American Spirit II - Day 29; Rudder in the Tube Day; Saturday, February 1, 2014

Before I describe the climatic event of the day, putting the rudder in the tube and attaching the steering arm, since when we're in port not only can we see what our log and others look like by going to the WCC web site, we can actually read COMMENTS left by our log readers. With that in mind, I'd like to encourage anyone reading our log to post any comments you want, or even ask for clarifications if something written is unclear. We won't be able to read these comments until we reach our next port of call, but other log readers will be able to before then. For example, one comment by Diane Lantry-Erler, a friend and neighbor, was that she also had visited the Indian Tribe that some on our boat did last Tuesday. Just how small a world is it we live in?

Yard day number 3 started at 8:00 AM, and the goal was not only to get the rudder post into the new rudder tube; but to hook up the steering arm to the rudder post and put the boat back in the water. When we tried to insert the rudder post into the new rudder tube, the fit was so tight that we couldn't get it to go in more than a quarter of an inch. Not good. Our yard workers being innovative, they secured a 12 inch hydraulic jack, and after stacking some wood under the rudder, started jacking it up, slowly. Once the rudder post was in the rudder tube about 6 inches, four of us grabbed the rudder and lifted it up into the tube, all the way up. This whole process took more than an hour. Once the rudder was up, the steering arm and bolts; and a quadrant; were attached to the rudder post. After this was done, in turning the rudder from left to right, the top of it was too close to the bottom of the boat, so the top of the rudder had to be sanded down. However, once the boat was lifted by the Travel Lift straps before being put back into the water, the stern, which had had a vertical support beam under it, untorked and the end result was that the gap under the top of the rudder between the bottom of the boat got larger. We really didn't need to sand the top of the rudder after all.

At 10:00 AM the rudder project was substantially done. However, we couldn't put the boat in the water until high tide, which came today at 2:30 PM. A fifteen foot tide. While Joel continued to work on the boat, Darlene and I went shopping for perishable food items, like hamburger, hot dogs, steaks, shrimp, and fruit. Lots of fruit. Like 45 Oranges; 45 Apples; 30 Pears; and a dozen bananas.

Other jobs for the day included fueling and watering the boat; stowing all the groceries; and cleaning the cockpit area as it got filthy during the haul out.

Dinner was freeze dried on board; followed by a dingy ride to the dingy dock and a visit to a local restaurant for Ceviche, a drink, dessert and coffee. Another objective of this foray was to get into a Wifi zone so we could do Internet. My phone had been acting up for a week, in that calls from the US and text messages were not being received by my phone. After spending a half hour on the phone with technical support, my phone was fixed by 'dropping' the local carrier I had and replacing it with another one. So simple I had no idea! Support Team Janet in Tampa was responsible for lighting a fire under my a__ to get the job done. Thank you, again, Janet!

The highlight of the dinner was getting my phone fixed; and talking to Janet and grand daughter Kayden, who was spending Saturday night with her grand mother. Kayden had just received (today) her Molas Purse, a Balboa (the $1.00 Panamanian coin, not the Balboa Beer) , a small coconut and an Abalone bracelet from grand pa. Kayden, I bet there's more to come as grand pa travels around the world!

While motoring to and from the dingy dock, our dingy left a trail of phosphorescent 10 feet long behind it. First time I'd ever seen that from a dingy. And once back at the boat, when a wave splashed onto the transom, there were tear drops of phosphorous all over the rear of the boat, that 'stayed' for about 5 to 10 seconds before disappearing. How cool is that!

After dinner we tried out the new TV and DVD player, by watching V for Vendetta. Everything worked. Yeh! The DVD player will even play DVD's from around the world. Most people don't know that a USA DVD will not play in a European DVD player, and vice versa. Different technologies. Remember Beta Max and VHS?

Lights out at midnight. Except for the person composing and entering this log.

Tomorrow we head for the Las Perlas Islands, which I'll describe in Sunday's log. They're only a few hours away. Anyone know what Las Perlas means? Find out tomorrow.

Brian Fox