Morning
Today is Monday and is going to be a home office and maintenance workday. There’s still no wind so it will be nice and toasty aboard.
Mike had tested the Starlink RV the day before and repackaged it in preparation for shipping. I decided to use FedEx for shipping it here, even though they were charging close to US$500. The other shipment methods, including Tropical Shipping, Four-Star Cargo, DHL and UPS were all somewhat less expensive, but not by much.
I spent 2 hours trying to get this shipment done with FedEx, all to no avail. After laboriously entering all of the relevant information I finally got to the last page to effect payment. The software would not allow me to use a non-us billing address. And neither the chat-bot nor the automated support system would let me speak with a human! I needed a FedEx account number to do that. So, I created one, using the German address. But the U.S. system wouldn’t accept that, and the German system said I had to ask the USA. I gave up, if FedEx didn’t want to talk to mere potential customers, then I wouldn’t want to talk to them. Once my shares in FedEx crawl back to break-even I’ll divest myself of those, too. I don’t want to own stock in a company that I don’t believe in, or like.
DHL was more complicated to enter all the information and the UX had some glitches that forced me to re-enter information several times. But, when I finally reached the payments page, I could select a different country than the shipping origin. I paid, received the confirmation data and hopefully my new StarLinkRV is underway to St. Lucia as I write this.
As I’d warmed up my credit card already, I zipped ashore and got a new 24V quiet-flush motor from the chandlery and returned aboard. I still need to do a bit of office work before taking a lunch break and installing the new pump.
Lunch
One thing I’ve seen on YouTube are “unboxing” videos and have always thought that this, along with a video of paint drying in slow-motion, is a useless waste of bandwidth. I was tempted to film this, but I’d rather just get it installed and working…
The first part of the installation is finished with the new wiring done (crimped on with waterproof crimps & shrink fitted). I’m taking a break now from the heat of the aft bathroom and while my computer program at work is running.
I’ve attached everything but the 3 big mounting bolts. The bowl has been filled, and flushed, multiple times. Not a leak to be seen!
Paying it forward
A catamaran had anchored next to me earlier, with a U.S. flag and flying the Q-Flag (quarantine). I went topsides to cool down and noticed that the catamaran was now several boat lengths downwind of me. Since I knew I wasn’t drifting upwind, it was more likely that he was drifting downwind, despite the very light winds. The catamaran was in danger of hitting other boats in the anchorage, so I got in my dinghy and enlisted Robert from the catamaran Party of Five to assist in re-anchoring the drifting vessel. Robert’s willingness was aided by the fact that he was directly downwind of the moving vessel.
Afternoon
There’s a serious speaker system set up ashore. Despite my stereo blaring away with golden oldies, I can still hear the music from the distant beach! I wonder what it’ll be like tonight. My Grateful Dead live performances on the stereo have no chance against that loud bass beat from ashore. The day is slowly drawing to a close, and the toilet is still not leaking.
Evening
Even amongst daily beautiful sunsets, today’s sunset and subsequent dusk was particularly spectacular. I reheated some of the chorizo from last night and couldn’t decide whether to read up on deck or watch a movie.