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Published: December 23rd 2013
I still can't get used to Christmas lights and no snow.... maybe I never will. But Christmas it is, and the lights are all around on houses and boats. We were invited to view the Christmas Parade of lit up boats at the neighbouring marina. It was a pot luck dinner and seafood boil. We had a great time. There was also a staff Christmas party last night for the bar on our pier and we were invited to that as well. Everyone is so nice here, we have made good friends and we feel very welcomed. Downtown there is a forest of palms with multi-coloured, multi-patterned lights set to music that you can walk through, right on the waterfront. We put up some lights in the cockpit too and they set off a warm relaxing glow so that makes me happy, even if it doesn't really manage to get me into the Christmas spirit. I am not complaining though- Horrible weather seems to be hitting all of North America other than Florida. I am hearing sad stories of power outages, broken trees from too much ice and tons of snow along with ridiculously cold weather for this time of year,
and I am grateful to be where I am right now. I hope everyone north of here will get a break from the nasty weather soon.
We have made more progress since I last wrote. We replaced the fridge compressor and it is working nicely and draws only half the amount of power that the old one did. The wind generator was serviced and found to be in working order. We had to go to Fort Lauderdale for this service, and we had time to have a nice lunch on a pier at the ocean. We bought new blades which are more efficient and more quiet, and as a bonus they happen to be blue to match our canvas. The new alternator is on and is very powerful. The dinghy is painted too. We put the outboard on the dinghy, ran it and were satisfied that it was spitting out water and idling nicely. It had been serviced less than a year ago in St. Mary's, Georgia. And so we loaded up the scraping and cleaning tools, the paint and our lunch and set off for the island. We got out of the marina and suddenly the outboard stopped.
We had gas, so that was not the problem. It looked like it was smoking a little too, so we paddled back to Caribee and hauled the outboard onto the dock. We brought it up to the work pavillion and decided to take it apart and check things out. We replaced the impeller even though it did not look damaged, cleaned everything, greased everything and put it back together with our fingers crossed. This was a good learning experience for us since we have not opened an outboard before. We tested it out and all seems to be good now- I guess the impeller has stiffened up over the summer or something. This took a good part of the day. The next day we set off bright and early to clean up the dinghy bottom and get it painted.
We also set up the new water tank in the front and re-arranged some storage. It looks like with a bit more re-arranging and organizing we will be able to have both back rooms free of storage items... that would be nice! We still have some important things to do before we leave here: replace the cupboards in the bathroom,
install the clutches for the traveler, fix the joker valve on the rear head, install a lock on the companionway, check rigging... a few more things. But some of the things on our list we don't actually have to do before we leave, and the list in general is finally getting smaller. We are feeling a bit more relaxed now that we feel we have made good progress.
This week we will work, and perhaps invite our neighbours from the Yukon over for dinner one evening. Then next week we are on vacation- our friend Mike will be down to visit us over New Years. We are looking forward to next week for sure! Of course we will have to go sailing 😊
We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope all starts well in 2014!
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Francine& Jim McManus
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Congratulations more time you guys!!!
Hi again from a VERY cold Montreal...Well done on the many repairs and replacements you have done to date. As we say "Isn't youth wonderful...too bad it is wasted on the young!!!" You both look terrific in the pix....enjoy and all the best for the New Year and a very Merry Christmas......Safe travels.....Jim & Francine Mc Manus Stay in touch............................................................................................