Wednesday February 9, 2011

This morning I woke up at 4AM. Rain was gently falling on my face. It was raining through the companion way and onto my head. I quickly got the washboard and closed the companionway and slid the hatch closed. Crawled back into my aft berth and fell asleep.

The second time I woke up the sun was shining. The sky was blue and the boat was washed. All of the salt on the deck and bright work had magically and with out work vanished. Thank you God for the lovely boat wash!

I cracked open a new gallon water jug and made coffee. I then grabbed the small gas can and tossed it into the dingy and headed to town for gas. Tied up at the dingy dock and walked to the Shell station. Gas is currently $5.15 cents per gallon. The small can holds two gallons.

With fresh gas, I pulled the generator out of the storage locker and filled it up with gas.

I then set the generator on the Plexiglas washboard and pulled the starter cord. The generator started on the first pull. My goal was to charge the battery so I attached the 12DC cord to the generator and the battery paying close attention to connect red to red and black to black.

I checked the volt meter and it was reading 10 volts. I let the generator run for about and hour and then checked the volt meter again. Nothing registered on the volt meter. The lights on the boat would not work and the GPS Chart plotter would not work. I was horrified then started troubleshooting the problem. I connected the volt meter to the generator. It turns out the positive goes to black and negative to red. When I worked on the generator several years ago, I must have crossed the wires. (The generator I bought from Terry Harder in 1997.)

With the backward wiring figured out, I jumped in the dingy and fired up the 5.5 HP Evinrude Fisherman and putted toward the end of the Harbor to The Outboard Shop. The old motor that I call “Joe” starts easily and runs slow. Then all of a sudden the motor increased in speed and I was on plane. This burst of speed lasted about one minute then back to the slow speed.

I talked with the manager last week and he said that he thought he might be able to fix the motor. After I tied “Joe” up to the dock I found Jason and explained the problem. Then a guy on the next dock yells “How you gonna connect your computer to that one?” Jason just laughed because the motor was made 15 years before he was born. He had never seen a motor that old!

He put “Joe” on a stand and removed the cover. Then he removed the fly wheel. There were two cracked condensers. He repaired them and then noticed that there was a carbon build up under the condenser. Jason told me to come back in a couple of hours and he will have figured out how to repair “Joe”. The office manager drove me into town. I found a wireless connection at Mango’s. They told me that I could use the Internet, I just had to buy something. I ordered a Kalick and got the password.

Just as I booted up the computer, Sandy called me on Skype. She told me that Patricia is running in a race in Orlando. She told me that the folks at the nursing home needed my approval to continue to treat Mark’s broken hip. We talked for over and hour! I then called the Masonic Nursing home in Alma.

The lady that wanted to talk with me was in a meeting and could not be reached by phone. I told her that I was calling from the Bahamas on a computer and did not have a phone number for them to return the call. She got the administrator out of a meeting. I gave her my approval to treat Mark. She reviewed all of the treatment plans for Mark with me.

While sitting at Mango’s I caught up on email. I also met several of the locals. Izzie the waitress and the lady that gave me the password to the wireless network, She introduced me to the dockmaster Ronell. Ronell gave me dock pricing. Ronell introduced me to Doug.

With the business of the day concluded, I grabbed the VHF marine radio, turned it to channel 16 and hailed The Outboard Shop. They said that they would send a car for me so that I could get back to the dingy.

Once I got there they told me that they needed a part for “Joe”. The part was at Green Turtle Cay and they could have it delivered tomorrow if I wanted to continue with the repair. I told them to order the part. Jason said that he put a band aid on the motor and is should run better until the final repair. I jumped in the dingy and pulled the start cord. “Joe” fired up on the fist pull. I idled out of the dock and into the harbor twisting the accelerator handle from start to fast. Old “Joe” responded. The dingy jumped out of the water and was on plane. It feels like you are flying over the water when the dingy is on plane even if you are only going 15 mph.

I headed back to WaterMark to get ready for dinner. My boating buddies on Jim and Ellie on FinniIrish want me to join them for dinner at the Jib Room. They picked me up in their dingy. On our way to dinner, we stopped for cocktails at Happy Times.

Happy Times is a 40 foot Manta Catamaram. It is captained by Mike a retired IBM exec. It is crewed by Cheryl his wife and Mickayla their daughter. I first met them in West End when we were all on a weather hold. Mike and Cherly sold their home in Atlanta and are out to see the world starting with The Bahamas and then on to the Carribean.

Cheryl made fancy snacks. Ellie made guacamole. The conversation focused on the location we had visited and out favorite and least favorite places.

Then after cocktails it was off to dinner at the Jib Room. It was a rib buffet style. After dinner, the marina manager Jason put on a show. He and his buddies played Bahamas music on a tape recorder. They accompanied the tape with rhythm instruments. Their instruments were saws. Carpenters saws strummed on the teeth side of the saw with screw drivers. They would change the pitch of the notes by bending the saws as they were played. I was fascinated. They let me play along with them for a song.

Once the ‘saw band’ concluded, one of the guys set up a limbo pole. I have not seen a limbo pole since Sandy set one up at one of Shane’s birthday parties when he was in elementary school. Of course all of the folks at the buffet had to test their flexibility by trying to make it under the pole. Three feet was the extent of the visitors ability to make it under the pole. One of the saw band guys was able to limbo under the pole at one foot. Then at the one foot level, he lit the pole on fire and while manipulating himself under the pole lit a cigarette. This got a huge round of applause from the crowd.

Once the limbo concluded, the music started. Folks started dancing. Jim, Ellie and I headed for the dingy and the dark ride back our boats.

I tried to play a few Bahamas songs that I had heard on my guitar. Then I crawled onto the aft berth and fell asleep watching the stars.