It's 7 a.m. in the mangroves at Ensenada Honda, Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico with mostly cloudy (high) skies and no wind: calm! Maria really did fell apart from the wind sheer that started yesterday. Last night was to be her debut, but she was, thankfully, wanting having changed her mind and turned farther N than predicted even as late as yesterday morning. Today's prediction is for her to change her mind again, reform, and head out above the Bahamas and E of the U.S. coast as she grows in strength over the last week or two of her life. But, fear not, another bunch of storms (so far) are right behind her headed this way (N of us? S of us? Who the H... knows?) So here we sit with balmy skies and Trade Winds waiting for Tuesday and our next go around with presents from Africa. I am living me dream!
Would you believe - yes, you would - the port engine is still on the fritz. Mister "Muskles" managed to over tighten the hold down bolt on #3 injector stripping out the aluminum threads with the metal 10mm X 1.5 bolt: see, I am learning all about diesel mechanics, even metric stuffs. So, I'll Helicoil (put in new 10mm X 1.5 threads) it and try again to seat the currently leaking injector. If that doesn't work, I'll have to tap (cut in new threads) it to 11mm for a new bolt.
And, not to be out done, the water maker died. Leaks not only water from the piston, but also oil (from the gear box). So, I'll now learn all about desalination. You know, high pressure pumps, 12 volt electric motors to drive same, and osmotic membranes to filter sea water. Thank God I have the basic assembly knowledge and piping from the first one. The one good thing is that I'll up fresh water production from 6 gallons per hour to 40 g.p.h. Man, with production like that I can wash the boat with fresh water any time and sell the remainder to my fellow cruisers. Nothing like a little side job for extra income.
I doubled (double up) all the lines into the mangroves so I could just pull them back on board with out having to climb back in again. Smart!! Not only did it make it easy to untie, but also doubled the strength holding us in.
