Heloisa and Auke will leave tomorrow for 10 days Brasil. I have started working on the boat and Auke is happy with his new friends he met here in the marina. They spend their days in the pool and evenings in the boat making a mess that is often too much for us, so we retreat to the aft cockpit.
They also like to play on the shore in the evening as currently it is the time of the year where female crabs come out of the jungle, head for the water to lay their egss. There are thousands of them crawling over the marine grounds trying to find the water. The kids get super excited about it, running like mad behind them, too scared to pick them up.
I have been looking for the blue crabs, these are the males and good to eat. However with me there is the population of Panama looking, so I have not been to lucky yet.
Besides that, me, I keep working on boat stuff. I have overhauled the seawater cooling pump yesterday. You need to replace the vane impeller at certain intervals as they wear out without any prior notice. I was right on time as all vanes showed deep cracks over the full width. That is the problem with these type of pumps, you will not see a major reduction in cooling water flow when they start to wear out. They go in a burst, and typically they go while you enter the locks of the Panama Canal or enter a reef with high currents in the Pacific. I had decided to overhaul the complete pump, for that I had ordered parts some time ago. Since we have the boat I had not done that so I had little clue about the true condition. Now it is all nice and shiny again.
What's more on the list? New anchor light and new watermaker to be installed. Renew oil pressure sender on engine. Clean hull outside (need to find a dinghy, as I am not going in the water since we saw that crocodile swimming by in the marina. Our neighbor did it in the water, but he had his dog and 10 year old son on croc watch. I am not that brave...). Change the main sail connection to mast. Prepare snatch block in front of the pulpit in order to more easier fly the asymmetrical spinnaker. So you see there is plenty to do in the next ten days on my own here. Sailing around the world in a boat is not that difficult, anyone can do that. Keeping that same boat working and in good condition so you won't be caught out in bad weather is more challenging.