This Side ... That Side

While I've been busy visiting, carousing and generally enjoying family and the holiday season on this side of world (and incidentally freezing my butt off), my captain has been working hard on Nine of Cups and sweating bullets in Africa. Seems hardly fair! I spent a weekend visiting cousins and aging aunties. Here's an excerpt from one of David's emails to give you an idea of the type of weekend he's just experienced ...

“I had a trying day. Nothing seemed to go as planned. The flowcoat fumes were quite annoying with everything open, but then the clouds rolled in and it started raining, so I had to close the hatches and all the starboard ports, making the fumes quite strong. It should have kicked and cured in a few hours, but as of this morning, it is still tacky and stinky. I had written on the can how many drops of MEKP to add to a tablespoon of flowcoat, but either this flowcoat takes a different amount or what I had written was wrong. (He learned later it was 10 drops, not 3-4!).  I'm hoping I can put another coat over it and get it all to kick - if not, I will have to remove the whole mess with a scraper and acetone and start over. I'll do some research, then try a small patch and see. Meanwhile, I closed the doors to the aft cabin, put a couple fans on in there, and planned on sleeping on the settee. I thought with the headache I was getting from the fumes, I'd quit a little early before the Tradewinds Restaurant closed and have dinner out. I brought my shower bag and the computer, so I could send some pix to Gentry, and headed over in the rain. I forgot that Tradewinds closes early on Sunday. I also forgot to download the pix from the stick in the camera. I didn't feel like going over to the other yacht club, so I just showered (hardly necessary with the downpour) and went back to Cups.

When I got back, I thought that a nice cottage pie would be just the thing to cheer me up. I had some fresh mince (hamburger), which I browned with onions, boiled some potatoes, and opened a can of corn. Then I realized that Worcestershire sauce was still on the shopping list. I must say, cottage pie made with barbeque sauce just isn't the same.

What else? Oh yeah … I filled the water tank yesterday, then noticed the bilge pump was continually cycling on and off. This went on for a good half hour or so, until I finally decided it was more than what I could blame on the tank overflow. I shut it off for the day and will investigate later. Last night the wind began increasing and when I got up to check on things, I noticed the wind gen was not putting out any amps. It was spinning nicely – just no output. So I shut it down and I will need to investigate this as well.

But today is sunny and nice, and surely will be a better day.”

I think I'll call him Saint David for awhile.