Errands & Dinghy Shopping
07 October 2017 | Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Susan / partly cloudy, 93 degrees F
Lots of errands to run in Solita this morning: drop-off half of the current solar panel support structure to Cesar’s workshop, fill two propane tanks, buy drinking water and groceries, and shop for a dinghy available locally. One cruiser has a new one for sale - too small for them - but it’s too small for us plus it’s a poor performing brand. Mar Marine builds & sells fiberglass mini-lanchas but the only two they have currently are 11’ long and very heavy; good for the Rio, not so good for our regular dinghy use outside the Rio. Actually there are fleets of fiberglass lanchas here, some smaller than the ones at Mar, most larger, so there must be other builders in the area. That said, they’re likely purpose built for Rio-running so may be too heavy like Mar’s offerings. West Marine @ Ram Marina has a couple of their models here, with a posted price way more expensive than online pricing likely to recoup shipping costs. We could buy a dinghy (any preferred brand & model) online and pay for shipping it here however shipping is expensive and has its own host of potential issues. The way forward is not yet clear.
Speaking of issues with shipping things in….. the new freezer is not working as it should, 12V DC or 120AC when on shore power. We plugged it in (120 AC shore power) yesterday afternoon and the compressor started however the fan didn’t and somewhere along the way it quit because the ice trays we put in last evening were barely cool this afternoon. Defiantly not ice cubes. sh**! And it’s not like we can just drive over to Fisheries (Seattle) to get a warranty replacment. Just for grins, Jerry wires it into 12V DC and compressor and fan now works. 12V DC works, switch to 120AC and it quits. There is a DC-only model available however that is not the model we ordered and paid for. Jerry will need to call Fisheries Monday to sort things out. Finger’s crossed we have ice cubes tomorrow.