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Another mixed day at the grindstone

by steve, on March 26th, 2009 (Hands Across the Sea, St Lucia)

What went well :

  • Helen partially fixed the stbd trampoline (need to buy some rope to complete)
  • Using pipe we bought yesterday I finally put back and lowered the grill to make passing easier
  • I raised the fuel filter so I can drain water without having to dismantle everything.
  • We filled up with fresh water from the water maker.

What didn’t go well :

  • Shortly after claiming partial victory against the internet this morning it all went kaput.  More hours burned pulling my hair out.  It’s going again but not entirely sure why.
  • I bought some more fishing lures (as well as a cheapo rod on sale) and dangled them off the back of the boat.  Nothing lured onto the hooks.

Go to previous blog to see more pics.

Last night was a success.  Helen cooked homemade pizza (one veg and one with ham) for TL and Harrier who came over for supper.  They have a website : www.handsacrossthesea.net which lets you know what they’re up to with their schools.

Category: Hands Across the Sea, St Lucia | Here is my comment

Frustration in Exotic Places

by steve, on March 25th, 2009 (Hands Across the Sea, St Lucia)

Not everything goes to plan.

Job number 1 went ok.  I replaced a breaker which was cracked but ok as a preventitive measure.  No problems there.

Job number 2 was to permanently mount my wifi antenna.  The place I chose was just below the radar dome as the box would be protected and it was pretty high.  I also had to shorten and fix the cable that runs from the wifi box to the antenna.  This involved heading into the marina to buy a couple of pipe clamps and some insulation tape.

The cable shortening went ok and I tested everything ok.  Mounting the box up the mast went reasonably ok.  I did drop a washer and a fastening bracket – the latter I was able to retreive by passing down the network cable to Helen who tied it on for me to pull back up.

The first problem was the network cable was too short.  This involved temporarily running the too short cable down the outside of the mast and using a connector to extend it using one of the spare cables I have.  The connector I used didn’t work so I tried the one that extends the radar cable.  Everything worked following a test.

I then ran the extra cable in through the gooseneck into the cabin.  At this point I ran into a wall of frustration.  Nothing could I do to get the damn thing going with my laptop.  I spent hours on it gradually undoing connectors, trying out different cables.  I finally got onto the internet again by using our old XP laptop and bypassing our internal wireless hub.

Somethings definetly up with the wireless hub or I’ve done something to it in my attempts to get things going.  At least we have working internet so I know I don’t have to go up the mast to bring down the box.  Now I should tidy up as we have guests coming.  Onto which ….

Last night we stopped by “Hands Across the Sea” and had more than a few drinks with Harriet and TL.  They are on their second year of their second cruise and doing something worthwhile with their time.  They are adopting a number of Caribbean schools and helping out – donating gear and their time.  They say it’s not hard to find anyone who needs help.  We left them agreeing to invite them over for dinner this evening.

After drinks helen and I headed off to our curry only to find the place closed.  Darn.  The only thing we found open was a KFC so we had another dose of greasy chicken.  Not what we wanted.

Category: Hands Across the Sea, St Lucia | Here is my comment

Fixing your boat in exotic places

by steve, on March 24th, 2009 (Hands Across the Sea, St Lucia)

That’s a reasonable good phrase the sort of describes the mode we’re in. Fortunately there’s nothing really wrong but we’ve built up a few maintenance tasks that need to get done.

Cleaning the boat took the two of hours quite some time yesterday. Helen did most of it as I had to go ashore to clear in and do some shopping. We finished off the day with a good old English Breakfast of sausages, eggs and beans and watched the movie Mamma Mia. Boy was that movie cheesy. It kept us amused though.

Today has seen more hard work. I’ve topped up each of the six cells on all of the sixteen lead acid batteries aboard. With Helen’s help we ran the network cable from the Outback MPPT solar power controller to the console where I’ve fitted a remote display. We are now able to see what the MPPT is up to. Already, today, we were able to detect when the batteries has charged enough in bulk mode and were now in absorb/accept mode. This meant we had extra power available from the panels which wasn’t going to charge the batteries. At this point we turned on the laptop and continued to download some old british TV comedies and some US TV shows we want to catch up on.

We also went into the shopping mall for some additional provisions and Helen has been to the dentist to have a filling replaced. This cost less than US$100 which wouldn’t have covered the cost of the anesthetic back in the US.

We’ve also done two further loads of washing and moved the boat a little to satisfy Helen’s swellophobia.

We still have quite a few boat jobs ahead of us but they can wait till later days. We are taking pictures of ourselves doing the various jobs so we can provide a “fixing the boat” album once we’re done.

On our way into the mall we stopped by “Hands Across the Sea” a Dolphin 460 that we’ve seen on numerous occasions. We’ve found that our excess of bananas (oops, meant to say last nights banana flambee was delicious) makes a good excuse to go and say hello to people by way of handing over a bunch. This is their second time cruising and their second year this time around. To make their trip purposeful they are sponsoring and helping out at a number of schools in the Caribbean. We’ve been invited back for drinks this evening for sunset.

After drinks, depending on the state of Helen’s anesthesia, we may go and have our two remaining curry dishes at Razmataz.

Category: Hands Across the Sea, St Lucia | Here is my comment