Living is easy -- at the DOCK!

It's a better day. The forecast high winds never materialized overnight. It was windier in the afternoon. Ohh well at least everyone slept well last night. This morning the wind piped up around 9am and started to blow pretty stiff. In the next 2 hours 3 boats began to drag anchor and had to reset. One little motor boat that was tied to a dock was swamped by waves - tied stern to the wind/waves.

On the radio we heard one sailboat had "broke" his mast - as reported by a large motor yacht in the Whale Cay Passage - but waved off assistance.

We had a nice easy morning. I played radio and propagation once again was terrible. I checked in no where today. Later we did 3 loads of laundry and while Karen was supervising that I worked on the dinghy motor. I had found a crack in the old fuel line and replaced with a new spare. Made no difference. I then removed the carburetor and drained all fuel thinking possibly water trapped and found none. I checked some passages and all looked clean. Reassembled and made no difference. I then checked the sparks plugs again and made no difference. It is useable but runs fairly slow. Will have to wait till in Florida before troubleshooting further. Suspect the ignition control module or spark coil.

We had lunch at the restaurant - have to eat our dockage!! We are a little behind but will have dinner tonight. No drinks though - the expense is a killer. Yesterday we had one Tipsy Turtle and a Margarita and it was $17.25 for the pair. We will be drinking water tonight.

After lunch and a little nap I tackled the main engine primary fuel filter. I want to change it before crossing the Gulf Stream. The removal went well and it had debris in it but the suction had only risen to 8lbs. With the new filter the suction starts at 2 lbs so it was not bad. Generally you replace when the suction reaches 15 lbs.

I ran the engine for 20 minutes to be sure no air had got into the system, which would have required bleeding the system. This main engine has a mechanical pump that will self bleed the input line but if air gets past it then the system must be bled or she no runny.

I filled the filter assembly before installing it thus eliminating a long start up on the pump. I got lucky - no air and we should be good to go..

It's blowing hard this afternoon but the anchored boats and ours on the T-dock are behaving. Dinner tonight at the restaurant and then cards on Born to Cruise later on.. Ohhh yes and let's not forget -- real high pressure high water volume showers.. If you never lived on a boat you don't understand this simple pleasure that dirt dwellers take for granted.

This is going to be tough to leave!!