hanging on the mooring
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Wed 4 Feb 2015 07:49
> So far this place seem to be very safe and comfortable.
> The lows that look threatening divert from here or get stuck on the other side or Vanu Levu.
> The heat makes working real hard.
> One reason I have been bad in blogging is that the generator has been overheating and it took me a couple of days to solve it.
> Without generator we can't keep up with energy consumption as there is no wind here and the sun is out part of the day only.
> At the same time the refrigerator is working overtime, the "cooling" water coming in from the sea is about 29-30 degrees and the air temperature is 34 during the day dropping to
> 25 during the night. Even the Fijians complain that is is an extremely hot summer so that is good to know it is not only us.
> One thing that surprises is that the computers are the other source of big energy consumption. Especially the Macs, our only PC on board has no fans or any cooling in it that uses power and that helps to keep consumption down I guess.
> With this heat I try to start working early in the morning, the engine room soon gets up to 40 degrees and as I work in it the sweat is pouring over my eyes so I cannot see.
> When I come out after a couple of hours the clothes (or as I call it, my technical pajamas ), is so wet you truly believe it had to be soaked in water.
> It took a lot of trial and detective work but i finally found a clog at the top of the cylinder, with backwashing I could get it out. After that I was not certain wether the stream of water was enough so I asked Brendt on Impi (he is a certified diesel mechanic) to come and see, he thought the flow was good but could be better so we dived under the boat to check the out let of the cooling water and there Brendt got a bunch of mussels out from the pipe.
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> MARIN LIFE
> Marine life is a challenge, it is good the we have small grids in our hand basins, yesterday Ellinor had taken one off and as she came to bathroom a little later, she saw some big hairy legs coming up from the drain. They looked like coming from a huge hairy spider, but is was actually a crab that had made its way up from the water!
> And no, Ellinor did not scream, she is not the type. She is a scientist at heart, meaning that she checks everything.
> I remember once when we were sailing home our first boat that we bought together, a Swan, we stopped at an island and in the evening there were black clouds of beetles swarming all over the place.
> Quite scary in a way (I THOUGHT), the sound was enormous and it was virtually black dense clouds. It was not really dark as it was June (in Sweden). I did not know ELlinor as well as I do now so to my big surprise she took one of her shoes and killed one of the beetles.My first thought was "what difference is that going to make?" But soon I discovered that the reason she killed it was to check what kind of animal is was and what it looked inside.
> I probably never wrote this before, but every time we catch a fish Ellinor checks the inner organs and what it has in the stomach. So now you know a bit more on who is with us...
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> CREEPS
> So what is the creep situation here in this tropical region?
> Well we still apply a very rigorous cleaning process to all vegetables that come on board. Salt water 3 minutes and then fresh water. And there are quite a few buggers in bananas, salads etc. Buying stuff from the market is in itself an experience. Now we even start to know the women that sell there. When we come they all greet us with big smiles and usually they even know what we look for. We buy big bundles of fresh spinach that comes with everything but the roots, 1 FjijDollar (0,4€), we buy big loads of bananas that we eat in the yogurt for breakfast, 1 FijiDollar for 6-8 bananas, we buy avocados that are huge for 1FijiD each, and so on. We can follow what is in season on the prices. Mango for examples you could buy a big plastic bag for one dollar when they were ripen and soon thereafter they would give it to you for free. Same with pineapple, 5 pineapples for one FijiD.
> Bugs was the subject yes, got lost in all the goodies..
> We can get some flies on board, so we keep an insect net up and all the hatches are protected with nets. In the night there are mosquitos so we have to use insect repellents as the dengue fever is a threat now. But living in a boat is great when in the tropics, I think that being ashore is much worse. Especially at night. We try to find breezy places and that keeps the buggers aways.
> As soon as the weather situation is calming down we will move out of here and sail to some other places.
> Promise.
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You can call us on the Swedish number
0842043121
and reach us wherever we are
Local PHONE NUMBER IN Fiji
+6799385208
Callsign SLOR
Sattelite number
+870773991871
Our loggbook will be updated through satellite on
http://blog.mailasail.com/salsa