.... and just to show its not all girly shopping excursions, Sue polishing furiously from the dinghy alongside.
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... this chap is accurate with the machete (cutlass isthe local name) as he removes the tops of the coconut whilst retaining his fingers...
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14/Jan/2012, St Georges, Grenada
The fuel pump for the outboard has been ordered from the USA via the local agent. Hopefully it will arrive next week. Until then the fuel pump has been by-passed and the driver must pump the bulb on the fuel line to manually pump fuel through to the carburettor... the engine rapidly lets you know if you have stopped pumping :-)
A brief interlude in the shopping to enjoy a refreshing Water Coconut from a street vendor. Piccie shows Mandy and Sue quenching their thirst.
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12/Jan/2012, Prickly Bay - Grenada
Solved the outboard engine problem!!! It may be of use to other sailors reading this note. We have a Mariner 6hp 4-Stroke outboard bought in early 2009 and not used in much anger until the autumn of that year. After 9 months of storage we have had a progressive problem where fuel was getting in to the crankcase. It transpires the fuel pump diaphragm had worn and become slightly punctured...this in turn allows fuel to pump directly from the pump and into the crankcase.. thereby diluting the oil and putting petrol fumes into the carburettor via the crankcase breather ... hence running rich conking out and oil pressure reduced.
All in all --it looks like a poor design and nothing appears to be in the service manual about changing the fuel pump (oh yes, a diapragm is not available) every couple of years, You may find other brands use a similar type of design/configuration...so if your oil level starts slowly increasing above the marks check your fuel pump diaphragm :-)
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12/Jan/2012, Prickly Bay - Grenada
Focus on the tasks to be completed before we head west! Yes, the social whirl has been busy, busy, busy... but now we must get our chores heads into gear and get a list of tasks completed before we set sail. Doing jobs in the Pacific will be harder than here where spares and parts are available.
Number one task is sorting out the outboard. Our Mariner (4-stroke) 6hp has been playing up and it seems to be getting fuel into the sump...many carburettor strip downs hasn't revealled any poblems... float buoyancy, needles and valves all OK so another strip down this morning to reset the float cut off height. Its like having the car partly off the road with so much running about to do.
Sue is enjoying the guitar she bought from Eileen (En Passant) the other day, and Andy has got down to some serious clarinet practice in the margins of each day. Gavin (Secret Smile) is kindly providing some lessons to oil the squeaky path to harmony.
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... and a piccie of En Passant ,with Mark & Eileen aboard, departing for a short hop northwards to see friends in Carriacou.
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