Tuesday morning I went to anchor outside the marina and padlled my kayak inside to talk to the marina manager. Got a slip for one week, it takes a good chunk out of the budget, but you get a lot back. The marina is part of the Sutera Harbour resort. A number of nice hotels, and when you are in the marina you get VIP access to all the resort facilities, which includes pools, restaurants, bowling, gym. All very nice with lots of personel to serve you. In the marina you need to switch your toilet over to the holding tank, they actually come check that you do so, so I am switching over the valve and pop, have the loose handle in my hand, no more switchting over to the holding tank on Morning Light.
Tuesday afternoon there was the bi-weekly Optimist race (if you don’t know, Optimist is probably the smallest sailing dinghy, they are great for kids to learn sailing in0. I had always wanted to sail one, so I got myself signed up for the race. Sailing those things is really a lot of fun, every little thing you do has an immediate effect. But, the are terribly small and have no ballast, so while I was distracted by listening to the explanation of the course I managed to flip the thing over. But, no problem, it went completely turtle and stayed that way. No problem though, you get from underneath the thing, pull on the center board, and right up it comes. One problem, it is then full of water, and I had no bailer. Someone gave me their bailer, I got the water out and was ready for the race. Of course I had no clue about the start procedure, horns were blown, flags were raised, and I just waited until it seemed like everyone started to race and followed. The first up wind leg I made the usual mistake of trying to sail too close to the very light wind and rounded it 5th from 8. But #4 was not too far away, and on the down wind leg I manage to pass him by trying to balance the boat as well as possible and by trying to catch the waves with the rudder and sort of row/surf a bit. On the last leg I did get some closer to the top 3 but was not able to catch them. There was a buffet for the racers and other yachties, and even an award ceremony. I finished 4th, but due to the special Sutera harbour handicap system (rules kept secret) I won first price. Two tickets for the bbq (I seem to always win those kind of prices) for Saturday night. It is supposed to be very good and they have fish as well.
Wednesday morning the diesel mechanic came to the boat. Started the engine, and he had lots of compliments about the maintenance and how it was running. He took the injectors out to be serviced and properly set the valve clearance of cylinder #4. He also called someone to come have a look at the refridgerator compressor.
Wednesday afternoon I was going to get my bike ready for some riding, the first since September 08 in Fiji. Got my bike out, tires where flat, pumped them up. Rear would hold air, front would not. Get a new inner tube (from the supply I bought in Curacao, the only place I have found that had long stems), start putting the tire back on and I head “pang”. Look around, part of the hub (that holds a spoke) came off! So had to walk into town to have lunch.
In the afternoon we sailed the optimists again, this time just for fun. Did some laps in the pool as well, now that riding the bike is not an option.
This morning the refridgerator expert came by. Problem with the fridge (which is engine driven) is that the electronic clutch is suddenly using 15 amps, which makes the fuse blow (but it used to draw only 5 amps). The mechanic came with only a single screwdriver as a tool, so there wasn’t that much he could do. A replacement compressor was going to be about $200, well, the fridge gets only used when motoring, so that is not worth it for me. Because I have both cockpit lockers empty for easy access to the engine I did some small projects, like fixing a little wooden plate that holds part of the exhaust system. And I checked the anode of the fridge system (that whas before the mechanic had come by).
The diesel mechanic came back this afternoon, with the cleaned and checked injectors. So he installed those and we ran the engine, had a hard time to get it started at first, but that was mostly because it takes quite a while before the fuel system is completely bleeded. Once running it seem to run well, than suddenly the mechanice ask if there is cooling water coming out, and I realize there isn’t. In the morning when checking the anode, I had to turn the raw water seacock closed. And I forgot to open it again. So I burned up the impeller of the salt water pump (that was obvious because the things was smoking). So now I had to replace the impeller. Luckily I do have many spares for that. When that was done I ran the engine, and the hose on the raw water pump came of, had worked its way loose when I was replacing the impeller. Fixed that and the engine seems to run smoother and with less vibration than before. And comes back to its normal RPMs. Tomorrow I will take the boat out for a little test run.
Then I am behind the computer after all that, and it turns out that the water that was spraying out of the pump managed to splash my WiFi adapter (the powerful external one), which is now broken.
So, all in all, I have a fixed engine, broken fridge, broken bicycle and broken wifi. Guess the working engine out weighs the other broken things….
In the evening we went play a game of bowling in the resort, we all sorted sucked at the same level, but had a good time.