Day in the Engine Room
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Fri 9 Apr 2010 03:20
Yanmar engine, I did a 500 hr services, changing the oil, oil filters and
all Fuel Filters including the new secondary filter, and then the
transmission oil for the first time in 500 hr, not sure if it needed it as
it was looking like new, but it cannot hurt to change.
I also spent time cleaning the back side of the engine, I am applying WD 40
and then wiping down, this is to get any dust, salt off and make sure we
don't have rust build up. It is key to keep this up as it is much easier to
see issues when things go wrong.
I also did the generator as well, changing oil and fuel, so it was a long
morning in the engine room in good heat, but now we back to a good state,
and I made some changes on access to some of the filters to better be able
to change them while underway with a hot engine.
Having done this and the temperature was in the high 30s c and low 90s F, so
sitting at wharf bar catching up on route planning for South America and
watching masters golf as well, with the sea breeze blowing through and in
the shade and cooler water passing underneath it is a very accommodating
atmosphere. Many of the cruisers who are here turn up at this time getting
off the boats and we have some very interesting discussions on where they
have been, current travel restrictions in certain places or parts
improvements we have made. We are developing a family of cruisers here as it
will grow as this is a nice hurricane hole and I would expect upwards of 30
boats here over the 5 to 6 months of summer.
To describe the scene I am in when writing this, I am back on wharf bar/
restaurant, see photos, and Sean is doing education computer games, Tracy is
updating email, Alex is doing "playdough" and the high tide is coming in
underneath us. Lightening is flashing up the estuary (each afternoon we see
the rain clouds develop, but they seem to miss us here) and we have a good
10 knot breeze coming down the estuary providing a refreshing environment.
The star cover the sky outside, the moon is yet to come up, I look up the
estuary seeing lights lining the side we are on, and the island on the other
side. You hear the odd pangas fly up the river, as you would expect no
lights and this is why we have the solar garden lights from Home Depot all
over the boats so they can see the boat as the rush past.
You can hear some music booming out down the river someone is having a
party.
The water laps the pillars of the wharf and the tide up boats, it is a very
peaceful scene. Both Tracy and I commented today that is it is nice to
relax, work on the boat but not feel the boat is danger as we on a dock, not
have to look at weather reports each day and sort out planning, and have a
known environment, we are all getting re charged we go and ask questions on
ideas with other cruisers and we are very busy planning the logistics of our
trip to South America, which is taking shape well, again using our contacts
in South America for advise. I think this is nice for Tracy as she is
getting into the planning, which is nice to see she has been to some of the
places but we will be doing many new places and some in more detail. One of
things which we often overlook as part of the cruising lifestyle is the off
season lifecycle you find yourself holed up somewhere for many months, and
people either stay around and explore, or in many cases they take advantage
of the time to do some inland travel or to go home. Everyone here is doing
planning of some travel or so from here, and we swap ideas. Again it is
dreaming and then trying to put a plan in place to execute it.
