Harvey, Laundry and our outboard
20 August 2017 | Spanish Waters, Curacao
Bill/overcast and maybe some rain.
Harvey--the storm that died apparently. It's now Saturday morning and it should be raining now(buckets) with a nice wind to add to the storm. Instead, while it's humid(always is)there it not a breathe of wind not any rain. We had a few drops earlier and yes, it is totally overcast, nothing really happened. It's all our fault as we prepared for it since we'd read the forecasts. We rolled down the window in the dodger, snapped it closed and zipped it down the sides. We'd brought up the side enclosures and stern side panels for closing in the cockpit and zipped them on just about totally enclosing it. It's always nice to have a dry area to sit in outside as the rain falls. Heck, we even took the drain plug out of Puff just incase it really poured. Now don't get me wrong. I have no problem with the storm sort of dying out before it got here but it would have been nice to at least get some rain out of it.
As for our neighborhood nudist, he was out on deck this morning as another of the cruisers left the bay and he had SHORTS on!!!! Maybe getting yelled at by the local fishermen yesterday did some good. Guess time will tell if he reverts back to his natural form.
The laundry that was picked up yesterday afternoon should be delivered back this afternoon at 1300. Our cost is $51 Guilders or $28.50US. That's cheaper than what we paid for our last "Captains Night Dinner". While not cheap, it a luxury we can afford. I'll let you know how it turns out this time.
It's now just after 1000 and we just finished a run with the generator and now we've fired up the engine. This morning, we ran the engine for about an hour and then the generator for just under two hours and now we have the engine going again. We are going to make a concentrated push today to shove as much power into our batteries as we can. When we first start the charging, the volt meter shows us that the batteries are taking a nice charge as are the electronics that are also getting charged. As the demand on the electronics charging gets less and the batteries get move volts in them, the number of volts on our volt meter that shows whats in our batteries gets higher. We ran the generator till it showed just under 14 volts and now we have the engine running and it's showing 14.25 volts so we're cramming as much into them as we can. We'll run the engine for about an hour and then run the generator again cramming as much as we can throughout the day. The push is on. It will either work and the battery acids will be mixed better with the water I put in or they are on their last legs and will need replacement once we are in Panama as boat parts here in Curacao are far more expensive than most other places we've been to.
We launched Puff a few minutes ago so we can go in and get our laundry after lunch. It was eerily calm in the bay. Hardly a ripple in the water. We've been here about six weeks now and it's the first time I can remember it being this way. The waters so clear(due to the calmness) that we can see lots of our anchor chain at the bow and well past the bottom of our rudder. A first! As I came below to type this, there was just a breathe of a breeze getting started so I figure by this afternoon, we will be back to normal with 15-20 knot winds again.
It's now 1600 and it's been a busier than expected afternoon. We finished out wonderful taco lunch and headed for shore to get our laundry. The driver showed up just after 1300 and We picked up our nice clean laundry. We headed back to Puff and our outboard wouldn't start. I pulled and I pulled and it took about 15 minutes(or at least it felt like 15 minutes, she finally started. Once back at Zephyr, I handed Tracy the laundry and figured I'd better look into what might be causing the problem. As I got the cover off, Tracy handed down my tools so I could pull the spark plugs out. One looked alright but the second looked quite oil fouled. I changed it out and she started right up. Previously, once started, she would jump around like it was missing on one of it's two cylinders. With the new plug in, I put the cover back on and tried her again. Yes, she started but she really ran badly. Well shucks and darnies, I've got something else wrong. Off comes the cover and I find that one of the leads to the spark plugs has come off the cap that connects the to the plug. Now I really have a problem. I did get lucky as Roy from Serenity who is anchored right in front of us has a tremendous knowledge of small engines so I asked if he could come over. Once in Puff, he saw the problem and said it was easy to fix(if you know how). I handed him a set of wire cutters and he cut off just a bit of the wire to the plug cap and then simply screwed the cap back on the wire!! Shows what I know. I figured I'd need a new wire and caps at the least. Apparently, inside the plug cap is a screw so that all you have to do it make sure the wire end is clean and flat and then screw on the plug cap to the wire and it's done. Roy did suggest that I put some tape or silicone where the wire enters the plug cap as it was open to letting anything in that might come near the wires(salt water). Tracy handed down some tape and I did a few wraps around the wire and plug cap and it was done. Runs well now! Yea!! Now I will be going in search of a Tohatsu dealer in Curacao. That started on Monday as all the shops on the island are pretty much closed on Sunday. My thanks to Roy for coming to the rescue. It's the way it is out here. Everyone helps everyone if they can.
The picture today is of our $28 bag of laundry. Looks great and not a bit of odor.