Pesky Leak Saga
24 February 2020 | 18 20'N:64 56'W, US Virgin Islands
NC
23rd February
18 20 N
64 56 W
Weather; sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BROTHER ALAN, HOPE YOU HAVE A FABULOUS DAY.
MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY TO KAY STAMP - IN MY FOOTSTEPS AS USUAL!
We woke to one small cruise liner in the harbor this morning, it was so small that it could have been a tender to one of the huge ones that normally block out the sun here! I managed to have a slightly better night as my swimming pool bed had drained out to become a paddling pool - much better to keep afloat in! the headache and temperature seem to have almost gone so the virus must have given up on me and is looking for a new host to torment. We had an early morning contact from Kirk and Cindy who were taking a trip to Home Depot after lunch and did we want to join them. There are a couple of things that Gerry thinks he needs to buy so we thought we would tag along, I added the codicil that if I didn't feel good enough by the afternoon I would stay behind. With that set as a plan Gerry had another look at the fuel filter housing that has been leaking and he hoped was now fixed after putting in a new seal etc. yesterday. The black cloud formed around his head as he discovered that the leak was still happening but it wasn't obvious where it was occurring from. This was getting to be a serious problem, not that the leak was huge but that it was continuing. For the moment he decided to leave the plastic bag catcher in place and consider his next move. Meanwhile we get a further text from Kirk, they are going to be going ashore in half an hour - would we be ready? It was only 10.30 nowhere near the "after lunch" of our previous text. Gerry and I discussed it and decided we didn't want to go until later so we let them know and they went off by themselves while we stayed onboard and did a bit of housekeeping stuff, I made the mistake of starting to clean the louvers on the salon cupboards - who ever invented louvered cupboard doors needs to be taken out and shot at dawn! Cleaning them is one pain in the butt and a job only to be undertaken under desperate circumstances or feeling sick in the head (think I qualify for the latter!) I only did it to keep
out of Gerry's way whilst he put the engine back in order and re stowed the tools to their rightful homes. The time ticked by until lunchtime, I was feeling not quite so enthusiastic about the uphill hike to get from the safari bus stop to Home Depot and Gerry obviously picked up on my increasing lethargy as he suggested not going, but he would do an "essentials shopping trip" to Pueblo. I was happy to agree as it meant I could just relax in the cockpit and read my book. We agreed on a short "essentials" shopping list so that there wasn't too much for him to carry and he took off in the dinghy leaving me to enjoy the quiet Sunday afternoon sun. I sat out and watched for Myrtle to appear today, I spotted her and grabbed the camera, scrambling out onto the deck at just the moment that Gerry roared up in the dinghy, Myrtle vanished and I didn't get a photo. I took the shopping bags from Gerry, geeze they were heavy, I didn't recall anything on the list being that heavy! When I emptied the bags there was a large bottle of punch and a liter of rum and a cake and some milk duds that weren't on the list - but who am I to complain! With everything stashed away, Gerry had some lunch, I wasn't hungry so didn't bother. We sat out in the cockpit mulling over the issue with the fuel filter, this was getting serious - how serious? Well Gerry got the manual out and looked at the diagrams, compared them to the actual parts, arriving at the conclusion that we have a small port above the filter line which wasn't shown on the diagram. Next resort - check the internet to see if there was anything of use there. This way he identified what the purpose of the extra port was (apparently for a heater), I digress, he vanished down below and suddenly I hear Eureka - he thought he had found the spot where it was leaking from by poking bits of tissue around the components until the tissue came back wet - yes, it looked to be from around this port. That was enough messing about for the day with the system as there was nowhere open to get spare anything that he would need to fix it anyway so we sat outside enjoying the peaceful, sunny late afternoon. Well to be honest Gerry nodded off to sleep and I stayed on turtle watch, spotting her too far away a few times to even attempt a photo.
We had a new neighbor drop their anchor nearby in the early evening, they should be OK but we are all facing 180 degrees from where our anchors are positioned at the moment - the wind has done an odd turn- about, so hopefully when we go back to our normal position it will still be OK. I made dinner, if you can call it that - using up and throwing out all the dead stuff in the fridge (the fishes had a banquet), we managed a salad of a sort but we really do need to do a proper re provision soon or we will be down to baked beans for every meal!
We watched a bit of TV but nothing really held us and we weren't long out of bed, the only problem being that it was obviously party night on the Con Tikki boat that cruises around the harbor with very loud music going until midnight making it hard to get to sleep. The music bounces off of the water magnifying it enormously, I can only begin to imagine how loud it must be on the actual boat (yes grumpy old folk showing through).
In case you are wondering - Mr. Robot - not happy, we need more answers, there were too many unexplained ends left dangling, our friendship is hanging by a thread Mrs. CN!!!!