19th November

12 00 N
61 46 W

Weather; overcast with showers, wind n/a, waves n/a

The day started off dry but overcast- it was surely going to rain at some stage today. Gerry thought he would try blocking our scuppers around the water filling hole and try to divert any rain that was coming into our water tanks as our deck had now had a decent wash off from the recent rains and we weren't likely to get any salty water coming over the deck in the harbor. We have long discussed the waste of a good downpour as far as being able to divert it into our water tanks somehow, we have seen a few boats that have rigged up a water collection system but we haven't yet come up with anything that would suit our particular set up. Gerry assured me that if any anti fouling paint was still washing down the deck it was heavy enough to not make it over the slightly raised lip of the water filling hole unless it was torrential rain, I was a bit skeptical but at least if any paint does make it into the tank we can be sure that we won't have any barnacles growing on us. We had yet to see if the blocking would work anyway so there was no point in worrying about it.
Job for the day reared its ugly head in the form of fashioning 2 reinforced bases for the new compressors which have apparently left the moon and are hurtling towards Grenada as I type - we will be more than ready for them when they arrive. The hunt for "where did I put the epoxy, the fiberglass fabric, the thickener, the stirring stick, the measuring pots" began, and mostly they were where he thought they would be, for a change, not that it stopped him from opening every damn storage space anyway. With everything assembled Gerry then retired to the cockpit to set about the project only to reappear down below with the sheet of shelving material, a ruler and the Stanley knife. I know the adage of measure twice, cut once but it was painful to watch him do just that as he cut out 2 pieces of board from a single piece which was just big enough to cut in half! I was glad he returned to the cockpit to fiberglass them - I really didn't need to watch him measuring out the epoxy components, however to make sure I was included he came back in seconds to tell me that the mixture had burnt through the mixing jug (it's one specifically for mixing epoxy but has been used a few times so is probably past it's use by date!) we had extras so it wasn't an issue and back out he went to complete the job. It took him just a few minutes - they are small bases so didn't require much work and were now sitting in the cockpit curing. Gerry then decided that it was time he went in to collect the laundry from Lorie and at the same time visit Budget Marine - maybe they had made up the strop that he had asked for by now after all they had had 24 hours - what were the chances?
It seemed like he was gone a long time but in reality it wasn't long before he returned with laundry in hand plus the strop! Whilst I put away the laundry he jumped back in the dinghy and set about putting the strop in place at the bow of the dinghy. Hopefully it will prevent our dinghy hoist from rubbing against the tubes of the dinghy and wearing a hole in it, only time will tell if it works or not.
I had made the mistake of delving into our emergency freezer to get something out for tonight's dinner whilst Gerry was ashore, being the bloodhound that I am I could smell something that I didn't like the smell of, I routed around and discovered that a bag of frozen vegetables had died and turned to mush, I'm not sure why but my guess is that they had defrosted and then refrozen, anyway they were tossed into the trash but I could still smell something that was "off" and needed investigating further. After Gerry had finished with installing the strop I told him about the smell in the freezer and added that it also needed to be defrosted and this is a 2 person job as holding the lid open and emptying the freezer is awkward at best and impossible at worst. The 2 of us set about emptying the freezer into another insulated bag, checking everything as it came out of the freezer and ditching anything that was suspect then chipping the build-up of ice away from the sides and bottom before cleaning the interior and returning most of the frozen goods to their rightful home. Gerry said he thought that it might have been a beer leak in the freezer causing the smell (he has a habit of putting a can in there to rapidly cool down when he wants a beer), it didn't smell like that to me but we couldn't identify anywhere else that the smell originated from so maybe he was right and he needs to quit drinking beer!
After lunch it began to rain and Gerry got really excited as his makeshift blocking of the water tank filler hole seemed to be working, rain water was finding its way into the tank - we wouldn't need to run the water maker today. All afternoon the rain continued so we stayed below decks, making ice to try and keep our insulated bag, which was acting as a fridge, cool and read our books until late afternoon when it finally stopped for long enough for us to go out and have a wine before a late dinner and some TV. Sadly our turtle didn't put in an appearance - the highlight of my day was missing in action!