Mike
05/05/2009, Marsh Harbour, Abaco

May 3rd ... Marsh Harbor, Abacos

The weather here has been wonderful. After some coffee, I removed the grey water sump from below decks and began the process of disassembly. It is a simple Par diaphragm pump and I have lots of spare parts so I wasn't too worried. When I got everything apart the problem was evident...hair. There is a small filter that is supposed to catch things but it doesn't seem to be doing much.

With the hair removed and everything cleaned up, I reassembled and got everything back in place and pumped out the bladder that holds the grey water from the shower.

The water heater had been pressurized all night and when I checked for the leak that I had seen yesterday.... it was gone. I'll continue to check but for now it looks like our patch job is holding.

Both of our radios have the capacity to automatically send our latitude and longitude in a distress call if they are hooked up to our GPS. I decided to spend the afternoon attempting to do just that.

The directions on the radios seemed to agree, but the schematic that came with the GPS said something different. I decided to follow the directions on the radio and spliced the appropriate wire to the Nav station.

When I turned on the GPS to test the system.... it didn't do anything. Our GPS is mounted on the mizzen mast and when I ran the wire down through the mast I ended up with the end of the wire in the storage area behind our engine where it needed to be connected with a power supply and the input from the GPS antenna. It was a miserable place to try to make connections correctly but eventually it worked. In the process of tracing wire to find the correct ones to run to the radio, I must have broken one of the many splices.

After tracing wire in vain for a couple of hours I decided to quit for the day and remove the wire from the mast tomorrow and re wire the whole mess ...properly. It has always bothered me knowing that those improper connections were there.

We ran over to "Fine Lion" to chat with Steve for awhile and then returned to eat our Stone Crab Claws for dinner. Later we watched "The Bucket List" which Kathy had purchased in the DVD store that sells illegal copies (well, maybe it's legal here-or maybe it's just a "suggestion" that one not copy movies and sell them).

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Mike
05/05/2009, Marxh Harbour, Abaco

May 2nd Marsh Harbor, Abacos

Kathy washed up what dishes there were and then I shut off water and pulled out the sink. Reconnecting all the lines and rewiring took me a few hours. When I tested the system there was a small leak. The places that I repaired were fine but something was amiss.

We heated a tank of hot water and both had showers. Unfortunately, the pump that removes the grey water seemed to be malfunctioning....so there is another project in my future.

After some lunch we went into town for a few purchases and a trip to the bank. We ended up with way more groceries that we anticipated and were a little sorry on the walk back to the dinghy dock.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon reading...

At about 6 we went over to the Jib Room to watch the Kentucky Derby and stayed for their steak dinner which was as good as I remembered it from last year.

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Mike
05/05/2009, Marxh Harbour, Abaco

May 1st... Marsh Harbor, Abacos

After coffee I tried to figure out what to do with the water heater. We can survive quite well without one with the solar shower and a tea kettle but if I can keep it going for another month it would be nice.

I decided t attempt to fix the holes like you would a hole in drywall fitting a piece behind the damaged area, holding it in place with a string and then filling from the front. Our first attempt was with a small circle of plastic. I rolled it up and pushed it through the hole but couldn't get it to flatten against the inside of the water heater. Next we found some thin rubber, cut our ¾ inch circles, punched a piece of dental floss through the middle and pushed them into the water heater. Everything seemed to work well so I mixed up some JB weld, worked so through the hole in the water and pulled the rubber circle into position. With both holes half done, I went below and cooked some breakfast.

After the JB weld had set, I mixed up another batch and added some more to the out side of the tank covering the now cut off end of the dental floss.

With the tank drying we loaded up the laundry and headed to for the Harbor View Marina where the best facilities are located. I dropped off Kathy and went back to the boat to load up some garbage which I took to the government dock and hiked down to the dumpster.

By the time I finished, it was back to visit Kathy and have a small lunch at Snappers which is next door to the laundry.

When we got back to the boat I replaced all the fittings on the water heater, but left it on the deck to set overnight. We had some cheese that needed to be eaten so I made a batch of Mac and Cheese using my basic recipe but changed up the process a little. After the macaroni was drained I added the sauted peppers as well as the cheese which melted nicely. I then added the custard mixture and stirred everything together for a minute before putting into the baking pan. It ended up being my best effort so far.

Then we were off to the Jib Room to get some water. Actually the Jib Room is a restaurant which is attached to the Marsh Harbor Marina. We loaded op 25 gallons and then had a beer before heading back to the boat.

The anchorage here is emptying out. Last year when we were here there were over 100 boats. We're down to twenty today. In a few weeks the summer boaters from Florida will show up the fill it up again but right now the winter folks are mostly gone and the summer people aren't here yet.

When we got back, "Fine Lion", who we left in Hope Town, was anchored just to our stern. After offloading the water, we swung by to say hi to Steve and made arrangements to head in to listen to a band at about 8:30.

We had a fine dinner of brocolli and Mac and Cheese and then napped a little before heading back to shore.

The band was good, and we danced a little. Before midnight we were pooped and returned to the boat and to bed.

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