Today was a maintenance day. Looking around the cabin, I see lots of smaller things that I should take care of in preparation for sailing away. And the VW engine is “hunting” RPMs at everything above idle. The fuel filters are good, there’s not vacuum back-pressure on feed side and the water cooling is functioning like a charm. I’m going to let the engine cool a bit and then access the ECU unit to hook it up to my notebook and see if the computer shows any system errors.
Breakfast
Breakfast consisted of coffee and a boiled egg. And probably some more coffee later on. While the engine is cooling, I think I’ll put up two solar panels on the dodger. The old Velcro has delaminated on the panels, so I will have to clean off the old glue residue and add some new Velcro before attaching them. At present the winds are light, so putting them up won’t be a problem.
I am still updating my countries visited page and finished adding the GPS markers to the BVI Page yesterday and this morning. Now all I need to do is add some text and at least that page will no longer be a work-in-progress.
Morning
I’ve been using a stovetop razor scraper and acetone to remove adhesive residue from the panels, with mixed results. The old glue has partially hardened, making it easy to scrape away. But those sections where the glue is still sticky are a problem to remove. Scraping just moves the glue around and acetone only dissolves a bit of glue at a time. I’m now paying the price for not having done this sooner.
Noon
Naturally the winds picked up as I was installing the 2 panels on the dodger. I managed to keep them from being blown overboard as I attached them with the fresh Velcro. The electrical connections are a bit corroded but still functional, and both are now producing power.
Afternoon
I went ashore to get some bread, butter, milk and Heineken and was flagged down at the marina entrance by the crew of Games Maker 2, who had participated in the ARC. While the spot they were in was only about 2 yards from their boat, it would have been a walk of close to an hour to get there on foot. We chatted and decided to meet at Jambe de Bois later.
I only purchased the Heineken and some bread at the grocery store but did remember happy hour at Jambe de Bois. It was a great Sunday afternoon and I’m now back on board Zanshin and wondering what to do with the rest of the evening.
Evening
I returned to Zanshin and cleaned up some of the mess from the solar panel refurbishment process while listening to music on the stereo. The blaring loudspeakers had fired up ashore and my stereo didn’t stand a chance against them. I realized it would be another loud evening in the anchorage but hoped that they would finish at 01:AM instead of at 04:00AM. Despite earplugs and closed hatches, I didn’t get to sleep until around midnight.