Woe Is Us - or "How to Learn Patience in the Caribbean"

Well, I suppose you are all waiting anxiously to learn about our first sailing adventure. Well, unfortunately, so are we. As we said in the last blog (I think), we were all prepared to leave bright and early on Monday for the open seas. The instructor, Brian, came over and we went over the boat to check things.

I had better back up a bit to set the stage. When we took the boat off the hard, we told you that it hadn't started immediately due to loose connections. While bringing it over, we also noticed that it had been running very rough. Our less than diligent boat manager (the same one whose work, or non-work, resulted in the forestay being unfinished) said he would arrange for someone to come over on Friday and do a complete tuneup.

Well, Friday afternoon a "stereotypical" islander rambled in and spent some time tinkering and left saying he would be back to check later. Which never came. Our boat manager also did not show up that day (for the second time that week). I actually should call him our ex-boat manager because when I finally got Clive (our original agent and now friend) to track him down and I got a face-to-face, I "told him his services were no longer required".

Anyway,back to the tale.

Both Sunday and Monday mornings we ran the engine up and it started but was not performing properly and the last thing we needed was for it to quit while we were leaving the marina, which, if we were aimed at another boat at that time, could have ended up VERY expensive. So when Brian got here we (including Cheryl) got into the wonders of diesel motors - most specifically the fuel system. The former owner had left all of the original books on the motor but what he had not left were the changes/upgrades/modifications that had been done. We now have them documented

I must say the although we were very disappointed not being able to go sailng, the experience certainly fulfilled one of the reasons we decided to get an instructor. WE LEARNED!!!

By days end, the boat seemed to be running stronger and we thought/hoped that once we put her under load, the remainder of the problem would be solved.

Of course, to learn patience really well, you have to have your patience tested really severely so come Tuesday.......but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Also part of Monday's drama was the realization, after a closer inspection of our outboard motor, that it would probably be wiser to replace it than let my unmechanical hands at it. At one time it had apparently been dropped overboard and although dried and set up and re-used, it turned out to be much the worse for wear (and only 8 hp) so through the kind auspices of our friend Clive, the possible purchase of a 15 hp nearly new motor was set up. The only difficulty, which really wasn't given the other circumstances, was that the owner, who is in Germany, had to ok the deal. So the state of things Monday evening was that first thing Tuesday we would confirm the purchase of the motor, check out of the marina, stop for fuel and then.....altogether now - GO SAILING!!!

Tuesday morning - got the motor, did a bit of work to clean water out of the fuel line, took it for a drive, checked out of the marina, Brian got his stuff aboard and........the diesel ran worse than ever, to the point of unusability. The good part - we were able to spend some valuable classroom (on the boat) time learning from someone who has captained a gambling boat, tall ships and various and sundry other vessels and done many of the same things that we intend to do. One other good thing (or so I keep telling myself) is we learned some patience. God's time, not ours. Brian actually remarked on how well we were handling it all. So - progress.

Wednesday intentions - the diesel mechanic may be here early on but whether or not he is, we are going to learn how to use our spinnaker with the spinnaker pole, we are going to reinforce the mast so that we can safely use the staysail without the genoa and if all is right with the world, by the afternoon we will be SAILING.