Off to the store and working with our batteries,etc.
12 August 2017 | Spanish Waters, Curacao
Bill/Partly cloudy
It's now Friday late morning after another freebee trip to the grocery store. Picked up a few more things--pork loin for Chipolte Encrusted--YUMM!! We actually ran out of salt! Amazing that that could happen. It's one of the reasons we headed for the store. Picked up a few extra things while we were there.
Yesterday(Thursday) we headed for Willemstad as we were just about out of gigs again for our internet fun. Took the 1030 bus in and walked over the floating bridge to Digicel and got everything taken care of. For $50.56US, we got 18+gigs of internet and that seems like a pretty good deal. We hiked back over the floating bridge just in time to see a ketch rigged sailboat heading into the harbor. Whistles were blow, horns were honked and bells were rung and the bridge started it's arc to open to let the little sailboat into the river/bay. We watched as it passed and the bridge swung closed again. Then off to Subway for lunch. Cheaper than most local restaurants and neither of us get ill eating there.
We made it to the bus station in time for the 1330 bus back to the docks and were back on board by 1420 in time to run our generator again. I topped up the electrolyte early on Thursday morning and the batteries don't like it when I do that. The acid sits in the bottom of the batteries and the distilled water is in the top and it takes a while for the two to get together. Because of this, the batteries tend to loose their charge much faster as there is lots less of the chemical reaction needed to keep the volts in the battery. We ended up running either the generator or the engine(after the Sun goes down) at least three times. This morning, we ran the engine for about an hour as it was sprinkling and now that we are back from the store, the generator is humming away on the stern. I figure a couple more runs today. In a few days, everything will be mixed well and the batteries will be back in fitting trim again. We go through this every time I put more distilled water in them.
It's now Saturday morning and I'm sitting in the cockpit watching boats maneuver around the bay. Spanish Bay here in Curacao is separated into four areas, each requiring an "anchor permit" at a cost of $10. If you move from B to A, well you're supposed to go to town, hike to the offices that issue the permits(about two miles from the bus station)and get a new one. People are moving here regularly. Some coming in and some going out and some just jockeying for a better location. At 0615, I watched as a boat off our port side pulled up their anchor(we're in B) and as they were doing that, another boat(K DAN) was motoring out of the harbor. Once the boat had it's anchor up, it motored over to A and probably took K DANs place in that anchorage area.
Our batteries are still getting better but it's going to take a few more days. They charge up well and are still discharging quicker than normal as the new distilled water I put in is has still not totally mixed with the acid in the batteries. It takes about a week to get everything mixed again. We ran the engine for about a hour early yesterday morning, then the generator once we got back from the store run and then the generator again late in the afternoon. We're down again this AM but better than we were yesterday so we are making progress.
Today, we're going to drain out the gasoline from the outboard motors tank and put it through our "Baja Filter". Its a big funnel with a metal mesh screen in the bottom that won't allow water through it separating it from the gas as it goes through. We use it for diesel as well. The outboard runs a bit rough early when we start it so I think it's gotten some water in the tank as it's been a long time since we actually drained the tank and filtered the fuel. Once that's done, we'll refill our primary storage tank on the stern, separating it into some for the outboard(normally two gallons) and some for the generator and some that will stay in the primary tank on the stern deck. We have four jerry cans on the deck that will then need refilling so I'll be going to the fuel dock in the next day or so and getting them filled. It will be interesting to see what gas goes for since Bonaire was some of the most expensive gas we have ever taken on board.