Here in Curacao, like many other ports, there is a morning "Cruisers Net" on the VHF radio(Channel 72). Normally giving out information to the cruisers and some locals and bring to solve problems for boats that have them. Here's in Curacao, it's a bit different. For the most part, if you could hear crickets chirping on a VHF(nothing talked about)that's about what you learn in a day to day listening of the net. It starts at 0800 and is normally done by 805 or even earlier. It goes like this: "Anyone need any assistance?" When we came in to Curacao, we had problems with our start batteries getting over charged. When I put out our problem hoping for some help, well, as I said, you could almost hear crickets on the radio. Nothing was the response and there are a good fifty boats here in the bay. It's that way every day or when someone comes on the radio and asks for help. Next topic: "Any one offering services?" I don't think I've heard anyone ever respond to that call except the people that sell water t othe cruisers. Next topic: "Any events". Here you will probably get some information--"Captains Dinner" on Thursday night at the local restaurant, or maybe an up coming hike to town or up the side of one of the mountains(more like hills)close to the bay. It's the most active section of the net. Next: "Anyone have anything to sell or give away?" We've heard of one boat that wants to sell a printer/scanner/copier and another boat that's giving away an old out of date life raft for kids to play on once it's inflated. It surprises us that no local businesses participate in the net talking about their services and where they are. No advertising about themselves and Curacao is supposed to be one of the Big places to have work done. No discussion about the local free bus to the super market, no talk about the schedule of buses that take people to town for checking in. Just about nothing. If you yawn, you just might miss this net.

It's about 0830 and the generator is purring away on the stern. Should be able to turn it off about 0930 and do the gasoline filtering and filling I wrote about in the last post. Then, a shave and a shower for me. It's time to feel clean again. As always the winds are still blowing in the mid teens.

It's now 0940 and we just finished our fuel project. We poured all the existing fuel that was in the out board motor tank into the "Baja Filter" to make sure there was no water in the existing fuel. That fuel went into another spare gasoline tank. Once it was out, we then we poured what came out back through the Baja Filter and into the outboard motor tank. So far, the fuel looks nice and clean but we will see in an hour or so if any water pools up at the bottom of one of our Tostitos jars. We save them for just such projects. Gasoline or Diesel, unless you are sure of the cleanliness of the source, it should all be filtered. Here in Caribbean, there is so much fuel getting pumped every day into the hundreds of boats that we have little fear of any problems. One of the last things any boater wants is dirty fuel in their tanks. With the now cleaner fuel back in the outboard motor tank, we then poured two gallons into a smaller jerry can(three gallons) we keep for transferring fuel to different tanks. With the Tohatsu out board being a 2 stroke engine, the fuel has to be mixed with oil unlike a 4 stroke that doesn't need it. I keep a measuring bottle(maple syrup jug) for the oil to make sure we get just the right about of oil for the fuel. I pour that oil into the filter in the opening in the top of the outboard tank and then pour the gas from the 3 gallon jerry can(has two gallons in it). This then filters the fuel(again) and gets the oil mixed well into the new fuel so there is no problem with it. With that being done, we're just waiting for the generator to cool down(just stopped it) before topping up it's tank and combining what's left in the two jerry cans on deck(stern deck tank and one of the primary jerry cans we keep on deck)and then all that will get stowed and strapped down. With the winds still hitting the high teens to low twenty knot range, it's amazing we didn't spill much fuel onto the deck.(Happy to report after 24 hours, no water showed up in the fuel)

Here's how the rest of Saturday unfolded. After the generator was done, we stowed things and Tracy started making lunch(Chili cheese hot dogs with a side salad. We tried Bushes Cubano Baked Beans a few days ago with another meal. Not bad. Nice flavor. As she cooked lunch on the stove, we suddenly ran out of propane! Well rats! Out I went with two wrenches and off came the regulator and hose and out came the fiberglass tank. I then attached everything to our back up tank(normally used for barbecuing )and we were ready to finish heating everything for lunch. We switched out to fiberglass tanks four years ago when we were in Pohnpei, Micronesia. They use the US Postal Service so we had two shipped in from the US. The old style metal tanks we had been using just rusted to death quickly in the salt air. It's now four years later and the tank look almost new. Now we have to rent a car and find out where we can get it filled. We've run into boats that have one tank(stupid), two tanks and as many as four tanks on their boats. One is just wrong since if you run out, well, you're out of fuel and it can realy screw up what could have been a great meal.
About a week ago, the ignitor on our stove went crazy. It just kept making the spark to ignite the burners. Normally, you push in on the knob, the ignitor snaps and the burner lights. A couple of weeks ago, they stopped working so I'd taken the ignitor apart and readjusted the prongs that make the electrical connection and then the spark. While doing so, I misplaced(OK, lost) one of the ever so small washers that go in one of the knob assembly. I found one that looked close and substituted it and all seemed fine. Well, I guess it decided to be a stinker and stop doing it's job. As we were about to have lunch, I simply pulled the battery(under the stove)out. No power--no spark. It was time to fix it. The last time I played with the battery assembly for the stove, I found that the wire that leads off the positive end of the battery had become disconnected. The metal fitting had decomposed. I'd made a replacement out of a screw and some rubber and steel washers to keep the wire isolated from the rest of the fitting. It seemed to work fine but for some reason the battery(at that time) got super heated. I ended up wrapping the battery(little AA) in electrical tape and that seemed to solve the problem. Now I had to get the battery back exactly as it had been so the ignitor would work and battery not over heat. Just to be safe, I put in a new battery with the electrical tape wrapped around it and after a few tries, it's up and working just fine. Took two flashlights and reading glasses so I could see it clearly as it's under the stove. I checked the burners and just the one I'd screwed up doesn't work but the rest are fine. Problem sort of solved. At least we can use the ignitor again.

We also took the time to check out water tanks as the last time we filled them, we were in Bonaire and that was a month ago. They are still half or more filled so we will need to get them topped up in a couple of weeks. It's good to have over 270 gallons of water on board.

Tracy just finished cleaning out the screen on the filter for the sump pump for the stern head. It's a job that needs doing about every thirty days or so. It's gets quite clogged if its forgotten. If that happens, the filter gets full of yuck, that stops the flow of water and that causes the pump to over heat and that blows the fuse. I speak from experience there. It's a job we put on our calendar to make sure it gets done regularly. I had to be done more regularly in Bonaire as we took more showers with all the diving we did there. Here, not so much(dirty water).

It's now Monday evening and we have the engine running to put a few more volts back in the batteries. Still not back up to snuff but it takes time.

Earlier today we took the bus to town to head back to Digicel. Last week, on Thursday, we topped up our account and ended up with 20+ gigs. As of Sunday, we were at over 16 gigs left and what we had had slowed down to a crawl. It was going to take close to four hours to download a show off the internet instead of the normal 30-40 minutes. I set up a "Chat" with Digicel to find out what the problem was and was told by their agent that the plan I was sold last week wasn't intended for use with a wifi dongle, only to be put in a phone. Say what? The sales person stood in front of me when I bought the plan and I had the phone and wifi dongle right in front of me on the counter. She couldn't resolve the problem and told me to go back to the Digicel store to get it resolved. Once we disconnected with the "Chat", Tracy checked the amount of gigs we had left this morning and we had a whopping 5 gigs left????!!!!! Digicel had swiped a bunch of gigs off my plan and slowed down the speed I was supposed to get. This is the second or third time they have done this and we are not the only cruisers that it's happened to. Others here have told me the same story. It was off to town on the 1030 bus.

Once at Digicel, I spoke with the "Data Doctor" who looked up my account(same sales person that had helped me before). She confirmed that Digicel had taken the gigs but she got them put back and assured me that the slowdown of my wifi was also resolved and I should have no more problems. Once back at the boat, I fired up the wifi dongle and booted up the computer. To download a show on their supposed 4G network was going to still take over 3.5 hours!!! Nothing had changed other than us getting our missing gigs back. Looks like I'll be heading back to town tomorrow to try and get it resolved. One option the Data Doctor gave me was to get another plan that was for just 10 gigs and would cost $149 guilders or $83US. The plan I had was for 18 gigs and just $50.56US. Somehow that just didn't seem right. Pay lots more and get lots less. Guess I will find out tomorrow what's going to happen.

And so ends Monday afternoon.