Marking time in Rio!

After our presentation talk and DVD show to the cruisers and club members of Charitas , we set about provisioning and preparing Sheer Tenacity for our trip North. We left last Saturday as planned, but had to abort after only 2 miles, as Fred, our B & G Autopilot went on strike again! On the same day, our Jabsco loo pump had also developed an unpleasant leak, which necessitated immediate attention, and to crown it all, the windlass started misbehaving as we hauled anchor!

So we turned around, and resigned ourselves to another week in Charitas, attending to our new collection of problems, while waiting for the next window. It was a good call, and we managed to sort out all the problems , with the exeption of the Radar, which will have to wait until we reach the Carribean to be repaired. We were also able to attend the next cruisers talk, given by Doug and Kyle, with daughters Lisa (14), and Abergail (11) on "Estrella", about their 6 year circumnavigation. They have only to reach the Bahamas to complete this voyage, and will be moving up the coast during the same period as ourselves.

Fred's problem turned out to be a dead "memory backup battery", a little coin sized CR2032 affair, soldered onto the circuit board. Fortunately I had a spare on board, (for my watch!), but the real challenge was removing and replacing it, as it is soldered in place. Eventually, with a Brazillian assistance, I succeeded, and Fred was up and running again. We had also decided not to sail again, without our backup Autohelm 3000 (Fredlet), working perfectly as well, and he too, is now working well.One of the strange spares I stowed before we left Cape Town, was the pump section from the second marine toilet on the scrapped old Gumbula.I whipped it out , and installed it.... yes, another shitty job, only to find it leaked as badly as the cracked Jabsco unit. After two further removals, and refits, the last with every gasket and joint set, and given time to cure, with sikaflex! We finally had a pure and sweet smelling loo again! What a joy!! But,... we had to endure a day of" bucket and chuck it" first! When one considers that this is effectively no different from what a few million other people in Rio and Nitaroi are doing every day, one should'nt feel too bad! One only has to look at he colour of the water here to know that !

However, the marine heads do a fine job of mascerating the nasties, and pumping it under the boat, and out of sight. Real "Bucket and Chuck it" is a liitle more cold blooded and premeditated , and not quite so easy! We were fortunate to have our Porta Potty on board too, ( our version of a holding tank for USA waters), but we decided to use it only as a comfortable seat, rather than commission it fully for one day. Layers of toilet paper were layed in the bowl,and a fine firm offering placed thereon .This was then picked up, carefully, like a delicate parcel, and dropped overboard, while nobody was looking! In theory, it should have quickly sunk out of sight, with nobody any the wiser. Theories however, dont always work! One such offering, ( exactly whose shall remain anonymous!), refused to sink, and set sail across the anchorage, with the upturned toilet paper acting like a spinnaker! We desperately tried to bomb it with the high pressure deck hose, but it gybed, and sailed out of reach, and we had to stop trying too hard for fear of drawing attention to ourselves! Now there was a fair amount of activity going on in the bay.... waterskiers, an Oppie race, windsurfers, and a couple of jetskies. No prizes for guessing which type of craft we were hoping would finally collide with and sink our newly launched craft! We just ducked below, refusing to acknowledge or watch, but our imagination ran riot with the possibilities!

Later that afternoon, the wind piped up again, and we were soon back to normal, as yet another French Cruiser came dragging past us, while he was enjoying a late lunch ashore. Fortunately, his anchor hooked and re-set after 100mts, and I was able to Tinker ashore, and fetch him. He let out another 30 mts, said "Senk ewe", and went back to lunch!

Next blog ,the Amazing Suzie of Samba!