Liveaboard chores

Friday 7 December, Antigua, Jolly Harbour Marina: Credit card fraud, mildew bashing and first reggae band.
The captain had a slow start this morning, he still needs recovering after the passage. But when he arises, he jumps straight on the decks to check Cloudy’s shine after all the wiping and polishing he did last night. And he’s pleased with the result, how else! Nice to walk and touch without getting salty.

Soon after breakfast dark clouds gather and rain starts. And this time it pours. Normally, when rain starts, one of us gives the alarm shouting “rain” and we each run to one end of the boat to close hatches and windows. But this morning we bumped into each other, and forgot the cushions out in the cockpit. Which got soaked by the time we noticed them. We are so out of practice:)
If there is any salt left on the mast, it will all be washed down now. Let’s just hope it rains enough to rinse it all off.

While waiting for the rain to stop, we launch into admin tasks on the PCs. Emails and banking, the day-to-day life chores. The banking bit took a couple of hours, as we noticed some suspicious transactions on one of our credit cards. So we went through the entire process of reporting the fraud, cancel the card, and request a new one to be shipped to Antigua. What a pain.

Glen has been wanting to make a minor adjustment to the Mastervolt system, but he ran up against a PIN code that needs to be entered. He wants the battery charger to have a delay on it when powered by the generator. At the moment, the charger kicks in with 175amps (@24v) within 10 seconds of the generator starting. It’s a bit tough to start an engine then make it immediately work at 70% capacity from a cold-start. And today he managed to get the PIN code from a friend in Mallorca. Once through the PIN code he finds all the important setup parameters … and a lot more. He just opened Pandora’s box! “Oooh, I can really screw this up now if I’m not careful”. So he changes the one setting then quickly re-locks it. But I’m sure he will be back in there now, fiddling with the other settings too!

Over the last weeks we have observed our ensign getting smaller and smaller, shredded by the wind. And after the passage from Bermuda it is literally half gone, with only a small piece of the Gibraltar emblem left. We certainly got our money’s worth on this one! Time to put a new one up. With the bright colored and full size ensign, Cloudy’s transom looks much nicer.

The sky brightens up in-between the rain showers and it is a lovely light over the hills behind the marina. While enjoying the view and the pleasant temperature, we notice several charter catamaran came in. And their guests rolling suitcases on the jetty. It will certainly get busier and livelier here over the weekend. Actually, it gets livelier much quicker than expected, as guests get very cheerful and louder as the afternoon progresses. They are having their last party on board before going back to their normal life!

Late afternoon, as the heat goes, it is time for proper jobs again: canvas wash. During this summer (if we can call summer the temperatures we had in Maine) mildew started to form all over the bimini and spray top. And they gradually got quite stained. So now that we have all needed tools – sun, water hose, wide concrete jetty – out comes the bimini for a good scrub, which finishes in the dark. We’ll asses the result tomorrow, once it will be dry.

Later in the evening, enticed by the cheerful crowds from the charter catamarans and a live reggae band, we go for a stroll through the marina and towards the beach in search for a good spot to have a drink. We settle for Crow’s Nest, where the band plays, and relax listening to the music and watching the various types of crowds. Young groups working at the boat show having a good time, families who start their vacation judging by how fair they skin color is, some locals, and of course the (tired by now) recently arrived charter guests.

Back at Cloudy Bay, inspired by the decorations we noticed on other boats, our Christmas tree comes out too. Not exactly a Norwegian tree, but pretty good for a Shanghai version 🙂 Out of the box, plugged to USB, and it lights up. Couldn’t be faster or easier. It has little LED lights on the branches, no need to bother with decorations! Will have to be angel-less on top, as it only just fits in the cockpit under the spray hood. There, now we are all festive!