Sequitur

R&R can be interpreted as Repair and Refit or Rest and Relaxation. We are doing a bit of each. After we had refuelled on Thursday afternoon we were able to flash-up the Espar furnace, and we finally had heat and hot water in Sequitur; we could relax. I cranked-up the thermostat to take the chill out of our bones, and to begin the slow process of taking the chill and the humidity out of the boat. During her many weeks of sitting in temperatures in the mid to upper teens and with the humidity in the upper 80% range, she was damp.


On Friday we took a launch ashore to go to Wong in Plaza San Miguel. On the way by the office we talked with Jaime about our haul-out, and it looks like Monday is still on; although, he hinted for the first time that we might not be allowed to paint our bottom while hanging over the water. We caught a minibus to San Miguel, and along the way, passed some itinerant restaurants set-up on the sidewalks. There is a very different street-food culture here, as compared to back home. Here, diners sit and have a bowl of soup, a dish of stew or a plate of chicheron from the sidewalk vendors. At home the diners walk as they wolf-down a sidewalk hot dog or as they chaw from a bag of whatever from McDonalds, etc.

At Wong we bought another half-dozen bottles of wine plus a dozen-and-a-half cans of various legumes, both to sample and to continue with the restocking of Sequitur's cellar and larder. We also bought cornmeal, flour, yeast, small cans of milk and other things for baking. From the in-store bakery, we bought half-a-dozen potato buns; we are still trying to find bread here that is not sweetened. Like we saw in Mexico, the Peruvians seem to love sweet pastries, and this sweet craving apparently spills over into their bread. Edi's custom-made bag was filled to near capacity as we left Wong, but it handled the fifty-or-so kilograms wonderfully.

Back onboard Sequitur, while Edi catalogued and stowed our purchases, I prepared a rice and black bean salad with diced chicken breast, sliced Moroccan olives, artichoke hearts, cilantro, green onions, green peas, and what-have-you. The salad was for an impromptu potluck dinner for the visiting cruisers on the upper deck of the Club facilities on the pier.


In the early evening the crews from Alpha Wave, Companera, Odyle, Precious Metal, Sequitur, The Lady J and Volo assembled, and then we were joined by SSCA Cruising Station hosts, Gonzalo and Magdala. After an hour-and-a-half of quiet conversation and delightful sharing food with fellow cruisers, a couple of people started to make some noise from a machine in the corner and attempted to induce us to dance. Most of us moved away and tried to carry-on with our conversations, though there were two or three who gyrated in a seeming attempt to convince themselves they were younger than reality showed.


The 8th of October is Navy Day, a national holiday in Peru. It commemorates both the Battle of Angamos in 1879 and the anniversary of the creation of the Peruvian Navy in 1821. Rear Admiral Miguel Grau Seminario, who died in Battle of Angamos, is one of Peru's greatest heroes, and in 2000 he was recognized as the "Peruvian of the Millennium" by popular vote. Three Peruvian Navy cruisers have been named for Grau: the first launched in 1906 by Vickers, the second, ex-HMS Newfoundland, acquired in 1959 from Britain and the current one, ex-HNLMS De Ruyter, acquired from the Netherlands in 1973. BAP Almirante Grau, is the flagship of the Peruvian Navy, Callao is her home port, and she is lying to anchor just out from our mooring. She was dressed overall for Navy Day, and on this evening, she was fully lit.


We said our farewells to Jill and Doug of Companera, who were heading south early the next morning. They had been promised that their zarpe would be ready at first light. A young couple, newly-wed school teachers who are taking a year-long sabattical-honeymoon, had joined Companera for the next legs of their cruise. They motored past our stern at 0840 on Saturday morning, so it appears their zarpe had come through as promised.

Early on Saturday afternoon we went ashore and with Bev and Herb, and we took a taxi to Minka for some shopping. Edi and I bought a great selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, including some wonderful asparagus and a couple of varieties of potato. We also picked-up two kilos of boneless and skinless chicken breasts from the stand to which Frano had previously taken us. The quality had been superb; tender and delicious, and we wanted more. After our shopping, and precisely sixty minutes after we had agreed to meet in an hour, the four of us arrived at the designated rendezvous.

We had lunch in the restaurant section of the market complex, in a place called Miami Chicken. Edi, Bev and I each had the Peruvian equivalent of chicken Cordon Bleu. The servings were very large, and they each came with a salad and a huge heap of French fries. Of course, being in Peru, one would expect the potatoes to be superb. They were not; they were wet and mushy, like having been moulded from mashed potatoes, and they were bland as if from instant. They had very obviously chosen the wrong potato type, or they were using a McCain's wannabe. Herb had a big serving of skewers of beef heart with his heap of fries. Edi's and my lunch totalled S/48, about $17 including two beer.

After lunch we walked along Argentina the two blocks to Maestro. Herb needed some trim for The Lady J, and we needed some netting to keep the birds off Sequitur's solar panels and stern structures. A very eager eighteen-year-old Renzo was delighted to practice his English with us and to show-off his linguistic skills in front of his fellow workers. With his ebullient manner, he searched the store for us and helped us find and buy three metres of four-metre-wide netting. We also bought another two jerry cans, identical to the ones we had bought the previous week. Herb bought some of the netting also, and he found the trim he wanted. Renzo followed us outside and flagged a cab. The first one wanted s/10; we waved it on. We flagged one and he asked S/8, so we walked to one that had pulled-up behind it. The third driver asked S/6, so we offered S/5 and he agreed.


When we arrived at the pier, I picked-up from Frano the jumbo prawns I had earlier ordered through him from his seafood supplier. I paid Frano and we headed back out to our boats in the anchorage. Immediately we arrived back on board, Edi and I rigged the netting over the stern. That done, we set to stowing our purchases.

I opened the package I had picked-up from Frano to find a neatly-packed five-pound box of carefully selected and matched 15cm prawn tails. I was delighted. I broke the contents down into eight-prawn packages and froze them. Four prawns like these will be a good-sized serving for each of us. I also packaged the chicken breasts in pairs and froze them, and we now have the beginning of a stock in our first freezer.


On Saturday evening we dined on butter-sauteed trout with olive oil roasted yam chips and steamed asparagus with lime mayonnaise. With this we enjoyed Riccadonna Brut.

On Sunday afternoon, while Edi started another batch of bread, I went ashore to the Club to meet with Gonzalo, and we sat on the upper deck. Among other things, we discussed the delays we have been experiencing with our haul-out, and now the likelihood that we won't be able to paint the bottom while in the slings. We talked of the essential things I needed done on the haul-out, and from this, Gonzalo suggested we use a diver to clear the suspected tangle on the propeller, check its proper functioning and check the condition of the zincs. He recommended Juan Gomez, and as we were talking, he spotted Juan trying to make his way ashore from his punt over the raft of dinghies. Gonzalo's 6-year-old son, Gonzolito took their dinghy across and picked-up Juan. With the assistance of Gonzalo translation, I hired Juan to come out to Sequitur on Monday morning to clean our bottom, clear the propeller and change its zinc if necessary, all for S/150, about $54.


For dinner I prepared chicken breasts in a poblano cream sauce, served with basmati rice and fresh asparagus with mayonnaise and garnished by sliced Roma tomatoes with basil.

The wine was a 2010 Angaro Malbec/Shiraz from Argentina's Mendoza produced by Finca Celia. It was a bit light, but surprisingly complex and well-balanced, with a long, pleasant finish. This was one of the bottles we had picked-up at Wong on Friday. We deemed it a repeat in quantity, particularly in view of its cost of only S/16.90, or $6.02.


We were awakened at 0820 on Monday morning by the sounds of the hull being cleaned. Sprawled-out on the gunnels of his little punt, Juan worked his way around our waterline, hand scrubbing the 'beard' off the hull. It took him just short of an hour to do this, and then he left to do the same on The Lady J, which is moored a short row away from us.


An hour later he was back and dressing into his diving suit. He free-dived, and in a minute or so came up with a great mass of tangled line and net that he had freed from Sequitur's screw. He asked for a knife, so I rigged a line to a serrated boat knife, and down he went again.


After a couple of surfaces for breath, he came up with a five-metre length of 2.5 centimetre diameter line. He had allowed the remainder of the tangle to slowly sink to the bottom. It was now easy to understand Sequitur's compromised performance on our way out of Paita and down the Peruvian coast.

I then had Juan check the functioning of the VariProp propeller by hand feathering it from its forward stop to its astern stop, and he reported it was smooth and easy. I next showed him the new zinc, which fastens onto the after end of the propeller hub, and had him check the condition of the one currently installed. He resurfaced reporting that there was no zinc, so I assumed that it had been totally eaten away by galvanic action. I rigged a hex wrench on a line and sent him down with it to undo the three capscrews in preparation for installing the new zinc. He came back up reporting that the screws were also missing. This I couldn't attribute to galvanic action; there had to be another cause.


Juan then carried-on with his free-diving to do a complete cleaning of Sequitur's bottom, and I pondered and mused. We had last had the zincs changed during our haul-out by Specialty Yachts on Granville Island in Vancouver in March-April 2009. As at the previous zinc change in the spring of 2008, the propeller zinc showed very little evident erosion from its year of use, probably no more than 20% of the volume, and with no apparent porosity, and again as previously, we had kept the old one as a spare. Unless we had been in an area with a lot of stray current, I cannot see our current zinc eroding totally in eighteen months, when its predecessor had lost only 20% in a year. The stray current idea looses steam when I consider that our bottom cleaner reported good zincs in Puerto Vallarta in March, and the diver we engaged in the Galapagos had reported good zincs in May. In neither case; though, do I now recall whether I had asked specifically about the propeller hub zinc, and the underwater photos of our propeller before we arrived in the Galapagos do not show it.

The missing capscrews cause me to think that they had vibrated loose, unscrewed and had fallen out, taking with them the zinc. The VariProp instructions for the installation of the zinc states: "First, insert all three zinc-cone screws loosely, then tighten securely in succession. Use LOCTITE low (pink) and observe the little washers. They prevent the grease from squeezing out of the hub during operation. Be sure to clean the screws and screw-holes from any grease before applying the Loctite." I did not directly supervise the work in 2009, so I have no way of knowing, other than by reputation of the installer, that this procedure was followed.

Juan finished his bottom cleaning at 1210, and I very happily paid him the S/150. He certainly had earned it, having spent nearly three hours working on our bottom. On top of that, he had to row his punt the half mile out from the pier and half mile back.


To lighten things up a bit, we spent Thanksgiving afternoon baking. Edi had prepared a double batch of bagels and five loaves of New York Times no-knead bread. This time, she made the bagels by the poke-a-hole method, rather than the join-a-roll method, and with the Espar working and heat again in Sequitur, the bagels and the bread rose wonderfully. We spent just over five hours boiling and baking, and we were delighted with the results. Sixteen large sesame bagels, two loaves of raisin bread, two loaves of cranberry and pecan and one of dried apricot. We now have breakfast baking for the next few weeks.


For Thanksgiving dinner we had jumbo prawns sauteed in butter, garlic and shallots, accompanied by basmati rice, asparagus with mayonnaise and sliced Roma tomatoes with basil. The 2008 Valdivieso Sauvignon Blanc from Chile's Valle Central fell short of our expectations, even at only $8.16, and it is not a repeat buy.

On Tuesday we puttered on board. Among other things, I tried unsuccessfully to track-down online the specifications for the missing capscrews and washers to fasten the zinc to the propeller. I had received no reply from my email to Specialty in Vancouver, so I emailed the VariProp distributor in Toronto. Their quick reply prompted me to order the screws and washers directly from them.

On Wednesday morning, Edi received an email from her pregnant daughter, Amy saying that her water had broken, and she was on her way to the hospital for delivery. Edi immediately booked a midnight flight to Vancouver via Toronto. She then went off with the other cruising ladies on a pre-planned lunch and shopping excursion in Miraflores. While they were gone, Herb and I took a cab to Minka and walked a short block to a zinc caster. We each ordered two streamlined shaft zincs, and the caster said they would be delivered to La Punta the next day.

Edi organized the driver of one of the taxis that had taken them to Miraflores to pick us up at the Yacht Club at 2230. The taxi was there at the appointed hour, and we negotiated a fare to the airport, a wait for up to an hour to confirm Edi's stand-by seat, and then to drive me, hopefully alone back to La Punta. Edi checked-in and was immediately confirmed to Toronto, with stand-by onward to Vancouver. I arrived back onboard a few minutes to midnight.

On Thursday morning I received an email from Edi that she had cleared through Customs in Toronto, but couldn't make the gate in time to get the 1000 to Vancouver. An hour-and-a-half later she emailed that she was confirmed on the noon flight, and that she had no news about the baby. She said that grandma might just win the race to Vancouver.