All work no play

Fri Feb 22 4:32 pm…5 o’clock somewhere….Yes we started happy hr early…..was a hard day…Joyce has been cleaning the bottom…could only do 2/3’s before she ran out of air….but what has been done is great..Me back on the genset….Sorry we have not updated you guys lately…we have been busy. Left the BVI’s and all the charter boats on Monday AM…sailed…..wing and wing down Drake Channel…(wing and wing is when you are sailing dead down wind..Main out on one side and the jenny out on the other…….Looks real cool..I’m sure we were driving the charter boats nuts because they don’t know which tack we are on…”rules of the road” stuff.. …we sailed around St John and picked up a mooring and checked back into the States at Cruz Bay…remember..all those eclectic in Key West…well when they get tired of Key West they move to Cruz Bay……..from here only Coral Bay is left….more on that later……internet too $$$$$.. 24.99 a day…so we sailed over to Red Hook on the back side of St Thomas….still no internet. Joyce’s new IBM ThinkPad was in at the Internet Café in town, I was expecting my A/C pump and wireless antennae…I was going to the Post Office, Joyce over to Beans and Byte to pick up her computer and clear our email. She won I lost…no mail for me. While in the BVI’s Joyce found she liked a drink called a “Bushwhacker”. Said it tasted like ice-cream. So I bought the $$$$ ingredients and jumped a bus back to Red Hook. I was at the boat store spending another $160 bucks when Joyce caught up. Back to the boat…played with her new computer…too cool….but Vista has a few new twists…takes a little time to get used to….let me backtrack a bit…while running the genset in the BVI’s I..saw steam from the exhaust….damn…just changed the impeller….we turned on the watermaker,,,,damn thing shut down….checked the code…said the unit overheated…..damn…..waited a few hrs for things to cool down …..pulled the thermostat…checked it in a pot of boiling water…good…..fluid levels fine….now focused on the heat exchanger…this is a 2 inch pipe with tubing running inside….cold seawater is run through this pipe while the engine coolant is circulated through copper pipe…cooling the coolant…no salt water thru the engine… Well I pull this off…hot….up in the cockpit I disassemble the unit…damn…20 + small rubber pieces of old impeller parts are blocking the exchanger. While taking it apart, one of the ends…made of brass comes off in 3 pieces…@##%$#%^&^$#%^&&*…Now where am I going to find these parts down here….HOT….Beer# 1 when confronted with problems like this, one needs cold beer…..I get out the epoxy..glue a few large washers to the broken parts…cut a gasket from my $$$$ Avon repair kit…some gasket material……an interesting attempt….slap it back on…fill the engine with what antifreeze I have…crank her up…damn..It worked…….Fast forward..Now at the boat store…parts for and Onan genset???? No clue…now in the “what in the hell am I going to do now mode”. Now Thru AM…we go I for breakfast…not bad…..but cost as much as 6 cases of beer in Margarita… ..Life is choices…..Joyce is sending her “old” computer back to her daughter Jodi…we box everything up and go to the Post Office Annex here in Red Hook. I go to the Ace Hardware while Joyce mails her stuff. I was searching for something more permanent than my last fix for the genset. I figure I will not get parts till we get up to the US. I find these plastic PVC parts that might work. 10 for .69 cents…only need 1 or 2. Then find them sold by the piece for .49 cents. Do the math. So I take the 10 up to the counter…she wants to charge me $6.90…say no way….short story…got the 10 for $.69. Back to the boat…more epoxy…Joyce cut out 2 new gaskets….back down in the engine room on my hands and knees…hook up the damn thing…fill the engine with new ($18 a gallon here) antifreeze…not that it will ever freeze down here, start her up…no leaks.!!!!! Since I’m going to be sore tomorrow I might as well see what wrong with the anchor wash pump. Another 20 min all twisted around…nope…not the check valve. So that chore is back on the to do list. Now you see why happy hour started early.