I am going to scream!
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Thu 26 Apr 2012 08:00
Walking back to the club Arun & Junior (yes that is his name) drove past taking Junior's wife into work. They picked me up. Arun needed starter battery wires, one run is two metres, the other three (two wires each, obviously). Four terminal attachments for the two starter batteries, a couple of relays etc etc. Quoted cost F$300!!! Even Arun shook his head. He called his brother in law in Ba (a town on the west coast) F$250. Expensive but no longer exhorbitant. We had to send the bro-in-law the money via the post office who only accept cash. Luckily, for some reason, the card delivered cash on demand. Possibly my pension cheque has gone in. To the boat.
Arun got cold feet about going up the mast, I can't altogether blame him, I wasn't too keen either. In the end, for F$30 one of the 'lads' went up. It was an hour messing around, but in the end the new VHF antenna was fixed and the wire fed into the mast. Needless to say, it got caught up somewhere, as did the replacement halyard. Before anybody comments, it wasn't possible to mouse either of them. Pause for thought.....still thinking.
So what went right today? Well before I tell you that, Martin the Meknik walked past the boat.
"Hi Martin. All set for the engines tomorrow?" I think I already knew the answer.
"I'll be working on them full time next week."
"Yeah, well we did agree they were going to be ready the end of this week, as in installed by tomorrow."
"The other jobs took longer than I thought."
That was it. No apology, no real explanation. So both John AND Martin have not exactly delivered on time. I am in fact going to take a break and scream now
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The owner of the boat the Martin is working on walked past.
"Hi Pete, how's it going?"
"########### Martin".
"I know. I'm physically standing over him otherwise he buggers off."
Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK. The wind generator is now fixed (but not connected up to the batteries. We moved the batteries so we need more.....guess). I got the bent strut down from the mast. It's aluminium so will they be able to straighten it...will they buggery, probably.
Last night John the GRP got the slot in the davit plate enlarged. The davits now fit, the bolts are back in. I just need to connect up one set of pulley-ropes and we're back in business.
The mast was still pretty 'muddy' inside. We ran a hose up the inside of the mast and the resulting mudslide was quite impressive. Oh yes, the plastic winch handle I brought in Oz broke when we were hoiking matey-boy up the mast. Should of brought metal ones but they were twice the price etc etc etc!
Hose up the inside of the mast. What looked like the content of the Ganges flowed out, for the second time!
Yup, that is water spouting out the top. Not bad water pressure. Note the new VHF antenna and windex. No wind instruments though, muchos dineros!
The antenna wire put in an appearance halfway down the mast. Now either 'they' lied on the packet when 'they' claimed that the wire was twenty metres, or more likely the wire is cautght up somewhere......still thinking.
This (see above). Needs to be straightened and put up................................................................................here!
One possibly functioning KISS wind generator.
Would you mind if I screamed again? Thank you so much.
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I have to say that I am pretty much at the end of my tether. Luckily a brief pause for financial reasons is no bad thing, but I really have had enough, joke's wearing a bit thin and all that.
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