More jobs off the list and some "tourist"fun.
03 February 2013 | Kolonia, Pohnpei, FSM
Partly cloudy with some rain.
Well, we've checked off more jobs on our list and even took a morning and went in search of Mantas.
As for the jobs, well, they included hauling out all the anchor chain for a "cleaning". It's been a while since we had it all out and we were well overdue. Lots of rust on just about every link. Kumer(owns the marina) had two of his men come down in a big truck and drag the worst parts all over the coral road and parking lots for about a half hour. This took off most of the rust. After a good washing, Mother Nature style, we made up a concoction of 3 parts diesel fuel to 1 part dirty oil off another cruisers boat and slowly dunked the chain in it as we piled it into Puff(our dinghy). Getting it off the boat was fun as the stern faces the dock so we had to take out a bit of the chain then walk it back along the side and I then handed it to Tracy as she stood on the dock. With us having over 300 feet of chain, it took quite a while just to get it off the boat. With all the dragging, I had to redo our anchor chain markers. I sew on a strip of 1/2" nylon every 30 feet. One strip for 30, two for 60 and so on to the end of the chain. Most of what I sewed on 4 years ago was still there till the dragging. Once dunked, Tracy rowed Puff to the bow where I tied a line from the end of the chain. I used the windlass at our bow to slowly pull the chain back on board, about 10 feet at a time. I had to stop as the chain needed to be pulled by a boat hook to the bottom of the locker(about 4 feet) so it would stack properly. Tracy meanwhile had to run a cloth down the chain as I brought it on board to take off the extra mixture and unkink the chain as it needed to come on board with all the links in a straight row. Before all this though, I crawled into the anchor locker(boy was it dirty) and made sure all the nuts on the bolts that hold the forestay to the boat were nice and tight(they were). Needless to say, I wore some of my oldest clothes.
Another project we took on was to clean out our fresh water tanks. While staying in Fiji with all their rains, we pumped in some dirt when the flooding overran the water purification plants. While on passage, we would be pumping orange water out through the faucets on board. We never got sick from it, but since we hadn't put water on board since we were in American Samoa two months ago, it was the perfect time since the tanks were just about empty. Off came the inspection lids on our four tanks and in we went. We pumped out what water was left and then cleaned the residue off the sides and bottom. Not a hard task but one that definitely needed to be done. We now have nice full tanks with beautifully clean water. This marina has the highest water pressure of any place I've been to.
We've done more jobs but it would be boring to go through all of them so I'll stop here with them. Last week, 11 of us climbed into one of the locals small power boats and took off with our snorkel gear to see the Mantas just off the island. Glad we had a local at the motor as her drove the boat through areas that were full of reefs. Sometimes fast and other times with the end of the motor partway out of the water since it was so shallow. We left about 0730 as getting about required the position of the tide at the time to make it through some of the really shallow spots. It took about 45 minutes to get there where we all put on our snorkel gear and went into the water. Guess what, NO Mantas. They had chosen that day to not show up but we had a great time back in the water over a shallow reef we could snorkel over. At a cost of just $10.00US each, it was a great deal. Most boaters charge much more for the same trip.
More parts have arrived and our mechanic has already rebuilt our hydraulic steering pump so that's one thing off the list. We ordered 4 new motor mounts to replace the ones on Zephyr since they were looking old. As for the majority of our engine parts, well I phoned in the order 10 days ago and from what I can find out, they have still not shipped. Apparently, the office manager(also wife of owner) took off and left him deleting many of the emails as well as credit card numbers. We found that out Wednesday and from what I can find out, our order is still at their warehouse. At this rate, I could be back here before the parts show up. Guess we will just have to see.
In the meantime, as I started this post, the jobs just keep getting ticked off the list so that's just fine. We've already mailed 6 boxes back home and have more to go. All of the charts we have on board for places we don't expect to be back to soon(or ever) will be out of here tomorrow.
If we had to be stuck in any place with an engine having to be rebuilt, here is the place I'd pick to be. Nice people. Good food and lots of provisions available. USPS to have parts shipped in and a very good Ace Hardware store for the things we will need to bet Zephyr up and running again.
Stay tuned, this adventure is just getting underway.