January 1 - 9, 2005 - Sick Days On the first day of 2005, we really tried to do nothing. Well, almost nothing since I remembered that the tape needed to be removed from the fly bridge combing. I removed it, and then noticed there was a lot of residue left. So, I wiped it down with mineral spirits which cleaned everything up nicely. That was about the extent of activity for the day. On the 2nd, we woke up feeling pretty good. Our chest colds had loosened up, and Mike wanted to do some work on the boat. Trying to ensure that we would continue feeling better, I persuaded Mike to hold off for a day before we returned to working on the boat. Instead I wrote the logs for December. Then we answered some emails and we reviewed the latest release of the vessel management software that we use, Vessel 4 from Portage Bay Marine. In the afternoon, for the first time in almost two weeks, we sat outside for a little while. Between rain, holidays, and being sick, we just never went outside. There were lots of people out on the beach, as well as on boats. There were more people than I ever remember seeing. Of course, by evening, we were both feeling bad again, as our chests tightened up. The 3rd was no picnic. We woke up feeling worse, so we definitely made sure to spend an easy quiet day. The 4th was another quiet day, though I think my cough may be getting better. After breakfast, we went into town. We needed to get more cough syrup. We stopped by the marina office to say welcome back to XJ, and as it turns out good bye to Rasheda. Then we headed to the Internet cafe to upload December's logs. Finally it was on to the pharmacy. Since the Robotussin did not help much, we decided to try something else, finally settling on Vics. We returned to the boat, took some cough medicine, and I have to say, I noticed an improvement. We spent the rest of the day lounging and playing on the computer. The 5th was galley disaster day. We were both still sick, so we didn't do anything. However, in the afternoon, I baked bread and made fudge, or at least I tried to. If only it had happened that way! The bread mixed OK, and rose beautifully. The fudge cooked well, but then it refused to set up! We started the generator and I put the bread in the oven. Unfortunately, it was to close to the upper heating element and started burning. I pulled it out, lowered the rack and put it back in. It was mostly edible for dinner, but not worth keeping after that. As I was cleaning up from the fudge, I put the fudge pan in the dishwasher, and discovered that the latch holder broke! All in all, it was a crappy day! On the 6th, we went in search of a new latch for the dishwasher. So, we hopped a bus down to Dakota and walked back to Oranjestad, stopping at every appliance store and repair shop along the way. There are about 10 of them. Unfortunately, none of them could help us! So before returning to the boat, we called Harrison Appliance, who has serviced the dishwasher before, to order the latch from them. They referred us to another company called Tribble. I called Tribble, placed my order, and then we returned to the boat and collapsed for the rest of the day. The 7th was grocery day. So, in the morning, we updated inventory and then printed out our shopping list and then headed to the grocery store. It was a pretty good trip, we were able to get most of the stuff on our list. We returned to the boat, stowed everything and then updated the inventory. Beyond that, it was a quiet day. The 8th and 9th were major do nothing days. The chest colds are lingering on, and taking their toll. So, we decided to relax for the day (which stretched in to 2 days), and hopefully we will feel better soon!

We started out January 10 with all kinds of good intentions. So, we headed in to town to look for a few things we needed to work on the boat. Almost as soon as we got in, it started raining! So, we decided to go into the Internet cafe to do some research. The rain finally let up, and then tapered off, temporarily. We decided, instead of walking through town, we would get our oil and head back to the boat, and see if things cleared up later. At 1:15 PM, we left the boat to go up to Palm Beach, The area up there is pretty attractive, and they certainly have a lot of touristy stuff (of course, it would be the "high rise" hotel area up there!). We hopped off the bus when we thought we heard the bus driver announce Palm Beach. But no, I think he was announcing something about de Palm tours. So, we started walking. At the next set of tourist shops, we asked for directions. We set off for the shop we were looking for, but not before making a quick pit stop at McDonalds for french fries. We found the shop we were looking for, but they did not have the part we needed. However, they told us a shop downtown should have it, so we wound up going back, before coming back up again so we could complete our business with this shop. Once we had completed everything, we went to Tomato Charlie's for an early dinner. We had heard good things about this restaurant, but the pizza was nothing to write home about. I think we did more walking today than we have in a long time! On January 11, we had no ambition, so we had a lazy morning. After lunch, we headed in to town to visit the auto parts store we had seen. The place is supposed to be closed from 12 to 2, but at 2:30, the store was still closed! So, we crossed the street to check out a toy store, and to give the shop a chance to open back up. We spent almost 20 minutes in the toy store, and when we went back to the auto parts store, they were still closed! Giving up, we went back to the boat and spent a quiet evening. On January 12, we woke up with all kinds of ambition! We taped the fly bridge combing and the port toe rail. Mike put in a load of laundry. We were just finishing sanding when it started to rain, and proceeded to rain for several hours! Finally around 1:30 PM, it cleared up enough to get a coat on the fly bridge combing. That evening we went out to dinner with Kat and Marcy. We started at a Jamaican place for a drink and then went to Nos Canucu for dinner. On Wednesdays they do a buffet with traditional Arubian foods. It was pretty good, though a little salty. They also had a traditional dancing demonstration. It was a fun evening! On January 13, we finished taping and sanding the port toe rail. After that, we went into the Internet cafe to download updated drivers for our printer, and a few other things before returning to the boat to spend a quiet rest of the day and evening. On January 14, it actually didn't rain! We were able to get a coat of varnish on the port rail as well as on the fly bridge combing! Unfortunately, in the middle of varnishing, a strong gust of wind knocked over my varnish cup. So we had to stop, clean up and then continue. After we finished with that, we headed to the grocery store. That evening, we had a fun evening out at Jimmy's Place. On January 15, we didn't do anything. We spent a quiet day relaxing, and watching the rain. January 16 was a work day. After breakfast, we sanded the port rail and did two loads of laundry. Then we went to fix Tink's water pump. Unfortunately, the screw that needs to come out is stripping, and we can't get it loose! So, we wound up removing the water pump completely so we could take it in to a machine shop. In the afternoon, we were able to put a coat of varnish on the port rail. After that, we spent a quiet rest of the day. January 17 was run around town day. Our first stop was to the pharmacy for some stuff before stopping at Telestar to check on our chargers. The guy at Telestar asked us to call back after 1:30 PM, so we headed to Kooltemps machine shop to get the screw out of the pump. The woman behind the counter took the pump back to the workshop immediately and asked us to wait. About 10 minutes later, she came back with the machinist and our pump. Everything was done - No Charge. We spent a few minutes talking about the boat, and traveling before heading on to our next stop. We walked back to the main road in Dakota and waited for a bus to continue down to Blue Water Boat and Tackle in Balashi. We needed blue tape, varnish and now, a screw for Tink's raw water pump. Unfortunately, they didn't have the type of varnish we wanted, so we got option two. They also didn't have a screw for Tink. On the flip side, they had a few things at a reasonable price that we did need, so we got them. After we spent way to much money, we walked back to the bus stop and caught a bus back to Oranjestad. We were finally able to check out the auto parts store. It is an old fashioned one. From there, we stopped by a hardware store, and then had lunch at Burger King. After that, we returned to the boat and spent a quiet afternoon

On January 18, we decided to go to Curacao. The wind is light, and the seas are down, so this looks like a good time to do it. We considered leaving tomorrow. We headed in to town. We checked weather and it looked good to go. So, we went to DINA (Immigration). The place was packed and they weren't giving out numbers. We asked the woman at reception to check on our application for extension. She went in to the offices, and came back several minutes later. She called the security guard in to her area and had a discussion with him. The next thing we know, we have a number and are being instructed to go to the waiting room, and wait. We finally spoke with Jean Jendar, who went in search of our paperwork. Unfortunately it hasn't shown up yet! So we asked him what to do if we wanted to leave. He said to give him a call and he would clear the way for us. So, knowing we could check out, we headed out to do the rest of our shore side chores. At Telestar, only one charger had been fixed. The other wouldn't be ready until after 3:00. We returned to the boat to check the repaired charger. We wired it up and started the generator. It worked until the repaired part burned up! It wasn't strong enough. I called Telestar and had them not do anything to the other charger. We went back in, checked the weather, picked up the charger, dropped off 2 fedex envelopes and address labels off to XJ, and returned to the boat. Next we started getting things ready to move. We gave up on the notion of leaving tomorrow, so after we had the inside basically ready, we stopped for the day. At 5:40 PM, we headed to the Paddock to meet Johan and Aswin for drinks, followed by dinner at the Taj-Mahal restaurant. We ran into Remy, who we have not seen in several months. We spent some time catching up with him. At 6:25, I found a phone, and called Johan and Aswin. We got our wires crossed! They were waiting for us at Taj Mahal. We headed over there, and had a fun evening with them

The morning went extremely well. We burned through all of the stuff we needed to do to get the boat ready to travel. Of course, it also helped that we worked yesterday as well! We settled back to relax about 11:00 or so. We were still hoping to get the remaining two pieces of mail before we needed to put the tender on deck. At 1:00, the mail still had not arrived, so we put the tender on deck, and made our final preparations. Before raising anchor, we called DINA to let Jeandar know that we were heading to check out so he could notify Immigration of our situation. We raised anchor and headed to the customs dock. We tied up and I headed to the Customs office. I was almost done there when the Immigration guy came to our boat. He and Mike talked until I got back. He cleared us out and we chatted for a little while longer before he left. We, in turn, left the dock and returned to the anchorage. We spent a quiet evening and went to bed early since we were getting up at "O'dark thirty" in the morning. On January 20, we left for Curacao. Why is it that in two trips from Aruba to Curacao, we have lost an engine each time? We woke up at 0800 GMT (0400 local time) so that we could have breakfast, raise anchor, and head for Curacao. When we left, it was really dark, so Mike asked me to spot light the buoy. This buoy is normally lit, but really, it must have stopped working sometime over night! We cleared the channel, and I went back to work securing the anchors and fore deck. As we were getting near the tip of Aruba, I noticed that the transmission pressure on our port engine was low. I went to the engine room and saw that we had blown a transmission oil cooler hose. We stopped the engine and discussed our options. Ultimately we decided to continue on. Mike continued on watch while I went to the engine room to try to patch the hose. Unfortunately the patch did not hold, so we were making the trip on one engine. Surprisingly it was an enjoyable trip. We had no wind, so we had no waves to deal with, just a huge swell coming from the north, right on the beam. This made for a gentle up and down motion on the boat, most of the time. About 10 miles from Curacao, we heard a noise that we thought must have been a helicopter. It turned out to be our starboard engine running dry exhaust. Something had stopped the water flow! We stopped the engine and I headed into the engine room to close the seacock so we could check the strainer. As soon as I got in, I saw that the water pump belt had come off and the other belt was to loose to turn the water pump. I grabbed the belt and came out of the engine room. First we tried to pop it back on; however, it was to loose to turn the water pump sufficiently. Fortunately, this is a link style belt whose length can be adjusted at will. I went back in the engine room and pulled the belt off. We removed a link from the belt, put it back on. We had good water flow, and were off again! When we got close, we heard Topaz on the radio, so we called Krina and Lutz to say hi. They asked if we would be in for happy hour, which we declined, we were still almost an hour out. When we arrived in the anchorage, we saw quite a few boats that we knew. After anchoring, we sat outside while the boat started cooling. On the way back from happy hour, Krina and Lutz stopped by to say hi. Later, Villam and Nanda stopped by. We caught up on the happenings of the island and everything that had happened while we were gone. After they left, we had dinner and relaxed for the evening. We were here, and made a good passage. In hindsight, though, we were stupid. We shouldn't have left. If we couldn't have gotten the starboard engine working again, we would have had a major problem. We both agreed not to ever do that again. However, that being said, we could not have asked for a better passage

The 21st was a nice easy day. We woke up, had breakfast and then put the dingy over the side of the boat before showering. Then I called Slow Poke on the radio. They are the same Slow Poke that we met after we first started cruising and from when I was running the Cruisheimers net on Wednesdays. I went in to Sari Fundy's to catch the supermarket shuttle, where I ran in to Terry from Slow Poke. We talked about where we have been, and about people we know. It was an interesting chat. Astonishingly, the grocery store had fresh milk. It looks like their shipments have slid slightly. So, instead of doing a small shopping, I did my regular weekly shopping. Then I returned home, put away the groceries and did nothing else the rest of the day, except close and open hatches due to rain. The 22nd was both a good day and a bad day. After breakfast, we headed into town to clear in. We figured we would be smart this time, and go to immigration first. It was relatively cool so we wanted to take advantage of that. We noticed some differences in Williamsted. The walking bridge to Otra Banda has gates on it now. I also think that there is a guard stationed on the bridge now. We also had to walk to the main gate of the cruise ship terminal and show ID to the gate guards to gain access to the Immigration office. Then, the gate guard provided us with an authorization slip that had to be signed by Immigration and returned to them when we leave! When we got to the immigration office, the door was open, even though Immigration wasn't supposed to open for another hour! We didn't realize this until we got there though. Fortunately, there was an immigration officer there who was happy to check us in, thankfully. We did apologize for coming to early though. Next we headed back to customs to clear there. As usual that was an easy task and the customs official was friendly and efficient. Having finished our check in process, we went in search of an Internet cafe to check email and do a few other things before heading for the traditional stop at Baskin Robins and McDonalds. At the Baskin Robins, the same woman served us ice cream that has served us ice cream every time we have been in Curacao. It turns out that she has been working there for the past 14 years. We remembered that there was a hardware store downtown, so we paid a visit there as well. In order to catch the bus back to Caracasbai, we split up at that point. I went to the pharmacy and then to the fabric store where I met up with Mike who had been at the hardware store. We checked the selection of Sunbrella they have (they have burgundy!) And then went to the bus stop to wait for the bus. After we got back to the boat, we called Topaz and Slow Poke and invited them over for drinks. We had a great time catching up on almost 5 years of history with Slow Poke, and almost a year with Topaz! On January 23, we didn't do much. After breakfast, we sat down and answered email. We spent the rest of the day lounging, watching TV and napping. At 5:00 we went over to Slow Poke for cocktails and had another great evening with them

January 24 was not a good work day. After breakfast, we cut down the screws we bought at the hardware store on Saturday. Unfortunately, it turned out that they were the wrong thread, so we still need to buy screws! So, we showered, and then went to Sari Fundy's to catch the grocery bus. We got out at Napa to try to get a few things. Unfortunately, we struck out all around! We started walking towards Budget Marine when a car pulled over. The driver asked if we wanted a lift to the other Napa in Zeelandia since he was headed there. He had been in Napa at the same time we were, and had told him that he could get what he wanted at Zeelandia as well. We thanked him for the offer, but could not take him up on it. We checked in Budget for the screw, but they didn't have it. At this point, we split. Mike went to Dijtham, while I went to the grocery store. He found the right screw, and then joined me in the grocery store. We returned to the boat, and put our groceries away. We went right to work on the water pump. While I cut off the bolt, Mike worked on getting the old mechanical seal out. It came out in pieces and unfortunately, we ruined one seal before we discovered that the outside part of the seal still needed to be removed. Once that was out, we tried for an hour to get the new seal in before finally accepting defeat. We needed a machine shop to press the new seal in place. We had dinner, and then went in to happy hour. It was fun catching up with friends we haven't seen in months! January 25 was another not good work day. After breakfast, I went over to Sol to talk with Hans about the parts we needed for the chargers. He had one part, so I came back and we worked on one of the chargers. We hooked it up, and nothing happened! Because there was some damage on the circuit board, we tried the same part in the other charger. It also did not work! At that point, we quit working! We spent the rest of the day doing nothing. January 26 was a busy day. Mike woke me up around 5:00 in the morning, when Mike told me that he was having problems starting Ling-Ling. We did some testing on the generator, and diagnosed the problem as being the fuel stop solenoid. We just put this part on 3 months ago! We took Tink's waterpump with us so we could find a machine shop and get the seal pressed in after going to the American Consulate. We took the 7:00 bus downtown so we would have time to have breakfast at McDonalds (you know, we have to keep our energy up) before trying to find a bus to get us close to the American Consulate. The information booth told us to take the "Rond" bus. However, when we talked to the driver, he said that was not correct. One of the local people who recognized us from the marina tried to help, but he also could not find a bus. So, he gave us walking directions. So, we set out walking towards the ring (the Curacao version of a Beltway). It was a long walk as well as hot, dusty and mostly uphill. There is a gate to the Consulate from the ring road and a guard was posted there. You could tell that we had been walking for some time, but the guard would not let us in. We could only enter and exit through the main gate, which was another ½ mile down the ring road, and then ½ back up the side street! Apparently, the terrorists have truly won. So, we continued walking and made it 10 minutes before the consulate opened to the public. We tried to convince the guard to let us wait in the air conditioned security building, which we would be passing through in 10 minutes anyway, but he said that was not allowed. So, we sat outside and waited. When the consulate opened, we were allowed in. Our backpack was X-Rayed, searched, and then swiped for chemicals and explosives. We passed through a metal detector and then were wanded with a hand version before being permitted to go up to the Consulate building where we passed through another metal detecter and were wanded again! The woman who helped us at the consulate was very friendly, informative and helpful. We got our stuff notarized and were on our way in less than 20 minutes. Instead of going back by way of the ring, we went down a set of stairs in the hill by the "Ennia" building. Quickly we were close to downtown, and a very short walk. If only we had known about these stairs, our walk would have been so much shorter. We went to the UPS office and shipped off the documents for the boat re-flagging before going back to the bus terminal. We caught the bus back to the shopping area, relatively close to Spanish Waters. We stopped at Maveco, a hydraulics machine shop, where they pressed in the mechanical seal for Tink's raw water pump. Now we just need to bring the oil cooler lines here! Next we went to NAPA to price some stuff, and to waste a little time, honestly, before catching the bus back to Caracasbai. We got back on the boat, and after something to drink we reinstalled Tink's water pump. It worked! No leaks! We spent the rest of the day relaxing, and considering if we can not do anything tomorrow. On January 27, we decided to take it easy, since we were still recovering from the death march that Mike took me on yesterday. We wrote some emails, and did a very few things. But mostly, we spent a quiet day. We did look at what it will take to remove the transmission lines. Mostly it will be time consuming. The difficult part will be loosening (and tightening) the hose that runs to the back of the transmission. We went to Sari Fundy's for happy hour, which was fun. The folks who are hauled out right now drove over. It was actually almost over crowded, but a fun evening non-the-less. We came back to the boat and Mike suggested breakfast sandwiches for dinner. That worked for me! I think that we needed this day. We have been getting progressively more frustrated all week. It's amazing how something as simple as taking a day off dropped our frustration level. January 28 was grocery day. While we waited for the shuttle bus provided by the grocery store, we chatted with Dimitri and Mary from Adagio. Mary and I continued talking until Mike and I got off the bus at Budget Marine. We back-tracked to the pharmacy to get a few things, and then went to the grocery store. We are slowly stocking the boat for the San Blas islands, so we try to buy a few things for storage. They had Ritz crackers! We were concerned about being late, and I had forgotten a watch, so today we rushed. We got outside, and talked with Mary and a Swiss guy named Beat. It was an interesting conversation about visas and how the laws are changing. Finally, the bus driver came and we headed back to Sari Fundy's. We dropped Mary off at Adagio and then came back to Nightwinds. By the time we finished putting everything away, updating inventory it was almost 2:00! We had salad for lunch, then we spent a relaxing rest of the day. On January 29, after breakfast, we checked the sky and decided we weren't going to do anything today. It dawned on me that if we were going to try to remove the hoses tomorrow, I should take care of battery water. Just as I finished, the rains came, and it rained off and on all afternoon. We did what any sailor does when it is rainy, we watched TV and dozed. January 30 wasn't a great day, but it wasn't a bad day either. After breakfast, we started on removing the hoses from the port engine. One of the hoses was easy to remove. The other one was difficult, to say the least. As it turns out, we needed to remove a third hose as well. The one between the filter and the other side of the transmission. We got that ½ way off (as in only one side) and then got the other oil cooler hose completely off. After another 45 minutes we finally gave up on getting the third hose off without some additional tools. We spent the rest of the day making, and then simmering a new batch of spaghetti sauce. What a day January 31 was. I woke up at 6:00 so that I could go walking. At 6:30, I went over to Adagio. Mary was ready to go, but Dimitri wasn't sure about going until I told him that we also needed to go in to town early, so it would be a short walk. He decided to join us, and off we went. We did the short walk, and I was back on the boat with enough time to shower and catch the 8:00 bus downtown. We did our traditional breakfast at McDonalds, and then we stood in line for over an hour so we could apply for our extension. Next, we headed to the Internet cafe to do some stuff before returning to the bus stop to catch a bus back to Spanish Waters. We got back to the boat and heard the high water alarm going off. It turns out that the screw for the water pump had sheared off. So, we closed Tink's thru hull and repaired it. We wound up working on things until around 4:00, so we showered and went up to Sari Fundy's, and had a mixed appetizer platter for lunch. We enjoyed happy hour and wound up staying late. Dimitri and Mary came up for the movie, but wound up talking with us until the bar closed. We invited them back to the boat and we continued talking until 3:00 am. It was a fun evening!