2 out of 3

10 August 2012

I had a pleasant day pottering around the marina while enjoying the perfect weather.

A few days ago I downloaded the latest version of MarinePlotter, v1.0.20.0, and today spent some time investigating the software and making some recommendations.  (I hope that David doesn't think that I'm a picky grouch.)

I had noticed plastic drums at the entrances to every jetty obviously for the purpose of flushing outboard motors in fresh water.  Today I took Ricardo's advice and flushed out the Mercury 3.3 HP outboard.  I got the outboard off the boat, carried it to the entrance, filled up the drum with water, clamped on the outboard, then went through the starting sequence. 

The outboard motor started with the first pull even though it had not been used since Isla Bella.  While giving it a good flush I thought back to that amazing time with Ricardo where he gave me a step by step demonstration of how to take the motor apart, with a running commentary on every aspect of the care and maintenance of the motors.  I saw the difficulty that he had removing badly galled bolts and how he coated every bolt that he removed with grease before putting them back in.  I figure that if I had let the motor go until Cape Town it would have been a write off due to rust and galling.  I feel very fortunate about that experience. 

I then connected the hose and filled up the water tank.  It is amazing how much fresh water I am using.  While doing that I ran the engine to charge up the batteries.

My electrical work of a few days earlier had been only a partial success.  The electrical plug that I had set up was working fine and I was taking power from the wall plugs.  The thermostat that I had reinstalled in the refrigerator was working well and the beer was  being kept at a miraculously cold temperature just a hair below freezing.  But unfortunately the inverter, though it was getting enough voltage to avoid an error alarm, was not getting quite enough to actually generate a charging current for the batteries.  This was a disappointment because it meant that I would have to run the engine every day for an hour while I was in the marina.  … But as Meatloaf sang, Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.

I plan to take the bus to Angra tomorrow to get some cash from the ATM, have a look around, and maybe purchase Brazilian plugs for my computer power packs.