Radar and Autopilot Fixed

Yesterday Carlos sent me a message informing me that the problem with the autopilot was that water had invaded the control unit at the binnacle.  He attached to the message three photographs of the board showing the salt water damage.

This morning two men showed up at the boat as promised and they brought with them the autopilot black box and controller.  We connected it up and it came up fine.  It was getting heading data from the flux gate compass, knew the angle of the rudder, and moved the rudder when we took it of standby, put it on auto, and told it to alter course 10 degrees.  It was a static test and stand-alone because the autopilot was not connected to the rest of the system via Seatalk, but it left me confident that the autopilot had been repaired OK.

The younger man went up and started working at the radome while the other one worked at the C120 display and they ran some tests.  At the end they declared that the radome would have to be removed and taken to their shop (which I expected) and so would the C120 (which I had not expected).  While they worked to get the radome down I dismounted the C120.  Before they left they asked that I visit their premises at 5 PM.

I was there at 5 PM and ushered into their workshop where I was delighted to see the C120 displaying the sweeps of the radar unit.  My understanding (through the language barrier) is that water had somehow crept up the cable and gotten into the radome and taken out the interface of the transmit and receive wires.  I asked him if a board had been swapped out and he told me that only a chip had been replaced, if I understood correctly.  It doesn't surprise me that water managed to creep up the radar cable given the heavy rolling of the boat, strong winds, and heavy spray and rain flying all over the place during the passage from La Paz.

Carlos the manager was busy in the office and they asked me to wait 30 minutes until 6 PM to see him.  I expected it to be a session of receiving the account and making my payment.  Carlos speaks reasonable English and I hoped to learn more about the damage.  However at 6 PM Carlos was still busy and I was told to go back to the boat and they would visit the boat tomorrow, presumably to reinstall the radome.

All going well I hope to have the autopilot and radar unit off the disabled list tomorrow and back to full sea duties.

I logged in this evening for the first time today to find a message from Pato giving his quotation for the new headsail.  I accepted his quote and will work with him regarding the transfer of funds.  I won't publish the price until I've cleared it with him.

Yesterday John, skipper of the French boat, was interviewed by 2 radio stations and one TV station regarding his treatment regarding his visit to the Malvinas.  The few locals that I know are all embarrassed by the whole incident.

I saw Carlos the marina manager today and he told me that they cannot accommodate Pachuca over the winter.  I then visited Club Argentino today for their answer and was asked to return manana.  If I cannot get accommodation for Pachuca at the Club Argentino for the entire winter I'll settle for the two months that they offered to cover Brenda's visit. 

Today we lost all electricity on the jetty.  I visited Martha and asked her if she remembered that last week I reported that most of the electricity on the jetty was out of action but that we were connected to the outlets at the end that were still working.  She remembered.  Nothing had been done and now I was reporting that all of the electricity was down.  She suggested that I plug into another post, which is what I had done last week.  I told her "Martha, ALL of the electricity is down.  The French don't have power, Alfredo doesn't have power, I don't have power."  She got onto the phone right away.  Forgive my grumpiness, but I'm annoyed that my warning was ignored and only when there was a crisis a week later was action taken.