Red Shanks, Bahamas
23.28.894N
75.44.111W
A funny thing about boats: Part 2. Have you ever noticed that if something is broken, you can't live until its fixed? It's not that you have ever used the dang thing on a regular basis, its just that now that you know that its broken, it has to be fixed right now or it grinds on you until it is fixed. Well, that's what happened to Dale. He woke up during the night thinking about the generator and finally decided to bypass the starting switch so that he could start the generator when he wanted to use it. He said that he got the idea from something I had done. Really! Since I have a hard enough time trying to figure out an electric diagram with the components in front of me, this boggled my mind too. Then the truth emerged. I had wanted some rubber buttons for the start/stop stitches for the engine as the red ones disintegrate in the sun's UV rays, so when I saw the switches on sale (I couldn't buy just the little rubber buttons) I picked up several. He took one of those switches and made a bypass. Of course, he had to tear the inside of the boat apart again but once he had decided what to do, it was just a matter of doing it. Boom! It was done. While the boat was apart, he replaced a float switch on a sump pump we never use and turned the knot meter around (it hasn't been working either but we have another within the chartplotter, so it wasn't missed). A very productive day.
Our meeting with all of the boats heading to Luperon and points south that I had mentioned in an earlier posting, was rescheduled to today; it wasn't bad at all. The guy who had just come back had already departed the scene and the guy organizing the meeting didn't dominate the discussion as I thought he might. (I might have to give him another chance.) There was another couple there that had done the trip before (although its been several years) who said that there wasn't anything to it. Follow Van Sants' guide and you'll be good to go.
We met another couple there who asked if we were the boat hailing Rainbow Rider and if it was owned by Linda and . . . "Yes" I was eager to tell them, Linda & Gary, it's the same. "Do you know them?" Sure enough, they are onboard another catamaran named CopyKat and had met Gary and Linda in the Chesapeake area about 6 months ago. Although they plan on heading south as well, they don't plan on leaving until around March. They were great people. I told Dale that this cruising thing is turning out to be a lot like the Navy; after you're in it for a while, you start to get to know people who know the same people you know and it turns into a small community. Anyway, now that we've met them, they are looking out for Rainbow Rider and will pass along our message that we're looking for them as well. Particularly if we leave before they get here. Peter has been to the Dominican Republic before and encouraged me not to try to avoid it as it is beautiful. I asked him if there was ever a problem with the language barrier. He replied: No, they speak Spanish very well. He also said that the younger people also speak English and generally, the gist of the conversation is conveyed regardless of the subject.
Right now, we're looking at perhaps taking off this coming week. The weather's been beautiful for a couple of days and the fronts are dissipating by the time they reach us. It will be hard to leave this peaceful and beautiful anchorage. Tonight we have been serenaded with accordion/constantia from one of the German boats that pulled in yesterday. Where else would we be able to sit and watch the sunset and enjoy our dinner listening to song after song after song being played by a German accordionist who not once played a polka or a Christmas tune?
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Red Shanks, Bahamas
23.28.894N
75.44.111W
A funny thing about boats, a little thing often becomes a lot more than you bargained for. Yesterday I mentioned that Dale was going to secure the controller that sits on top of the generator which had suddenly become wobbly. Well, today he found out that the reason it was wobbly was because the 4 little shock absorbers that held it in place were completely broken. He patched them back together until he can order some more and put everything back together but . . . now the generator won't start. He ended up taking the controller apart thinking that perhaps some wire had been dislodged when he was working on the shock absorbers and checked to make sure that all of the connections were tight but still no joy. He dug out the maintenance books for the generator and went to work troubling shooting the problem.
I have seen him in this state before, so I made myself scarce by grabbing a book and retreating to the furthest point in the cockpit and stayed away. At one point I saw where he had moved everything from under the galley sink out and had taken the panel off the back side of the generator which is only accessible from under the sink. Needless to say, all of the other panels had already been removed for access to the offending unit but still no joy. He can jump start it, so there nothing actually wrong with the generator itself and both of the starters and solenoid appear to be in working order as well; it just won't start with the start button. After pulling out a fair number of tools and completely tearing apart the inside of the boat, he's made the decision that whatever is wrong, he can't fix without the guidance of a service rep. Of course, today's Saturday and none can be found; call back on Monday.
Did I mention that I had invited Roger and Elaine over for dinner? Later in the afternoon Elaine called to see if I wanted to cancel. Since I had already started marinating my fillets I told her dinner was still on, however I did agree to having it on their boat. Dale managed to get everything picked up and put back before 5:00 but it didn't leave me enough time to clean the way I would have liked to, so we packed up everything we needed and carted it all over to Doc-No-More. We enjoyed the visit and Dale got to talk about other things besides the generator.
Tonight the winds have picked up and the front we've been expecting is due to pass through tonight. So far we're sitting tight without any problems. We were joined by 3 more boats today. Besides Doc-No-More, 2 German boats have anchored near us. One has a yapping dog. You'd think it'd go hoarse as much as it yaps. Roger and Elaine said that they would be heading back to Volleyball Beach tomorrow. I guess they would rather put up with the rocking and rolling rather than the constant barking.
Still no sign of Rainbow Rider. We're beginning to wonder if they ran into trouble and are holed up somewhere making repairs. We'll keep hailing them until we leave.
23.28.894N
75.44.111W
A funny thing about boats, a little thing often becomes a lot more than you bargained for. Yesterday I mentioned that Dale was going to secure the controller that sits on top of the generator which had suddenly become wobbly. Well, today he found out that the reason it was wobbly was because the 4 little shock absorbers that held it in place were completely broken. He patched them back together until he can order some more and put everything back together but . . . now the generator won't start. He ended up taking the controller apart thinking that perhaps some wire had been dislodged when he was working on the shock absorbers and checked to make sure that all of the connections were tight but still no joy. He dug out the maintenance books for the generator and went to work troubling shooting the problem.
I have seen him in this state before, so I made myself scarce by grabbing a book and retreating to the furthest point in the cockpit and stayed away. At one point I saw where he had moved everything from under the galley sink out and had taken the panel off the back side of the generator which is only accessible from under the sink. Needless to say, all of the other panels had already been removed for access to the offending unit but still no joy. He can jump start it, so there nothing actually wrong with the generator itself and both of the starters and solenoid appear to be in working order as well; it just won't start with the start button. After pulling out a fair number of tools and completely tearing apart the inside of the boat, he's made the decision that whatever is wrong, he can't fix without the guidance of a service rep. Of course, today's Saturday and none can be found; call back on Monday.
Did I mention that I had invited Roger and Elaine over for dinner? Later in the afternoon Elaine called to see if I wanted to cancel. Since I had already started marinating my fillets I told her dinner was still on, however I did agree to having it on their boat. Dale managed to get everything picked up and put back before 5:00 but it didn't leave me enough time to clean the way I would have liked to, so we packed up everything we needed and carted it all over to Doc-No-More. We enjoyed the visit and Dale got to talk about other things besides the generator.
Tonight the winds have picked up and the front we've been expecting is due to pass through tonight. So far we're sitting tight without any problems. We were joined by 3 more boats today. Besides Doc-No-More, 2 German boats have anchored near us. One has a yapping dog. You'd think it'd go hoarse as much as it yaps. Roger and Elaine said that they would be heading back to Volleyball Beach tomorrow. I guess they would rather put up with the rocking and rolling rather than the constant barking.
Still no sign of Rainbow Rider. We're beginning to wonder if they ran into trouble and are holed up somewhere making repairs. We'll keep hailing them until we leave.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)