We took the marina shuttle to the dentist office on Wednesday for our checkups. It's cheaper than taking a cab and the buses don't go as close to the office as we like. When we entered the office, about 40 minutes early, the receptionist looked at us strangely and asked if she could help us. We told her we had appointments at 1215 & 1230. She again looked at us strangely and asked for our names. She checked the computer and told us we didn't have any appointments. Say what!! It had been a pain just to get it and now they tell us we don't have one. They asked for the confirmation we should have gotten on our phone about the appointment. We, of course, had no idea what she was talking about. We'd never gotten a "confirmation". She was quite adamant that we had no appointment even after I told her "Why would we come all the way over here if we didn't have an appointment?" I was starting to fume. Tracy told me to walk away from the counter while she talked to the receptionist. A short time later after several more conversations, they gave us the info sheets that everyone has to fill in when they are a new patient. Oh, one thing I forgot to tell you--there were no other people in the waiting room. It was deserted!!! They ended up seeing Tracy first and got her cracked filling taken care of and then I got mine checked(no cavities) and cleaned. Total cost--$80.00US. Cheaper than in the US but more than I was expecting but at least it was over and done with and Tracy's tooth is all taken care of

Since we were near the shopping center where we normally get taken on Thursday by the marina van, we did our shopping so we didn't need to go there the next day. The marina van came shortly after I called and we got home just fine.
Yesterday, it was time to finish up with the alternator and batteries. We'd topped off the water with more coolant and checked all our connections and hoses and turned on the through hull for the engine, crossed our fingers and turned the key. She started right up and ran fine. We checked the hoses--all dry. All was just fine!! It was the first time we have started the engine since we found the problem when we got here. The "start" alternator that we had rebuilt did just fine and after the start up, slowly dropped the amps it was putting out down to a much better level. The new regulator was working just fine. Good news all around.

For lunch we had another Thai dish, Chicken coconut soup--sort of like the Thai version of Chicken noodle soup made with Vermicelli noodles in a fragrant Thai broth with the added creaminess of coconut milk. She inadvertently purchased Turmeric instead of Galangal which is Thai Ginger. As she prepared it for the soup, her hands turned bright yellow and they are still yellow 24 hours later.

After the flood last week we needed to get the bilge cleaned out. It was an even bigger mess than it had been before we tried to sink poor Zephyr. We had lots of water and oil to get out of there. We have small oil leak in the engine and some of it had made it's way down to the bilge. We used the pump that we normally use to pump out the engine oil to get it out. When we found all the water in the bilge, we'd used our electric bilge pump as well as the manual pump and had gotten a lot of the water out but there were still gallons left and we didn't want to pollute the marina any more than we had to. In the end, we pumped out another 15 gallons of water--black icky water. At least it didn't smell. I'd stopped a few times during the afternoon to take the contaminated water and oil up to the work shop so they could get rid of it and glad I did as they brought the empty container back that we filled again. I was so far down into the bilge that only my waist and legs were visible outside the doors. Tracy kept passing me paper towels once we got the majority of the water out. I pulled out the electric bilge pump(after disconnecting the wires) and the float switch that is supposed to turn on the pump when water gets high enough. It works like the float valve in a toilet only it turns on the pump not off. The switch had of course not worked, hence the flood. Both were a mess, covered in oil and slimy water. Tracy got the job of cleaning them(she's done it before) while I was again back down into the bilge with an oil degreaser spraying and spraying everywhere. Sure glad we bought new paper towels when we were shopping yesterday as I was going though them really fast. Spray and wipe, spray and wipe more. It took quite a while to get it all cleaned out or as good as I could get it. It was at least dry for a change. By now, it was 1730 and time to stop for the day. It had been a long one. I headed up for the showers taking the degreaser spray bottle with me to get my hands and arms clean. They we a mess even after wiping them with towels. We had a nice evening of watching more shows on the TV.
So now it's Friday and we will finish up the bilge project. I'll be cutting off the old connectors as there is some corrosion on them and replacing the bus bar they get screwed into and then test it to make sure it all works. We bought a replacement float switch when we were in Singapore a week or so ago. We knew we would be needing it so I'll be installing it too. Can't be to careful though I fully expect it to fail the next time we need it to work. I have learned to check the bilge regularly.