Our Thoughts turn to the New Year … Wed 26th December 2012
As you will have gathered from the yesterdays entry we had a great Christmas. After Gloria posted the blog last night the three of us stayed up chatting until past midnight. It's actually very cozy on the boat and it was a lovely way to cap off the day. This morning we switched our attention to preparing for our forthcoming travels. Tash went in to town to buy some things she needs for her trip to South Africa and Gloria and I did laundry and a little tidying up, and also worked on a list of provisions we need to get. This afternoon we set about changing the oil in the engine and replacing the oil filter. This went well for about 30 seconds and then the shaft separated from the main body of the stirrup pump we were using to drain the oil and I got sprayed from neck to knee with black oil. This was followed by a rapid trip to West Marine to buy a new new pump, after which we were able to finish the job. Whilst we were doing this it became evident from the oil spill cloth below the engine that we are leaking some transmission fluid. We checked the levels and topped up, but have not found the source of the leak which is a bit of a concern. However, we also noticed that one of the four engine mount bolts was very loose and were able to tighten this and it does seem the engine now makes considerably less vibration and noise. Tasha leaves for South Africa and her semester abroad very early on Monday morning. We are starting to look for possible weather windows to cross to the Bahamas and it looks like there may be an opportunity right at the start of the New Year. So we will be trying to wrap up our preparations as quickly as possible over the next few days.
Mike
27 41 28.6 N, 80 23 41.6 W
A giant moth at the marina
Sandhill crane outside Paul and Fran's house on Christmas Day
Sandhill Crane - up close
The staff at Loggerhead Marina (Steve, Harry, Mike and Neil) are fantastic. This is a portrait of Mike who lives on his own boat nearby
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