Ocean World Marina and Boat Repair?

We left Provo on Saturday 30 April and headed across the Caicos Bank. It is very beautiful, we think...the ride was too uncomfortable to prove it by us! We knew we were heading into a less than ideal crossing, but had hoped to get all the way to Big Sand Cay south of Grand Turk, to stage for our trip to the Dominican Republic. Alas, much too much headwind and banging around for that, so we stopped first (for two nights) between Big Ambergris and Little Ambergris, right on the southeastern edge of the Caicos Bank, then headed along to Big Sand on Monday the 2nd. It is a lovely, lovely uninhabited island (we took an unbelievable number of photos, even for us); you can see them here:

2011 BigSand

Last evening, after talking about the weather window with Chris Parker, the cruisers' weather guru, we headed out from Big Sand intending to go all the way to Samana on the east coast of the DR. Alas, after a fabulous sail for the first 8 hours or so, the wind started to clock and to die, AND we confirmed that our batteries were either not charging or charging inconsistently from the engine, AND we already knew that our generator, which would otherwise provide battery charging as an alternative and back up to the engine, was on the fritz. So, we bailed for the north coast, and Ocean World Marina, at Cofresi, four kilometres or so from Puerto Plata.

The gen problem JP and Susan were able to diagnose:



Note thoroughly shredded belt. The engine problem awaits the arrival of the resident mechanic and electrician tomorrow; he is already at work trying to find a replacement belt. We are hoping we don't have to order it.

We will spend at least a few days and maybe as much as a week here, because we want to take care of our little problems, and see some of the DR, probably by car. Here is a little taste of the place; it is so different from the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, but really beautiful:






For anyone keeping track, we are now 1,186 nautical miles from our Kent Island home marina, "as the crow flies". Raconteur and her crew are NOT crows, and we have sailed and motored many more miles than that, though I will have to consult Susan and the log to find out exactly how many. We have about 762 crow miles from here to Chaguaramas, in Trinidad, to cover between now and early July...yes, that means we "flew" 1,186nm in seven months, and need to "fly" 762nm in seven weeks. Some serious island hopping ahead.

Taking care of business (not without pleasure)

So we realized sometime after we left Emerald Bay that our (brand new) refrigeration system was not really cooling as it should. It had been excellent all through the trip down the ICW and across to Bimini and down the Berry's and Exumas. By the time we got to Provo ice was melting in the freezer, drinks were not cold in the fridge, and we started to worry that if we were leaking freon we would burn out the compressor. So, we took some of the meat and poultry to the freezer that that South Side keeps for ice, and asked Bob, the proprietor, if he could track down a refrigeration technician. The first guy was booked until the next century, but he did find someone to come out yesterday. He was more than competent, quite thorough, and diagnosed the problem within an hour - a pinprick hole in the plate that surrounds the freezer compartment.
Full disclosure - JP bought an ice pick for Leigh to keep her from using the can opener to break up the ice. This may have been a tactical error, but we now know that the plate is considerably more fragile than we thought, whatever might have been the cause of the hole.
By last evening, the hole was well patched and the fridge and freezer back to full function - but we spent the entire day on the boat, despite having picked up a rental car in the morning. We dined out at the Tiki Hut at Turtle Cove Marina - that's the sunset picture above.
Today we waited a little while for the technician to return (to confirm that the fix worked, and to get paid), but decided to head off for our errands late morning. A marine chandlery, a home depot type place, a bookstore, a pharmacy and a supermarket. These are places that we have never seen in the islands - the home depot type place and the supermarket in particular are completely US style (at about double US prices, granted). I walked around the supermarket with my mouth hanging open - it could have been Publix, or a super Stop and Shop, or a brand new Safeway.



Between our trip to the chandlery and the home depot we went to lunch at "da Conch Shack" which has one of the best locations on the Island, and really good food. The conch items (conch salad and cracked conch) were good - the fried grouper was excellent. The rum punch wasn't bad either.




After putting away the overabundance of food that we bought (in celebration of the fridge/freezer fix AND the supermarket), we stayed on board this evening, eating chili and listening to the 30+ knot winds that are blowing, even in the marina. Should lie down a bit by tomorrow (Thursday) evening, but we probably will stick here until early Saturday morning before resuming our journey to the southeast.

Non Photo Update (borrring!!)

Having our farewell dinner tonight with Kay, Judy and Tom at the Severn Inn, but the actual departure will likely be Sunday thanks to the possibility of "GALE WARNINGS" in the Bay tomorrow and Saturday. Susan spent most of yesterday afternoon with our excellent electrician and instructor Bob, fresh from the Annapolis Boat Show, as our Galvanic Isolators needed to be replaced. Since neither Susan nor I (can't speak for JP) had even HEARD of Galvanic Isolators (and were uncertain as to whether Raconteur even had them), it was indeed a useful experience. The symptom (zincs replaced three weeks ago, 35% gone) is probably caused by the non-functioning GA's (don't ask why that acronym) and so we are hoping to at least see a slowdown in the erosion. Tomorrow we are having another electrician replace part of our shore power, as something else (we think) caused the boat end of the cable to be sufficiently hot to have burn marks.
See, told you this would be boring.
Promise farewell photos and setting off photos on Sunday...of course, promising things in sailing is a bit of a challenge to the sailing gods...
However, for unedited pictures of my trip to Portugal with Jackie, Joan and Cindy, go to
http://picasaweb.google.com/home