17th December

12 00 N
61 46 W

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

David asked an important question in regard to the Advent photo, day 14, of the water maker - how do we remove any chemical/biological nasties from the water we have produced. To begin with we try not to make water in places that look to be dirty to begin with. When in a harbor it needs to have a decent current flushing through it to take as much "nasty stuff" away from the boat as possible. Although there are international rules about emptying holding tanks into the ocean (must be at least 3 miles off shore to do this) and there is a no emptying of oil into the ocean at all, we know that not everyone abides by these rules so to be on the safe side we never make water at the times when these rules are usually broken (early in the morning or under cover of darkness). Having said that, there is no guarantee that the water is free of nasties so to give us the best chance of not getting sick from "dirty" water we have a carbon drinking water filter under the sink and all of our drinking and cooking water goes through this filter. I hear some of you wondering why we don't just add bleach or chlorine to the water tank. The reason that we don't is because every so often we have to run freshwater (which we only have in our water tanks) back through the water maker system to clean it if it's going to be unused for a short period of time and chlorine in the water can destroy the water maker membrane rendering the whole system inoperable. Of course most of our cooking water is boiled anyway and to date we haven't gotten sick in any way shape or form from the water we have produced and drunk - and we drink a fair amount of it. So far we haven't grown any extra fingers or toes but as all Australians know anyone from Tasmania comes with a second head already so we can't attribute our extra heads to the water we have produced on board!
Yesterday's photo was indeed the toilet flush for the forward manual head!
So what have we filled our day with today? Apparently not very much! Gerry struggled to find something to do and keep out of my way. He resorted to throwing more muriatic acid down both of the toilets to make certain that the pipework was being kept as free as possible from scale. I'm a little concerned that the acid might eventually eat its way through the sanitary pipes resulting in a leak and the accompanying horrendous stink which would mean that we have to change out the pipework. We did this on our last boat as a maintenance exercise and, even though we had everything we needed to do the job, it was still a long and difficult process as we think the pipework is installed long before a whole lot of other stuff which then sits on top of it making the removal and replacement of the pipework an extremely difficult task. Gerry has had a quick look at the routing on this boat and it appears to vanish beneath the air conditioning unit, through 2 bulkheads, under the seating in the salon, up through 3 storage cupboards before making its way to the overboard and/or the holding tank - and that's just the forward toilet, the aft one has a longer trip to make to the exits and involves a macerator along the way just to add to the confusion. Let's just hope we don't have to change any of it out! So most of our day was spent doing nothing except reading and watching videos until late afternoon when we did the usual sundowner fix and then Gerry lit the BBQ and we cooked up a couple of delicious fillet mignons on it ( we hadn't said the BBQ words out loud so the rain wasn't fore warned and didn't arrive in time for us to have steamed steaks!). Lorie had invited us to join them for sausage surprise but we had already gotten the steaks out and were looking forward to trying them by the time she asked us so we took a rain check.
Oh I know what I did, I went to take today's advent photo and collected all the various bits from 3 different lockers, spread the contents and sorted them out a little to make sense of the photo then rearranged them so that they are now in only 2 lockers. What is this that I'm blathering on about? I'm sure those that know me well will be totally shocked to see how much of a first aid kit we carry on the boat, as trying to find a band aid at home is often an impossible task! So this is almost the most comprehensive first aid kit you'll ever see me admit to owning. The very large bag was a gift from an ex-coast guard mate when we did our first trip 11 years ago - thanks Ray, it's still going strong and mostly unused! It has 3 "pockets" along the sides and the main compartment which is sectioned off. We have enough gloves, bandages, pads, splints, tape, solutions for a major disaster; then we have a sphygmomanometer and stethoscope, 4 suturing kits, Super glue, artery clamps, burns sheets, Gels and dressings, needles and syringes, a variety of injectable solutions, inhalers, medications. We even have an ambu-bag and mask, scalpels, forceps, tooth/ filling repair kit etc., then there is a malaria test and treatment kit. There is even a delivery kit, in case we have to deliver a baby at any time! The kit has only been out of the cupboard once - when we were trying to locate a box of band aids for a cut finger, we found them and relocated them to the bathroom cupboard where they are easily accessed and not been needed since! There is also a couple of first aid manuals - the St John manual that everyone has plus a Carpa manual which I've had since my time working in outback clinics and has more detailed treatments. This is just the bag of stuff, we also have a cupboard that is filled with "just in case" medications such as Imodium, Senna col, betadine gargle, antibiotics, cough and cold meds, anti - inflammatory tabs, analgesics, bite and sting treatments, multi vitamins, as well as my regular diabetic meds and test supplies.
Whilst we are very grateful for the kit , we hope that we never have to use it as just getting it out of the cupboard is an exercise in itself and if Gerry was the one doing the first aid I would surely die if I couldn't give him blow by blow instructions! So I hope you are all impressed, but please don't ask me for a band aid when I'm at home, chances are I haven't got one!