Back On Line

After no postings here for quite a while, I am back on line with a long list of things to mention here. Have received more than a few emails wondering where I am and what is going on with my life.
First of all, found a nice comment from Cousin Donnie, and appreciate it a lot. Yes, we do stare at the same moon, Donnie - something I already think about often.
Well, where do I start? First of all, I have passed the responsibility of the tax troubles on to my brother. Have spent now almost $4000 on the trouble and have advanced things very little. Terribly un-reliable, but costly internet, AND rented cell phone (with what I have spent renting, I could have bought almost 10 new phones), where calls drop for no reason, and service to US is $$/minute, have frustrated and depressed me, and I finally have just told him he has to do it.

What else? Typing now on brand new HP laptop, after rain snuck down a line one night, passed through the keyboard, into the hard drive, but evidence dried up before I saw it the next day. Hard drive started to make a funny noise and fried. Found a small puddle UNDER the laptop on the desktop when I looked. Lost a lot of stuff, even though I had bought an external drive before departing, but have not updated for a long time. So, here is new laptop today. Going to spend a little money to have an expert see if he can extract any of the lost files from the old one. And going to spend some money with a fellow here on his own version of a navigation software, including complete charts of the world, for $100.

One Friday, without the aid of any alcohol consumption, I broke a toe getting into the dink, lost my wallet, and acquired a food poisoning. Seems that when the fish or shrimps or mussels are getting a bit old, in French restaurants, they serve "Fruits de la Mer" - Fruits of the sea over pasta. Tasted great, the first time, but coming back up at 3am, it was not so pleasant and even tore my throat a bit. The trouble lasted for 2 days from both ends, of course. The broken toe is still a pain, but I have not limped for several weeks, much, although the other day, again in the dink, I bent it about 90 degrees and the swelling returned. Time will heal it.

Last week, after using a horrible Skype connection, with 4 dropped calls to a bank in the US, I finally learned that "the police" had called them to say they had my wallet. Which police? There are 2 countries here, and about 5 police agencies. I have been to 3 of them so far, and none has my wallet. When departing the Dutch police, a really big rain storm started, with rain falling hard. It looked like it would last a while, and I wanted to visit the Gendarmerie on the French side, who close for 3 hours everyday at lunchtime, but would have been open then. So, I took off in the rain in the dink, about half speed, as the rain was falling so hard, that it hurt my eyes, so I either squinted or turned my head to the side. Big Mistake! Something - a wave or wake - hit me and bounced me right out of the dink, into the water. (I had been worried for over a week about diving here in the Lagoon, to clean the bottom of AF. There is a lot of - well, everyone's toilets empty into the water, ya know? Didn't cross my mind at the time. Oh, yeah. And I saw a small shark the other day passing me, as I entered the dink. Didn't think about him either when I hit the water.) I was holding the painter, and took it with me, as well as twisting the outboard's throttle to full power. Well, if you know anything about outboards, they have a wrist strap kill switch, but NOBODY - almost no one, uses it. The other thing to know is that as you fall, the engine seems to always turn, so the dink circles back at you, to chop you up or kill you with the prop. (After this ordeal, I heard 4 stories in one hour of chopped up folks, and of a Mexican teen whose throat was cut and was killed instantly.) I ducked it once, or twice, and then as it came at me again, I grabbed the painter at the bow and held on, for what seems like about 15 minutes, with the dink dragging me around in circles. I was able to get a hand on the fuel tank vent, and close it, but the engine could still have run for an hour, I think. I should have just ripped off the fuel line, but it didn't occur to me at that moment of panic.
Because of the heavy rain, there were no other boats about, but finally a water taxi came by. Over my shoulder, as I was going in circles, I asked the captain what he wanted to try, and as he manuevered close, his mate did a perfect James Bond jump into the dink as it came by. It was perfect, except for one thing. He missed! So now, there are 2 of us in the water to get chopped up. He bounced the dink hard enough though, to straighten the motor out, and I let go and it took off across the Lagoon at full speed. He recovered the mate, threw me a lifering, and took off for it, as I noticed about 5 others on dinks coming to my aid. Eventually, he put his boat in the path of the dink, and when it struck, it hit so hard that the outboard flew off, into about 15 ft of water. Glub, glub, glub.
To make this long story shorter, I was able to recover the motor, with the help of an Aussie on catamaran, who devoted about 2 hours to help me. Washed the motor with fresh water, opened the spark plug holes and doused it with a lot of diesel fuel, pulling the starter rope to pump out any water and get it all coated with fuel, and sprayed about 2 cans of WD-40 on the electrics and everything else. Friend Gary came over and took it completely apart, cleaning everything and spraying in 2 cycle oil on the bearings, etc, and it started on the 3rd pull. He has my 4hp spare motor now, as having sat on the stern for 5 months, it seems gummed up and has no power.

I guess the biggest news is that I steer. It took a long, long time, to get the lines in, the design figured out, a new auto pilot hydraulic pump, and the air bled, but the boat is actually steering better than it did when I bought her. The new helm pump is now less than 5 turns from hard over to hard over, and had been 6 and a half with the old helm pump that started leaking just after I departed Bermuda. I had to remove each component, and one by one, took them to the technician where he tested each on his bench, finally putting them all to gether as an assembled system, and everything tested perfectly, even when we strapped the hydraulic ram down so it had resistance. Never have figured out what was wrong, although there was a loose pipe fitting on the bottom of the reservoir that could have been sucking air in when I turned the wheel.

I slept last night for the first time in about 7 months, in my own bed in the stern compartment. No sheets on the mattress and I had to hug 3 watermaker membranes lieing next to me, but I slept in my bed. (The reason is that I had departed for dinner with a hatch cracked in the salon, and the rain blew in, soaking my sofa cushions, and it was just too wet to sleep on.) Had everything closed last night, so the boat was HOT and I soaked my pillow through, again, with perspiration. But felt good when I awoke in a strange bed! The dink ordeal has had a late affect on me, making me hungry and fatigued.

We are now having a big storm system pass, with frequent hard rains, and yesterday had sustained winds for about 5 minutes or so, of 30 knots. I watched 3 boats drag anchor and heard 2 others talking on the radio later, but my Rocna held well. This morning is overcast, humid, and we have had one shower so far. Has been good weather for ducks, for the last 3 days. ( I saw a duck on the water the other day, but have no idea what kind.)

So, wrapping things up to depart finally, and, God willing, will sail directly to Livingston, Guatemala - about a 12-15 day sail, from here. Friend Paul advises a quick stop close by before Guatemala, to fuel up, water up, and top off propane tanks, so might do that. Have a lot of little things to do first, and then shopping for sailing provisions - eggs, fruits, cans of Bush vegetarian beans, Cup o' soup's, bottled water, beer, rum, gin, and - well, you get the idea.

So, for now, this posting will have to do. I am sure that I have left out a lot of small stuff, but this is a catch-up of the basics for now. Life is good.