SV Panta Rhei Retirement Trip

It is Monday and I have errands to run, but I'm not. I'm standing watch during a series of squalls during which the wind blows (up to 28 knots so far). The holding for the anchor is poor here. SV Flo (who just arrived) anchored 9 times before giving up and hoping that the anchor set they had would work. It is clearly tenuous for everyone. SV Buena Vista is in front of us and slightly to starboard. They have dragged...a little. They are standing anchor watch too. The problem is that resetting the anchor likely wouldn't improve things and it might make them worse. As for Panta Rhei, we are holding so I'm not changing anything. If we drag, I will go to two anchors in series. The difficulty is that the anchorage appears to be rocky and fouled with debris that upsets any possibility of an anchor holding. We pulled up a sweat shirt wrapped on our anchor on the first attempt. At night we can hear the anchor chain dragging across the rocks on the bottom as the boat swings.

Karen has been ashore running errands. We are hiring a local seamstress to make a second sheet of sheets for our berth. We wore out the other second set.

The good news is that I have internet access so standing watch is almost fun.

In other news, we had a sump pump fail for the forward sink/shower drain. This is a simple system that fails frequently so we have spare parts. But putting them in is not easy. In fact it is about as hard as trying to drive your car 60 mph forward while looking only through a soda straw directed at the rear view mirror. We worked at this late into the night until I finally collapsed from exhaustion. There were only three screws left to install but they were impossibly difficult to access. Here is the bulletin: Karen did the hard part while I was asleep in bed. When I got up, it was done! Wow. Instant renewed love.

That same day we helped our neighbor with an even worse chore. Actually it was lots easier, but there was a risk that we would sink the boat which there wasn't with the sump pump. As it happened Bob's engine and transmission had parted due to vibration loosening the bolts that held them together. The ensuing melee in the engine compartment finished with his engine mounts broken and his propellor shaft bent (and of course the transmission disconnected from the engine). What to do? There are no haulout facilities here. He was able to put the transmission and engine back together and to get the whole assembly back onto the engine mounts (which are still broken). But to replace the propellor shaft, we would have to pull it out while the boat was in the water, leaving an inch and a half hole in the boat. We worked out a plan using wood plugs and some fast and coordinated actions both above and below water, basically 4 people yelling and doing all they can when they can. The plan worked. He has a new shaft (can you believe that he had a spare???) installed and the propellor is reattached. Problem is that the shaft was 1.5 inches too short! There is no end to the pain! But, the story continues. We have a spacer now and once new (longer) bolts are procured he will be good to go. This makes my little sump pump problem not seem so bad.

Of course the next morning Karen found what she thought was sewage in with our food under floor in front of the quarterberth. Thankfully it turned out to be oil from a broken gallon container that I had stored there. For a while I was a little worried...

The picture is a front face view of this cute new frigate bird I shared with you a few days ago.