger for the sail work, our credit card got declined. This has been happening to us at least once a month. And, apparently its getting to be an all too common occurrence with boaters traveling down here. I had called and informed the credit card company of our travel plans months ago, and they said they had made a note on our account. But, it keeps happenning. Fortunately, the business owner happened to use Skype, so I was able to make a call to get it cleared up. But, they took nearly 15 minutes to do it and made the business owner late for a lunch appointment. What a pain!

Finally, I wanted to mention that the customs guy I met when clearing out late yesterday is the nicest customs agent I've met in the Caribbean. I mentioned it to the other cruisers, and they all agreed he's the nicest man. So, if you want a positive customs experience, hopefully you'll get this guy if you try Prickly Bay's customs office.

We began our journey in mid-November with our departure from North Carolina, and a seven-day sail to St. Martin. We started moving south towards Grenada within a week with stops along some of our favorite islands of the Caribbean island chain. As we approached the holidays in St. Lucia, we had seen many charter boats, but few cruisers - people who live on their boats and travel extensively. One thing that increased their visibility was the arrival of the ARC - Atlantic Rally for Cruisers: about 300 boats left to cross the Atlantic from Europe and arrived in St. Lucia - mostly arriving in the middle of December. We started seeing several boats flying the banner of the ARC meaning they had made the crossing. But, we weren't meeting many of the cruisers.

Admittedly, we were traveling through the islands more quickly than normal for that time of year. And, the economic conditions have resulted in fewer cruisers plying these waters. But, our previous experiences had caused us to expect we would have met and made friends with more cruisers by the beginning of the new year. We met a couple of boats - like Northfork and Bamboo. And had some good times with them. But, not as many meetings as we expected. Maybe we just weren't sociable enough.

Well, we now are almost overwhelmed with a positive taste of the cruising community. Here in Prickly Bay, Grenada we have met up with at least a dozen boats. And, we really feel like we've finally joined the cruising community. Yesterday was a particularly moving day for us. We found out our furling hardware was completely ready to go first thing in the morning. By noon, we had taken Tahina back to the boatyard and loaded the re-assembled furler and forestay onto the deck. Thanks to help again from the cruising skippers on Djarrka and Ascension, we anchored in the small bay near the boatyard and re-installed the equipment. It was a great feeling having our boat back together (except for the sail which we should get back by mid-day today after its minor repair).

Later in the afternoon, a cruising boat with kids on board was expected to arrive. This boat, called Grace, has 3 kids on board and the owners are from Australia. Like most kid boats, they are very popular with the other cruisers. There was a happy hour scheduled at De Big Fish, the main bar/restaurant with the dinghy dock near the boat yard. So, a number of the cruisers decided to converge there. Karen and I offered to go help take Grace over with our larger dinghy - so they wouldn't have to take down their dinghy after their full day of sailing (they had come down from Bequia and left at 3:30 AM).

Karen and I had a wonderful time immersed amongst these friendly people. And, their helpfulness has been fantastic! Many of these cruisers have traveled thousands of miles together, or met in dozens of ports. Others may have only met once or twice. But, you would never know as it seems just once or twice is enough to form lifelong friendships. In fact, last night it felt very similar to being at a family gathering. The kids from Grace were bright, energetic, and friendly as could be. You should have seen the hugs they gave to the other boaters. Half the evening they were sitting in the laps of their parents or other cruisers. The other half they were running around playing inside and outside the restaurant.

It turns out Grace is headed west also. With about the same schedule as us (at least up to Tahiti). So, we will probably get the chance to spend more time with this family from Australia. Based on first impressions, we are really looking forward to it. And, at the mention of the Wii we have on board, we're likely to be quite popular with the kids.

After only a week here in Prickly Bay, we've made many new friends. Originally we hoped to finish as quickly as possible because of our deadline to meet up with friends who are flying into Aruba. Plus, leaving west from Grenada means we will be sailing in new waters and visiting islands we've never been to before. But, now we almost feel reluctant to depart because we will have to say "Au Revoir" to so many of our new cruising friends. Fortunately, with the arrival of Grace last night, we at least feel we'll have a part of this community coming along with us. And, we certainly will remain in touch with the others via the Internet.

The cruising community is a big part of the wonder and excitement of traveling the world by sailboat. It's really great to feel we are now truly a part of it. Here are some pictures of the last few days - mostly showing the removal and installation of our furling unit and forestay. But, also showing a few shots of the dinner on Tahina (with Djarrka and Ascension visiting), and of the cruisers get-together last night (it really looks like a family outing doesn't it?).

When we discovered on Tuesday we had more repairs to do, we were worried about our schedule for leaving late this week. Fortunately, yesterday we worked with the local rigging shop (called Turbulence at the Spice Island Marine Boat Yard), and they were able to help us off-load the headsail/forestay (we pulled Tahina up to the boatyard dock), and then quickly got the sail off. They hope to have the hardware part done by today (Thursday). The sail repair is a small job, but they can't do it until Friday because of other work in their schedule (there is a regatta starting this weekend, so lots of boats are having their sails repaired). The prices are mostly reasonable, the only sticker shock is the extrusion for the headsail track is pretty expensive. Fortunately, the labor hours will be low - in part due to the fact I'll be able to re-install the headsail with some help from my new cruising friends.

Speaking of which - we invited the crews from Ascension and Djarrka (who helped us on Tuesday with the sail) to come over for dinner. So, Karen and I spent the day cleaning up Tahina (inside and out), and Karen spent all late-afternoon cooking up a mighty feast. Djarrka and Ascension seemed pretty impressed with our comfortable new home. I, of course, had to show off some of my tech toys (VideoRay, cameras, kite rig, etc.), and photography. It turns out both of the crews had been gone so long, they had not even heard of the Wii. So, we gladly gave them a taste of the Wii experience. And naturally, a fair amount of time was spent talking about sailing adventures, problems, and fishing stories.

During the day, we also managed to get laundry done, trash unloaded, and a propane tank filled and put back in place. Today we hope to get more errands run, and in the afternoon pick up the repaired jibsail hardware. If we do that early enough, we hope to re-rig the forestay and hardware so we'll be ready to simply re-install the sail when its done on Friday (tomorrow). We will then be able to leave for Bonaire as soon as the appropriate time/weather window opens.

Yesterday we went to the Fedex place first thing in the morning to pick up the furling unit sent to replace our broken furling drum. We had to take a bus over to St. Georges (the main city in Grenada) to get to Fedex. Once there, the guy asked if I had the proper paperwork - which I did. He then got out the receipt and said unfortunately I would have to go back to Prickly Bay to get customs to fill out a form. Oh great. I started to walk out the door and saw the nearby yacht club - which I knew had a customs office. So, I walked over there and went to customs and explained I had a part arriving. He got me a form, signed off and stamped it, and sent me back. That was easy! So, I went back and paid a small $35 EC fee on my "duty free" part (there's always some kind of fee down here). I happily had the package and headed back to the boat.

I won't go into all the details here. But, with the help of my new friend Gord from Ascension, we started the operation to get the old unit off. We were going to need to take the sail off we thought to lessen the weight so we could get the drum off. So, we re-anchored near the eastern shore of the anchorage. When we unfurled the sail and attempted to lower the sail, it wouldn't come down. That was not a good thing. We looked up and Gord spotted that two of the several pieces of metal that make the "slide" for holding the luff of the sail into the furling unit (called extrusions) were not connected properly. The screws connecting the parts apparently had come out. As a result, the sail luff was getting caught in the now uneven slide, and had been chewed up in the sailing since it had happened. So, we were going to have to take the whole forestay down.

It ended up taking several hours as we puzzled out the best way to get it down. We actually talked to the local marina and boatyards, but neither had a good spot available at the moment to park Tahina so we could use a dock to get the sail down. But, we ultimately decided to do it at anchor, laying it on Tahina's deck, with the help of a dinghy and a third set of hands. Before sunset we had it down on the deck, but still couldn't get the sail off. Looking at the extrusion, it appeared we were going to have to get it replaced/repaired. And, the sail is going to need repairs! Ugh. So, today (Wednesday), I'm going to the sail rigging shop to see if they have the time and parts needed to get this job done quickly.

We need to get out of here by the end of the week or we're going to really have to rush to meet our guests in Aruba on the 9th of February.

I owe a big debt of gratitude (at least lots of drinks and food) to GB of Djarrka and Gord of Ascension.

On Thursday we had a fast 5-hour sail down from Sandy Isle to Prickly Bay on the southwest side of the big island of Grenada. Prickly Bay is a large popular anchorage with a variety of boat services available including a marina and boatyard. We dropped anchor in the middle of the bay and have been here every since. We plan to do a number of boat projects while here in Grenada including fixing our furler, installing some fans, new LED nav lights, and a variety of other tasks. We want to be in fit shape before we head west and marine stores and services are harder to find.

We had a nice italian-style pizza at the marina restaurant the first night. On Friday we went to Budget Marine - a marine chandlery - and bought a bunch of little items for the boat including a tricolor LED light bulb for the mast light. We also bought some charts for the ABCs, pump parts, courtesy flags, and solvents. You can view the GPS tracks of the recent passages: Sandy Isle and Prickly Bay.

We had planned to do some sightseeing on the weekend, but decided to make sure our boat tasks were worked on first. On Saturday, I found out some medicine we had ordered had arrived at the Marina late Friday. We went to pick it up with no hassles, but opened the box to find the company we bought it from put the wrong dosage. It's a problem that we hope we can get them to fix quickly (we'll find out Monday). We next went into St. Georges by bus to go to a marine chandlery.

The bus ride was kind of interesting. We walked down the street from the boatyard to a round-about. Before we could find the bus stop some guys in a van (that looked like one of the buses) swerved over opened the door and a guy said "Get in!". I said: "Is this the number 1 bus to St. Georges?". He pointed at the front and said "Yeah, get in!". We got in and the bus zoomed around and went up a back street. I was a bit nervous thinking we were picked up by thieves or something. They backed up across another street and another van/bus zoomed by. Our driver yelled at that bus and took off and passed him. Then the guy who opened the door made a cell phone call. As we drove down this back street the door guy was yelling out the window "Bus?". One guy stopped walking and jumped inside. Then we picked up some girl walking down the street. We then turned on a street I recognized and I finally felt like this was a legitimate bus. The buses were actually competing for business. Times are tough down here.

At the chandlery we found an LED anchor lightbulb to go along with the tricolor light we had purchased Friday. We also got a few other misc items for the boat including a new set of GPRS walkie talkies which come in handy when we split up to run errands.

On Sunday we worked on several projects. Karen did some sewing projects - working on a seat cushion and some oven mitts. I decided to perform a service on a winch (there are all kinds of sailor jokes about their winches - just watch out for the spelling). One of our main electric winches has been acting up, and it was time to do maintenance anyway. So, I disassembled the unit, cleaned up the gears, checked and oiled the pawls and springs, re-greased the gears, and re-assembled the winch. It took a little long since this was the first time for this sized winch. And, it made a big mess (see the bigger picture in the slideshow below). But, it worked fine mechanically once I got it re-installed. Unfortunately, there's an electrical problem still.

I also went up the mast twice. First to take down the anchor light assembly. Then I spent an hour taking out the bulbs and installing a custom socket for the new tricolor bulb. It took so long because the bulb receptacle was larger than the original, so I had to file it larger. I also was unsure of the correct orientation of the unit towards the bow. But, I managed to deduce what I thought was right. Went back up the mast, and everything looked right. So, I put it in place and we turned it on to test. Guess what? It actually worked! While up the mast, I took several photos of the anchorage and nearby boats. Two nice things about the LED bulbs: 1) they use far less energy during the long hours of the night - so less drain on the batteries, and 2) they last much longer, so don't need to be replaced often (incandescents last as little as 6 months).

We did a variety of smaller maintenance items as well during the weekend. You can see photos from the weekend in this slideshow of photos including the mast shots, fireworks we saw one night at a house behind us, and the work on the winch: