Friday, 7th MAY 2010Up early, as there are so many things still to be done. We had a light poached egg on toast for breakfast, phoned home and Aileen has arrived back in Ireland, safe and sound. The two children we have in Dublin were delighted to see their mother again, that's Leah and Stefan, and of course Johnny and Jamie. Leah's husband and new son.
09.00hrs Donal took off to town in an effort to make up his mind on his final route home, while the Skipper tried unsuccessfully to remove the sea stains on the hull of " A Lady", the blinkin stuff seems totally embedded. Meanwhile, along comes this guy on a bicycle and enquires if we wanted anything done on the boat, like varnishing, sail repairs, fixing leaks in ribs. Hold it right there................YES, we have a small leak in the rib, and a blooming pain in the neck having to pump it up almost every day. $15 an hour (cheap around here) so we got him to do the repairs, 1 hour it took and looks good, but we wont pump it up till tomorrow to give it a chance.
The Bike Man, his name is Christian Aros and he was ship wrecked while cruising with his father off Tonga when he was a child and they drifted in their rubber dinghy for 22 days before being rescued. Can you imagine, the things that happen to people! His father subsequently wrote a book called " Beyond Courage " describing the whole ordeal.
Talking about ordeals, I was reading yesterday's blog again, and it seems as if I did not care or was not concerned about Hugh Cassidy and his store, that's not correct. I like Hugh big time, he is very imaginative and artistic and in true fashion to those gifts, he tends to be a bit scattered now and then.. However I hope things work out for him regarding this terrible fire/accident...
Later, Laurent and Mike called to have documents signed regarding customs clearance for the parts for the Chart Plotter, but it now seems pretty clear that this unit is not going to be fixed today, so we are going to have to remain here for the weekend. Anyway, we could be stuck in a worse place!
The Bimini and Spinnaker are fixed/repaired and returned to the boat. We erected the Bimini and it looks Ok. Not exactly what was ordered, but it will do the job..... thats another job done, we are nearly there... Just the Chart Plotter!
Skipper explained to Mike (Mike was skipper of big boats for 10 years) that he tried unsucessfully to clean the Hull.
"Ohhh" says Mike........."did you try the vinegar?", yes Mike, we had some vinegar in the water, "no,no,no. You must use straight white vinegar, rub it on hard, leave it a few minutes, wash it off and do it again, and maybe a third time. OK Mike, we will try that tomorrow...
Skipper went to Carrefour supermarket and purchased a new computer screen (140 euros returned to the boat and installed it without too much difficulty. Donal had just returned at this stage. We had to replace the screen, because if you recall, a big wave broke over the side of the boat, back near the A.B.C. Islands and drenched the screen, well it turned out that salt water and computer screens don't mix very well, and the original screen began to shrink from the bottom up, and as a result we could not see the icons on the bottom any more, so it was becoming a guessing game. We also replaced the ceiling light over the Galley Port hole with a LED light. It uses 1w as opposed to 10w with the existing light units, and there are 15 of them between the Galley and Saloon. So you can imagine how much power they use when they are all on, and we are sailing along and using battery power only. We did this to see if it worked and give out enough light, plus the fact that the existing one was very rusty. Voila, it worked brilliantly. However, we will wait till we get to Australia to replace the rest, at 50euros each in Tahiti, it would work out very expensive to replace all the ones on the boat. We also changed the watermaker filters, the old ones were manky and smelt like ...............can't describe a pong very well.
Donal cooked dinner, Rack of N.Z. Lamb and it was delicious, plus his green beans mixed with carrots and fried potatoes with onion mixed through them. OHHH to die for! Crickey, it seem that every blog these days refers to Donals cooking. Mutiny in the Galley...
An early night for Fats, while the skipper blethered his way through the Blog and emails (after the night caps).
That's it for now,
Stephen Hyde (Skipper)