V D 2013

It's Valentines Day here in New Plymouth Green Turtle Cay.

Time to don my traditional Valentines Day garb. A tradition started 26 years ago...

We spent the morning recuperating from a visit last evening to Miss Emily's Blue Bee bar, home of the Goombay Smash. Shared a few with new boat neighbors Bill & Linda from Annapolis. They were delish! (The drinks)

Chris made Blueberry Pecan Whole Wheat pancakes for breakfast. They were delish!

Sorry, no pix, too busy eating them up.

Later in the afternoon, we dinghied into town and walked around a bit, good exercise. We stopped at the Sundowner to watch the sunset and have a Kalik, the local Bahamian beer. They were delish.

 
Time for dinner at The Crazy Love Cafe...

Lobster & Shrimp Pasta, fried Grouper; delish. And a cocktail with dinner, another Bahamian specialty...

Fire In De Hole Erotic Rum!!! Guess what...............Delish!

Shared a table with Dave, Cathy & Gary from Baltimore; more cruisers. Having a great time in New Plymouth!

Happy Valentines Day!!

The Fix Is In!

We really rely on our dinghy. So getting the engine fixed was very important. We couldn't even raise the recommended outboard repair shop on the radio on Monday morning. We're getting a bit desperate.
Chris insists we try one guy we know is available. I think being readily available is a bad sign. Plus he has no parts inventory and I just do not have any confidence in this guy.
But Chris likes him, thinks he's handsome and charming. So what the heck, lets him give it a try. It's only money, right?

Here he is at work on the dinghy engine on the back deck of S/V Freedom

Here we can see him hard at work on the engine. We can also see why Chris was so enamored with him. Smart, funny, charming and damn good looking, eh?

AND, miracle of miracles, he fixed the dinghy engine!! It runs great! What a guy! Chris is sooo smart.

Maybe he can fix the Honda generator too!

Reality: I posted my problem to a few online forums. Got some good tips to check for fuel line leaks and that the float was level. I pulled the carb and noticed some wetness on the fuel lines. So there was some leaking at the fuel line connections. Pulled out some better hose clamps from my hose clamp inventory (plastic shoe box full of hose clamps) and changed the clamps. The float was sitting just a bit off level so I finessed it into a level position. Cleaned the needle valve again and blew compressed air through the needle seat.
The engine runs very good...for now. The long term prognosis is TBD.

Thankfully were we are, we do have open wifi we can use. It's very sporadic but like most things aboard, we make it work.

Threes

Chris says problems always come in threes. I hope so. Our third problem was easy to fix, the power plug for my laptop went bad. I have spare 12 volt plugs, so that was a quick fix. Problems one & two may be a bit more tricky. The Honda generator quit putting out A/C the day before we left Florida. I decided we can make do without it and maybe find a fix while in the Bahamas. Not great, but manageable. Problem two popped up yesterday. The outboard for our dinghy stalls after a minute of run time. Fouled plugs. I'm concerned about finding parts here. We NEED the dinghy so it has to get fixed. This might get tricky. There are outboard mechanics around here, but they don't specialize in Tohatsu. If they don't have parts for our motor, it could take a week or more to get them in. We think we'll leave Green Turtle and go to the larger town of Marsh Harbor where a bigger supply of parts should be available. I may also take a stab at fixing it myself. I'm soliciting some help on an outboard motor forum to see if I can garner any solid do-it-yourself tips. Internet access is intermittent which compounds the task of digging up information.
One thing we do know...rowing sucks!