Crazy Gringo - what were you thinking?

This has been a strange day. I started out this morning waking up with the dawn, around 5:30. Got up, brushed my teeth, shampooed, shaved and scrubbed. It was too early to go in for breakfast or internet and I forgot to get eggs at the market on Saturday, and it is closed from Saturday noon until Monday morning. So I started working on changing the fuel filters on the engine to prepare for our next passage. So far, so good.

I started with the dual Racor filters that are between the tanks and the engine and the engine fuel filters. I only have to change one and it is an easy job, usually. Well, I got the old one out, put the next one in then started pumping our little cute inline fuel primer bulb but nothing was happening. You have to get all the air out of the system or it will air lock and not pump to the engine. I pumped and pumped and pumped - nada. It was getting close to 8:00 by now so I left it to go in to get something to eat and get online to talk to Cindy who is leaving tomorrow from Denver to fly back to Maggie Drum - hurray!!

Did the internet and breakfast and met a friend who has been looking out for unflavored potato chips (preferably Lays) here in Neiafu. All the stores periodically run out of everything, let alone something exotic as Lays potato chips, but I did see them once over two months ago. Nick told me that he saw them at what is called the "American" grocery store which is quite a walk from town and one that I had not been to. There is no sign and the building looks like they just started building it and quit for a couple of years long before it was finished. There is a store inside but it is much, much smaller than a 7-11 back home and you have to ask for them to pick something off the shelf for you after you look around from 15 feet away.

They actually had Lays potato chips that had just came in on the last freighter but they were the Wavy (Ripples) kind. Beggars can't be choosers and I have been freaking out and not eating well without my Lays (sounds neurotic doesn't it?). They are an addiction of mine. I had already asked Cindy to fly some home with her and she finally agreed in the interest of marital harmony. 7,000 miles of hand-carried luggage!!

Hurray! I got my chips, in fact I cleaned them out and got 3 bags at over $5 (US) per bag so I had to go to the ATM for more cash on the way back. I walked way over a mile during the heat of a brilliant noon sky, but I am happy knowing that we will have potato chips for lunches all the way to New Zealand.

Well, now we get back to the fuel filters..... I get back to the boat and on the way I smell diesel, something you never want to smell on the water. By now you have figured out it was coming from Maggie Drum. I am mortified, and worried. I get on boat in a rush and find diesel running, pouring out of the open fuel filter housing that I could not get to fill by endless pumping earlier. I am sick to my stomach, both from the smell of the diesel inside a closed up boat and the horrible pollution I have caused in a beautiful harbor, not that it is totally pristine any way but it is something that you just don't do.

I got most of it cleaned up and will go back to clean the rest up. A minor environmental disaster! I am still sick about it but I guess it is just one of those things. I now know never to leave any thing unbuttoned up and leave it. It seemed Ok at the time. So now I am the Crazy Gringo with diesel to go with my chips.

BTW - I had intended to write about the Tongans this time - a very friendly and crazy group of people themselves, and, about our leaving next week. We plan on starting out for New Zealand via almost a rhumb line in about a week or less depending on weather reports. I have hired a weather forecaster and router to get some extra insurance on the weather part as it can be nasty on this leg. The weather is settling down quite a bit though from what it was so hopefully all will be easy with no dramas along the way. If we average 5 knots we will get there in just over 10 days from our start. We might get there quicker or later. We will be checking in to the regional radio nets on our brand-spanking new Single Sideband HF radio daily. We will get daily radio updates (oral and email).

So - I will write more on the Tongans after I get the diesel mopped up. What was I thinking?

Boat Projects in Tonga

The long awaited single sideband high frequency radio arrived via DHL
shipping with no hassles right on time. I was a little stressed about it
even though I insured it in Anacortes when it was shipped. It cost over
$400 to get it here, but no customs duty and no taxes upon arrival.

So I am now in the throes of installing it while on the mooring ball in the
harbor. I am over the hump now but it is not an plug and play install. The
unit I got (Icom M802) is a top of the line radio with a relatively small
remote control panel/head with a separte big and heavy box with most of the
circuits and that is where most of the numerous cables have to go. Just
figuring out where to put this box and the tuner was a mini-project in
itself as you need to plan wire/cable runs and I was limited on the length
of the power wires and the super heavy-duty coax from the main unit to the
tuner.

I also had to run a new piece of high voltage wire that I bought in the US
from the tuner in the aft clothes locker up through the deck to the backstay
which is our antenna. The tuner tunes the radio output for the fixed length
of the backstay up to the mast as each frequency band normally would require
a different length of antenna. I won't go into the physics of all the radio
jazz but the tuner makes it all better.

The new radio also puts out much more power (and takes much more power) than
my old radio so the size and length of the power cable is very important. I
could use the one provided with the radio if it would fit without extension.
If I needed a longer wire run I would have had to gone from a 10 gauge
wire that was provided to a 6 gauge pair of wires which I don't have and are
not available here. So, I cut new holes in bulkheads and the cable just
fit. The new $5/ft coax I got that goes from the main radio box to the
tuner did not make it with my first run so I had to rerun it and drill yet
more holes. Of course, our 12-volt vacuum cleaner decided to stop running
and it would have been impossible to get all the wood chips and sawdust out
by hand so I had to fix that before going on.

The boxes are all in, the wires and cables are run and I need to install
special coax connectors to two cables, plug it all in and then start tidying
things up. Not to forget - I saved the hardest for last - I need to run two
lengths of 3" wide flat copper strap from the tuner and main radio down to a
through hull valve to properly ground the units. This is critical to good
radio transmission and a royal pain in the a**. There are very few 3" wide
holes in the boat in the areas I have to run these puppies and I am already
swearing just thinking about it. It will get done though and I think we
will be very happy with the new setup. The new control panel will be in a
superior spot compared to the old one which was in a dark and hard to get to
corner above the nav desk.

Then I (and Cindy later) will have to learn how to use this very complicated
and under-documented piece of equipment. Everything is written for radio
experts and there don't seem to be any good books out there to find jargon
explanations and what it all means (e.g. AF Mod - you turn this knob to
adjust the AF Mod. What the heck is that and why do I need to care?). Just
tuning to a frequency means selecting a Channel Group and then programming
in the frequency. The old radio just had a knob you used to dial a
frequency just like a car radio (after selecting the band like AM or FM or
USB or LSB). It will be interesting. The manual does not make it easy but
I guess that is why I have not been bored on the boat yet.

Immigration screwed up Cindy's one-way ticket out of Dodge letter of course,
again. And the lady who does it has not been there the last three times I
have gone. They put the wrong passport number on it and it has to be
redone. It only took me 13 visits to get it to this point. Oh well -
cruising in Paradise, kicking back, reading books, drinking margaritas -
that's all we do out here - and we want everyone to know that.

Speaking of books, we have enough to start a college library on board and I
asked my First Mate to not bring any more books back this time than
necessary since it looks like we have enough for the next ten years of
passages. I must have hit a nerve as she told me it was not even a
discussable item. I am expecting a trunk of books with excess weight air
fees to arrive with her in two weeks. She does select quality books, many
of which even I like, but I am tired of all the books falling out on my toes
everytime I open a locker - ANY locker - on MD. However, she is the best
First Mate I could ever hope for so I guess it is a question of balance -
yin and yang so to speak.

I do promise more on Tonga later but my recent experience has been in the
bowels of the boat and in Immigration with some sorties to find food. Cindy
is here in two weeks and then we are off for NZ!

Back from the good ol' USA

I am back from a two week visit to Anacortes, Washington. Cindy came out from Denver for a short long weekend visit. We had not been back to our home port for just over two years and really wanted to see the old place, and more importantly, to see old friends. Terry and Diane were our very gracious hosts and even let me use their pickup to run around in. Thanks Terry and Diane!! It was way kewl to see everyone else too.

I was not ready for the reception from people as many seem to think what we are doing is borderline heroic. It does not seem so heroic to us. We have never been in imminent danger of dying or getting maimed or losing our boat, etc. The kids over in Iraq are heroic but not us. We do appreciate all the kind words, but anyone can do what we are doing if they really want to. It does take a huge commitment and many would not or can not turn their lives upsidedown to do it, which is very understandable. It works for us though and we feel fortunate to be out here.

It was good to see the US again although my thoughts on traffic and the hustle bustle were very predictable. Being able to just go to a store and buy what you need was nice. I really like microbrew beers and Washington is great for that. I picked up and shipped a new SSB marine radio to Tonga and am still waiting for it to arrive with fingers crossed. The flight back was full of dramas but worked out OK in the end. Took me two days to get back into the local time zone but that seems right now too.

Maggie Drum was looked after by a couple of other boats here and she was fine. The solar panels kept the reefer/freezer going (-3 degrees F). It is sunny today after very cloudy and cool weather yesterday. We still have lots of friend boats around with some leaving or arriving every week. Fiji and New Zealand are the destinations for most but a few are going straight to Australia via Fiji. BTW - I had to go to 10 different airline terminals to get from Seattle to Neiafu. A solid day and a half of travel.

I will try and post more about Vava'U and Tonga in the next few days. It is definitely third world and still one of the few true monarchies in the world. That may change in the next few years as there is a big push for democracy and to relegate the king to a social entity only. Time will tell. The new King does not want to be a true King like his dad who just passed away.