21st May

18 20 N
64 56 W

Weather; sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a,

MANY HAPPY RETURNS TO PHIL, BIG NOSE, WE THOUGHT OF YOU AND HAD A FEW BEERS TO CELEBRATE 65 YEARS YOUNG!

Another week has flown by and we are still in the same spot in Charlotte Amalie twiddling our thumbs and inventing jobs to keep ourselves occupied.
The best news this week is that we once again have a fully working fridge and freezer - thank God. More of that in a minute.
Our week began (or maybe I should say our last week ended, as the blog is written on Thursday ) with Gerry checking the drive belts on the main engine alternator because it had been a while since he had checked them. They were a little loose but in good condition so nothing needed doing there but at the same time he found a small leak coming from the water heater outlet hose which only required tightening up to come good once more. After searching he also found a cable rubbing on the alternator frame so that was cable tied out of the way. Gerry rang the fridge guys to see where our new compressor and motor were and when they were coming to fit it - the short story is that it was MIA, having been shipped via the US postal service but not yet arrived into St Thomas. Frustrating as it was I can't say I was surprised - I had said to Gerry that I thought it would be at least next week before we had an operational fridge and freezer and to keep buying ice to try and keep what food we had safe and edible! With no sign of the new compressor arriving Gerry decided that he would paint the shelf that it would be sitting on white, this was mainly to make visibility in the lazarette better as it is quite a dark hole to peer into at the best of times, and who peers in there at the best of times - one only looks when things are going pear shaped! With these minor jobs out of the way Gerry set off to buy ice, got side tracked and went and bought us subway footlong rolls for lunch. After a couple more hours of doing nothing we headed over to Gypsy Palace to meet up with our gang of rule breakers and play Mexican train dominos for the afternoon. Gerry and I are the rookies at this game but we are getting the hang of it and managed to win a game each out of the 6 we played. We finished up with nibbles that turned out to be enough for all of us to call dinner, going back to our own boats as dusk fell. Saturday Gerry did a run into the supermarket with Dale as he was out of beer, but used the "going to get ice" as his reason to go. On his return he decided that we should haul the dinghy up onto the davits and inspect the bottom of it. WHY? I hear you ask, well if you look hard enough for a job one always rears its ugly head. We left the outboard on the dinghy to begin with and hauled it up, it was a bit windy so we had to try and fasten the damn thing to the stern of the boat to stop it from swaying backwards and forwards and possibly hitting the boat. We weren't happy with this arrangement and dropped it back in the water, took the outboard off and stowed it on its bracket and then hauled the dinghy back up - no swinging this time. What did we find? A garden was growing on the bottom of the dinghy, thick green weed and slime had turned the grey/white bottom a lovely shade of almost fluro green, it certainly needed its bottom scrubbing! This was not going to be a simple task as reaching the bottom of the dinghy from the boat is a bit of a challenge even with a long deck brush. The "find a job" turned into a 3 day marathon! Gerry attacked it first just with a brush and a hose, it didn't work very well only removing some of the longer growth - bit like a haircut really. We discussed what might remove the stubborn growth and thought that the chlorine tablets we use to keep growth out of the strainers for the air conditioning cooling system might actually kill off the growth so we dug out the chlorine tablets and tried to dissolve one in warm water - it took forever! By late afternoon the tablet had dissolved enough to pour the solution into a spray bottle and apply it to the bottom of the dinghy nearest the boat (we had only attacked one side up to this point as we would need to turn the dinghy around in the davits to reach the other side) and left it overnight to do its thing - if it was going to. The next day dawned and the growth hadn't miraculously vanished overnight, boo and hiss! We set to with scrubbing brushes and hose and had some success, the chlorine tablet must have had some effect as it was easier to get off today. By midday we were wondering what else might work and I suggested that we try Bar Keepers friend, after all it is meant to get almost anything off of everything. With a pot scrubber and the bar keepers friend the bottom finally began to look clean at least on the side facing the boat! It was time to turn the dinghy around to reach the other side, at this point Gerry "found" another job - the dinghy hoist has always been an annoyance as it doesn't lift straight, it is comprised of 2 triple turning blocks one with a becket strung with a line (the correct word is reeved for anyone that cares!) Any how Gerry took the first hoist off and examined the reeving to see if he had done it wrongly, even googling it to see if there were instructions about how to correctly reeve 2 triple blocks with a becket. All he could find on line was 2 triple blocks - no becket, it makes all the difference! After trying several times and still not getting a direct pull without lines crossing over each other he gave up and handed it to me, I had 3 attempts and on the 3rd go found the way to do it so that the lines didn't cross each other or twist - success and the gold medal goes to me! Of course I then had to repeat the whole exercise on the other hoist plus the outboard motor hoist - sometimes it doesn't pay to be patient and methodical, it just gets you more work! Monday came with the news that our compressor had turned up and they would be coming tomorrow to fit it hooray! We filled the day with the hoist back in action we turned the dinghy around to be able to reach and clean the second side which went much quicker as we now knew what to use to clean it. I took a few photos which are in the gallery under boat stuff for your viewing pleasure. We also had good news from Grenada on Monday - they are opening to cruising yachts from June 1st, with a lot of red tape and restrictions but we are finally able to move on from here. The first hoop was nominating and applying for which of several dates we were going to arrive on, once accepted we have to fill out health forms, arrive within 48hrs of our nominated date, notifying them 48hrs before arrival of our imminent arrival, go to a designated quarantine dock to check in, self-quarantine on our boat in a designated spot in the harbour for 14 days then get a Covid test done before we are allowed to go ashore. At least we are going to be on the move! We have nominated to arrive between the 17thand 19th and will be leaving the USVIs around the 12th which means that by the time we travel there and do the quarantine we will have been self -isolated for almost 3 weeks - I just have to make sure that we have enough provisions and Rum to last for that long! Our intention is to move on to Trinidad if they open their borders up but for the moment we just have to wait and see what happens. Grenada has told us that there will be quarantine WIFI, let's hope so and some arrangements for provisions if we run short - that had better include rum!
Anyway with that news the harbor here is beginning to empty out, lots of boats seem to be in the first batch going - our plan was to let them iron out the wrinkles before we get there! Gene and Renee on Texas Crewed are heading off on Sunday so Mexican train will be on hold for a while, Dale and Lorie are of course leaving with us - they will have an extra crew member as their granddaughter Savannah is joining them this Sunday. We ended Monday with a Chinese dinner on Gypsy Palace, just because we could.
Tuesday rolled around finally, the fridge guys showed up at about 9am, Gerry had to transport them and the gear out to the boat before the installation began.
Gerry has to keep control of installations so he assisted by doing boat yoga and climbing into his favourite hole - the lazarette, lifting the compressor unit onto the shelf and bolting it in place. The fridge guy connected up the refrigerant lines an connected the vacuum pump to the system to check for leaks. Whilst the vacuum pump was running they went for lunch, Gerry collected Dale and between them they wired up the new system. Gerry dropped Dale off to Gypsy Palace and collected the Reefco guys from the dock to complete the job. The vacuum pump was turned off and left for 30 minutes to check the system maintained the vacuum, this was all good. Refrigerant was then added to the system and the compressor started up. In turn the fridge and freezer then both together were run to ensure that the correct amount of refrigerant had been added. The system then had to be run in for 30 minutes, wait for 1hour then repeat over a 4 hour period. The Reefco guys left, leaving behind a gauge which had to be ferried to the dock later, meanwhile the temperatures in the fridge and freezer were gradually bought down to range over the next 24 hours. The system was up and running! More photos in the gallery on the saga!
We waited until the middle of the next morning before transferring our food back into the correct spots in the fridge and freezer and removing the now empty ice bags and discarding them. Mostly our food had survived or been eaten before dying during the lack of fridge/freezer, however I have to share with you that Pillsbury dough tubes (French sticks, cinnamon rolls, crescent rolls and biscuits) didn't do so well, they exploded in the warmer confines of the fridge despite the bags of ice (see photo). I have wrapped them all in cling wrap in the hope that I can salvage them -I have managed to successfully bake 3 of the tube contents so far, fingers crossed for the rest!
We joined Texas Crewed and Gypsy Palace for our final game of Mexican Train dominoes and food indulgence, all had a good time, we will miss the get togethers when Gene and Renee leave this Sunday.
Today we hired a car and did the rounds of the stores again in airconditioned comfort, stocking up on the food stuffs that we had used up over the past 2 weeks as we can now freeze stuff down once more. Lorie is off to Texas on the morning flight to pick up their granddaughter who is coming to stay for a while - we have been wracking our brains as to how we are going to keep her occupied on their boat during the 14 day quarantine and the 4-5 day passage to get there. We have been told that we aren't even going to be allowed to swim around our own boat so it's going to be a very boring period!
Anyway that's you caught up with our happenings, I hope you are all well and that the end of this lock down stuff is in sight for everyone. I'll be back in a week's time so stay safe and well until then.