It’s nice to be sipping fresh Blue Mountain coffee:)
Well I’m making way on the transmission project. It was certainly the oil cooler. It was mixing sea water with the gear box’s oil. At this point I’ve got another oil cooler installed after a lot of running around, finding parts, and sweating in the Jamaican sun. I’m spending a fortune in oil trying to flush the gear box but after all this we may be able to get moving next week, fingers crossed! I spoke to the engineer in England about the transmission and have decided we had a 2-part problem. I thought the tranny was slowly failing and finally burned up at sea. Now what I believe to be true is that we had water in the tranny that was causing the clutch plates to slip, hence the hunting RPM’s. The RMP on the motor would increase with the absence of load on the prop. After driving for a while under these conditions I got snagged in the net. Anyway, that’s the story I’m going with.
Sam, Guin, and I took a break for mothers day. We took a bus & cabs up into the mountains to ‘reach falls’. The river water was cool, clear, and clean. It was such a nice treat on a hot Jamaican day.
I have to say just one more time ‘Thank you’ to the guys that helped out with the donations it made getting out of here possible. I was starting to have crazy ideas run through my head like leaving the boat here and going back to the states to find work. That would have been such a bummer! We have a number of people interested in chartering with us in the San Blas and are scraping by until we can get that whole charter thing under way. We may also run backpackers from Panama to Cartagena and back. They don’t pay so much but the work is okay.
Guin has turned out to be such a swimmer, we just cant keep her out of the water. I think she was starting to fall asleep in this picture. She prefers snorkeling in the sea but the pool is really good for now. I must say it is such a treat having a pool and endless water not to mention hot showers.
Sorry for the ridiculous monster face picture of the 3 of us but I just had to post it. We were feeling really good at the end of the day yesterday after I got the new oil cooler installed and were a bit punchie.
Also check out this military boat (HSV 2)that pulled in. I met one of the guys on the boat and asked how fast it goes and he told me it was “Top Secret” but it does in excess of 47 knots, WOW.
Anyway, I’m off to buy more oil and keep flushing the gear box. I’m also going to have some new oil lines made as the ones on the cooler are cracked and about to fail.
Peace from Jamaica.
Sail far and live slowly.
– Alex
I saw a show on the travel channel about Jamica the otherday, I wondered if you would be going up to the Blue Mt. Coffee place for the tour, it looked really beautiful. Only sixty more days of work for me and then splash Rubaiyat a week or so after that !!! We bought a new Walker Bay 8 rigid dingy last week, on sale at W. Marine :) My brains and guts are in scramble mode and lack of sleep is setting in too, but, I LOVE IT !!! Also getting some new shingles on the roof, between rainy days. Enough of me though, You All look great and very happy !!!!
Still living through you, Dean
your spot is stuck “out there”
I think we are back in the game. New oil cooler installed, gear box flushed! I’m going to see if we can have our primary alternator rebuilt and I need to track down another starting battery, our is shot. I just bought it about 5 months ago from NAPA. No chance on returning it now. Sooooo HAPPY Splendid is back together.
Cheers
Alex, glad to hear all is well. It really does come down to attitude, doesn’t it? We closed(sold) on our rental house today and immediately dropped that check into the “boat fund”. If Sam gets a chance, please ask her to reply to a comment I posted on her blog. Thanks brotha.
Alex, glad to hear all is well. It really does come down to attitude, doesn’t it? We closed(sold) on our rental house today and immediately dropped that check into the “boat fund”. If Sam gets a chance, please ask her to reply to a comment I posted on her blog. Thanks brotha.
Alex, I was just wondering, instead of flushing the transmission with expensive oil, could you use cheap diesel for short flushes? (no extended running with diesel, of course!) Ask someone who knows first, I just come up with the ideas, you get to sort them out! lol When I wrote you a little while back, you told me “Why wait ten years? Take your wife and two daughters and cruise!” Well, my wife and I have since decided we should get a big houseboat until its time to get our cruising boat! We believe it will help to downsize slowly over long weekends and summer trips to the keys for the next ten (or less) years. Sounds like reasonable logic, eah? I guess you could say that we are “making way” too!
Sailing Dreams,
Warren
Way to go Alex…
Sounds like you have Angels too. Now that’s a nice way to travel. Just checkin’ in. Just did a run to Key West and back. Made it back in 18 hours. Now that’s not bad. 15 to 20 from the east with 3 to 5’s from the south east. Nice ride and a great time.
Give the family my best and take care of each other.
Capt. Paul
s/v Panacea