Who's in Charge
24 June 2009 | Fiji
Fiji Mike
Who's in Charge?
#*@$... Just when you think you have everything pointed in the right direction, you take a little trip, ship fifty gallons of salt water through every pin hole on the boat and the solar panels decide to take a vacation. I'm supposed to be on vacation. I tell you, it's a conspiracy. I'm going to start wearing an aluminum foil hat. See if that works to keep them dang black helio-copters away.
Instead of hanging out in Musket Cove sipping a festive tropical drink with a cute little umbrella in it, I'm head first in the black hole, replacing wire. Who knows which inch went berserk? It's easier to replace all of it. Not cheaper. Just easier. They want a king's ransom (A dictator's ransom in the case of Fiji) for tinned marine grade wire.
So, after three days, I'm finally getting juice from the panels to the battery. Woo-hoo! Christmas in June. Batteries are expensive. Like $4.00 a pound and these babies weigh each what I do. Not to mention that they are only a month old and made of unobtanium anywhere outside the very first world.
Other than the gremlin in the charging system, the new bilge pump wouldn't work when it was important. It worked fine at the dock, but when we needed it? Nooooo. It finally puked a rubber gasket thing and started working. We also broke three sail slides on a brand new mainsail. Not good, but not bad considering poor little yacht Camellia, that was rolled 360* on the way up from NZ and spread the contents of the refer all over the boat.
Sven, on the 65 foot Dana Felicia also suffered some damage in the same snotty little blow that rolled Camellia and apparently cause the two Dutch boats Stamper and Kind of Blue and the American boat Aguaha a bad case of indigestion.
There can be a dramatic difference from week to week. Bucephalis, (isn't that the name of Alexander the Great's horse?) just had a wonderful trip. Then, we motored most of the way. The last group had 50 plus knots of wind. Step right up folks. Pay your money and take your chances. Fifty two cards and only two Jokers. Ya feeling lucky, punk? Maybe it's time for that Canal boat in France?