Sailing the Karina C

11/16
This morning I thought I would get serious about fixing the solar controller. I was up at 0600 and checked the output. 0 voltage. OK that was because the red charging LED was off and that was OK. Then the red LED came on. That means the controller is on. Still no output. Now I am concerned the controller is NFG (Not Functioning Good). On the 0800 net I asked for anyone who might have a new controller to test out on my system. Bill (from Amaranth) came over and tried to help. He had a spare controller. While Bill and I were trying to troubleshoot the thing, the red LED turned yellow! I looked it up in the book and that meant it was charging! I looked at the voltmeter and WOW! we were putting out 13.3 with a load on. Right now we have the fans and fridge going and we are putting out electricity like crazy! Of course Bill accepted all the credit for "fixing" the controller. The voltmeter on the controller still is not functioning well, but we don't need to worry about that for this season. When I get back to Canada, I'll get to replacing it.
As I was basking in the glory of having conquered another mind numbing problem, Anita said that the galley counter was about to get a new coat of paint. We have some left over from when we redid our kitchen sink last summer.
After lunch I celebrated by going over to Barracuda Bob's for a coffee and internet fix. While enroute I managed to contact the electrician and stopped him from attending to the (now fixed) solar controller. I tried to contact Anita and she was unable to contact me back. Sounds like I have my next project in front of me.

11/18
I was up early today and put another coat of texturing on the galley counter. It was dry by 1000 and, because Anita didn't like the job I did, she redid it. That should mean we should be ready for topcoating tomorrow.
We took it easy today as we are still a little buzzed from the furious pace we had set ourselves for the past week. We put the sun cover on the dinghy and tidied up a bit. That is the sum of things.
The weather here has turned cooler. At 1736 I have my sweatpants and sweatshirt over my T shirt and I'm just right.
Anita has been draining the water at the office. So far, she has several gallons of water so she will be able to enjoy the trip down to PV drinking nothing but bottled water. I am fine with the filtered San Carlos water that comes out of the tank.
The electrician has yet to come and bless Karina with a reconnection of the radar cable. We are hoping for tomorrow. I get the feeling that he is one of those hand to mouth guys that works when he needs the money. I can wait as we can't leave until next weekend anyway. We are waiting for our new inverter/charger.

11/19
Today it became official: Firefly Mike, the electrician, let me down on the radar cable splice. He must be independently wealthy. As well, he is illegal as he is working (if you call it) here in Mexico without a visa. I don't care if Migracion is reading this blog as he is such a disappointment. Anyhow, if I did rat him out, he would be married to a 250 lb. Mexican by the name of "Poopsie" for 2 weeks before his deportation order becomes official and they bus him to Nogales.
Oddly, he referred us to Jesus (pronounced Hey Zeus). Jesus is noted for performing miracles. Lets see what he does with our radar. In an uncharacteristic step with our present experience with electricians, he came by the boat this afternoon and looked at the project and said he will be here at 1000 tomorrow to do the job. I have faith.
I retaught myself how to transfer .avi files to my Ipod. This means we can watch several seasons of "Spooks" while we are bombing down the sea towards PV.
Anita has been in quest of persimmons. She didn't know the correct translation of the word. She tried "caqui" in front of the grocer. It seems, after a little laugh the correct term is "persimo." Not sure what "caqui" is, but if you pronounce it, you kinda wonder. Anyhow.... they didn't have it yesterday, but they did today. Anita was in the grocery store and picked through the rotting collection of castoffs that wouldn't make it to the USA or Canada and found a few that she had for lunch.
This morning I went off in a futile quest for water based varathane. Eventually, I returned with an oil based varnish that seemed to do the job on the galley counter. Its not pretty, but its ours. I was unsure of how oil based and water based paint were going to mix. It turned out OK. Anita is happy she has a new sink counter top.Typical of Mexico, we have a "make do" solution rather than the real thing. We bought an oil based varnish rather than the water based clear coat we were looking for. we'll see what tomorrow brings.