Small jobs with her 'Nemesis".
25 June 2017 | Bonaire
Bill/sunny with winds
It's now Saturday and it was a morning of doing odd little jobs, many of them we have put off for a while. Tracy dragged out her nemesis, the Sailrite sewing machine and she went to work. First came the Wind Scoop that fits in the forward hatch. It's a tall piece of nylon that ties to the corners of the hatch opening and then is pull upwards by the forestaysail halyard so it makes a nice nylon scoop that directs the winds(we have plenty) into the forward head, through the front cabin in the boat and into the main salon cooling off everywhere it goes. Some even makes it to the stern berth area. A few weeks ago, the forward hatch had slammed shut after a big gust of wind hit it and it ripped our the grommet that holds it up into the wind. With out it, well it just doesn't work. Today, time to repair it with new nylon bindings and a hole cut in the nylon and then we put in a nice brass grommet with tools we've had on board ever since we were back in Washington state. Tracy stitched it and I cut the hole and pounded in the grommet. Now we have a nice breeze coming through the cabins. On to the out board motor cover. We used to have two, one for each outboard but we lost one when a storm came through and it took it right off one of the outboards and it was gone. The second one has been on so long that the fabric has started rotting in the sun and it's getting holes all over it due to the rotting. Tracy added a couple of panels(Sunbrella of course) to the existing cover to cover up the holes and rips and it was good to go again. We haven't been able to find a "new" cover anywhere in a couple of years. Most out boards out here are covered by old tee shirts.
Next, was the covers we have for our storage boxes up near the mast. These fit over the "granny bars" and the wooden pegs and boxes we refinished in Trinidad a year ago. Both covers are held on by snaps and a nylon strap with snaps on the ends. The snap fitting had come off on one and the others nylon strap needed replacing. While Tracy stitched on straps, I got out some of the tools we've kept on board for years(and hardly use) and cut new holes in the straps and put in the new snaps. Job done. On to one of our grocery bags that the straps had come loose on. Quick job. Stitched up a side of an old bed sheet we use to keep the sun out of the cockpit to keep the threads from peeling off the edge. Installed binding on a side of a plastic screen that we also use to keep the sun out of the cockpit. She also fixed the straps on my back pack as the stitching had come undone a whole ago and the repair job I did wasn't that good. Now it looks great and should last a lot longer.
While Tracy was doing these jobs, I was out on the front deck cleaning off residue from a big fender that the outsides have begun to sort of melt and leave marking of rubber where ever she touched. I first tried WD40 as it's a good solvent and it sort of worked but would take hours to get it all off. Out came a bottle of solvent and with a good bit of scrubbing with a cloth, it finally came off leaving a nice clean deck. I then got soap and water and rinsed the area to make sure all the solvent was off. All nice and clean.
While all this was going on, we had our generator running on the stern to make the power Tracy needed for her nemesis and to charge up the batteries again. It's a daily job that can shoot a couple of hours unless you have more jobs to do, which we did today.
Looking at all the things we did and used today(tools and fabric) it's surprising how much we have stocked away over this last 9+ years on board. We moved on board in late April of 2008 and started cruising in early April of 2009 so it's been quite a few years we've been out here though we know of many couples and singles that have
It's now Sunday morning and the sailboat that came in in the midst of the storm took off sometime during the night for parts unknown. They never came over to see us and chat. They rowed to shore numerous times during the four days they were here leaving their boat pulled up on one of the ramps. While there are about 35 boats on mooring here, I've never felt a comradrie between any boats from the US. At last count, I think there were four of us but it's been a few days. Other than the Coast Guard visiting us, there hasn't been anyone else though I've stopped at a couple of boats on my trips to shore.
The picture today is of a Moray Eel that I came across when we were snorkeling toward shore from Zephyr a few days ago. At first, all I saw was his tail sticking out from some rocks with little fish nipping at it. After licking up a small piece of coral, I touched his tail which immediately went under the rock and then his head came out the other side. No way was I going to put any fingers near his head. I may be crazy but I'm not insane.