I thought I’d get most of the jobs done and then have a quick shower before going to the airport to meet Katharine and everyone. I put the boat almost into the water, the big one is too heavy for me to manhandle myself over the rail so I use a halyard to pick it up, but it has a hard to find l leak which lets a little water into the boat so once I’d picked it up and manoeuvred it over the side I just let it down to rest just above the water. A bit of cleaning and tidying was done, I had my breakfast, blogged and by now thought I had most things in order so had my shower, a quick affair with little water but quite refreshing just the same. When I went to put the shower pump on to pump out the shower residue, nothing. This has happened in the past normally when the shower hasn’t been used for a bit. What had happened had been the pump sticking in one position. It had sometimes fixed itself when the voltage increased so I put the fridge and freezer off, waited for a patch of strong sunlight on the solar panels and tried again. Nothing. Boring. The next thing to do was take the cover off the pump and try turning the impeller by hand. The pump is in the bilge in the aft cabin. Lifting the sole board to get to the bilge revealed some dirty bilge water to be sponged out before starting. I did this without making too much of a mess but without remaining too clean either. I struggled to get the cover off the pump because it is, inevitably, in an awkward position. But eventually I did, gave the impeller a twiddle and thought, that should be it.
It wasn’t.
I put it back together intending to give up for the time being. Having re assembled things I decided to see if there was voltage at the switch in the aft loo. There wasn’t. The wiring behind the electrical panel is no longer as tidy as it was when she left the factory and it’s very difficult to get to and some of the wiring leads seem to have been assembled before the rest of the boat was finished and there are several motorways of wire bundles arriving at the panel to which I have yet to find a means of accessing. I thought that going in there was too difficult, however the switch for the pump is just on the bulkhead with the cockpit locker so I found a convenient source of power in the cockpit locker and ran a short cable to the switch and that had it working again. I’ve yet to find out which breaker it is connected to. This left me just enough time to re clean the aft loo, myself a little, and to head to the airport to meet everyone.
I have two dinghies and needed them both, I towed one with the other, I seem to be the only person who still rows tenders not having an outboard.
Their plane was on time by well, by Caribbean standards anyway, and we all met up at arrivals. Walking back to the boats ( the airport is a 5 minute, yes Alastair, 5 actual minutes in this case to the beach) it was obvious that all the luggage and people wouldn’t make it in a oner so Katharine and I took the luggage and a dinghy each, rowed to Yemaya and stuck the bags down below, the others pottered on the beach, or so we thought, there is a potter who sells nice pottery along with other arts and crafts on the front along with a watersports business and various eating /drinking establishments. When Katharine and I arrived back at the beach we found that the others hadn’t made it past the Loose Mongoose, the establishment closest to the dinghies and were ensconced with rum punches. We joined them and ended up having a very nice lunch there. Katharine ordered fish, (Mahi) possibly for the first time in her life because the waiter, an amiable Jamaican, had guaranteed it would have no bones it which was true, and she enjoyed it. We had a leisurely lunch and then toured the rest of the beach, I bought a clean tee shirt, before heading to Yemaya. People settled in, I fitted the new switch for the grey water tank to let it start and stop automatically, then we went snorkelling. The water is very clear but it is mostly sea grass in the area but some fun, colourful fish were spotted, people had fun, particularly climbing back into the dinghies from the water and I scrubbed some weed and barnacles off Yemaya’s bottom. By. now it was tea time and we had tea with some digestive biscuits which elongated into Sundowners when we all had Mojitos and then Moroccan butternut which is remarkably like moroccan chicken but with butternut instead of chicken. I possibly made a little too much off it as at least half of it remains. Bed time followed and it’s now morning with myself blogging and nothing else happening. I’ll try to do Beagle cruises accounts whilst it is quiet.
Slainte
Jock and everyone.
How nice to have Catherina as company with friends