Category Archives: Repair

Where we fixed something that failed.

Port Ghalib Chores & Commentary

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First thing this morning, we called to check status on our bag. Yes, they would ship it a second time. It would go out today, to be delivered tomorrow to the front desk of the hotel, where someone was always on duty. It didn’t sound like they were going to charge us for the shipping. We had the front desk talk to the agent to confirm shipping details. We went to the front desk later in the day and told the next crew to be expecting our bag tomorrow.

Thanks to guidance from one of the dive crew, we found a tour company that offered tours to Luxor. Two good things today! It is a group tour package, with bus, tour guide, hotel, food and admission to attractions. While it is no by means cheap, it is probably overall less expensive than the “limo” when you factor in hotel, food, etc. The tour leaves the day after tomorrow, so we booked another dive trip for tomorrow.

We got to work on chores. Eric gave Kosmos a Continue reading →

Mast Climbing and Getting Ready to Leave The Maldives

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When we got up in the morning, the wind still hadn’t changed. We didn’t even contemplate re-anchoring in another spot for a couple of reasons. One, we wanted to check out and we needed to be here to do so, and two, if we were to move, we would probably have to pay that $500 fee. At least staying here we may be able to get out of it.

We bit the bullet and got to work on getting ready for sea, despite the rocking. We had originally planned to leave today, but it wasn’t going to happen. There was too much to do between getting the boat ready and errands. Plus, the wind was coming from wrong direction, so it would be a rough ride. The weather forecast still said nice weather with occasional localized storms, so hopefully by tomorrow this crazy “localized storm” will have cleared up and it’ll be a nicer ride.

By late morning, the winds calmed down to the low teens, but it was still rollier than we are comfortable in. Claire from Fafner came over and changed the navigation light for us. She is a brave (or maybe crazy) girl, climbing up there in less than ideal conditions. We thought changing the light bulb would be easy, but it turned out to be something of a puzzle box getting the cover off. After sitting up there in the rocking for a long time and after lot of tries with assorted tools, Claire finally located the hidden magic screw that held the cover in place. The light bulb was quickly changed and the cover replaced. Thank you Claire!

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In the afternoon, Claire and Jeff went to shore. Since Alex and Karen were staying behind, they offered to give us a ride. Even with the calmer winds, the seas were rough. Our first stop was an Internet café we heard had a fast connection, called Shell. They served food, but it was Continue reading →

More SCUBA Diving and Sight Seeing in Male

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Yesterday, we spent the day doing chores. Eric changed the engine oil on the main engine and repaired the broken bilge pump. It turned out the intake valve inside the pump was broken. Fortunately, we have a rebuild kit on board. We also heard back from American Bow Thruster, who said there wasn’t much we could do about the stabilizer squeaking. Eric also thinks he has figured out the problem with the secondary autopilot. He thinks there is a loose connection somewhere, because the computer seems to lose communication. And to round off the repairs, Eric is now 100% sure that the issue with the inverter is simply a matter of one of the lines of LCD screen going bad and that the inverter itself is fine.

In the evening we had our heroine and Johan over for dinner as a way to thank them both for their hospitality to us. The dinner conversation was once again fascinating and we had a wonderful time with our guests. We have to say that through these two people we have really gained a lot of insight into the culture. Since both of them had to work the next day, it wasn’t a late night. One thing worth mentioning is that school is taught in English, which is why most people’s English is so darn good. The native tongue of the land is called Dhivehi, a derivative of the Indian Sanskirt language. Another item of interest is that neither of them could explain to us the significance of yesterday’s holiday.

Today, Eric went diving with the same dive shop. Christi couldn’t go because her ear was still infected. Both were drift dives along a wall, on the west side of Male near Garbage Island (yes, the dump). The first dive had Continue reading →

Bawean to Karimata

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Lat 5`51.6S Long 112`37.8E
We are anchored at the west end of the harbor on the south side of the island. The island is very hilly, reminiscent of the Society Islands. There are five fishing boats anchored near us in the harbor and three anchored at the opposite end of the harbor. Directly in front of us on the shore there is a line of small, low buildings mostly covered by the trees. The lights from them at night are more visible than the buildings themselves by day. The main part of town is farther to the east, where the shore is built up for a couple of miles. The majority of the buildings visible are large buildings with red roofs similar to the ones in Bali. There are two piers. One is a big pier with a huge ship tied to it and a building made of corrugated metal at the base of the pier. The second pier is much smaller, with an out of place green building with a green roof at its base. Small structures dot the mountains behind the main area of town. There are five large radio/cell/TV antennas. From here it certainly looks like quality of construction is more comparable to Bali than Flores or Timor, but then again, Labuan Bajo looked nice from the distance, too.

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Yesterday we spent the day getting Kosmos all fixed up. We are pleased to report that pretty much everything was easily fixed. Eric was able to Continue reading →

Selemat Jalan (Goodbye) Kupang

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Last night when we got back to the boat, it was rocking so much we felt like we were on passage in the South Pacific. This morning when we got up we were still undecided as to whether we should leave Kupang today or tomorrow. On the stay side was: after 8 days at sea, it would have been nice to stay anchored longer. There were more sights we could go see in Kupang to entertain ourselves. Eric’s eye was looking better after using some drops we had on board that soothe irritation, but it wasn’t completely healed and could need a different medicine. On the con side: it was rocky on board, the beach landings were not fun, and we were more interested in seeing sights in other places.

We headed to shore at noon where Continue reading →