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American Spirit II - Day 402; Showers & Toilets Explained; Fueling Day; Rendezvous Party; & We Finally Get our Whisker Pole Back; Thursday, February 12, 2015



One year ago today:

"Day 40; Crossing the Equator; Wednesday, February 12, 2014. At 3:45 AM this morning, during Darlene's 3:00 AM - 6:00 AM watch, we came upon some fishermen who had laid miles of nets almost in front of us. A fishing skiff, one of 6 that the 'mother ship' had been pulling behind her(we'd seen them earlier in the day whey they crossed under our stern), rushed us and the crew members on board starting shouting at us in Spanish. They drove their boat toward us and 'herded' us away from their nets. Fifteen minutes later we we near a flashing light, which was the corner or end of their net. This flashing light was a buoy that they had placed to mark the southeast corner of their nets. Once there, they stopped escorting us and we got back on course toward Galapagos. We only lost 15 minutes in the diversion. Another boat, Trillium, we found out later, took 6 hours to get clear of the nets. They, also, were 'herded' around for that entire period. In retrospect, we were very lucky."

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Up at 7:30 AM. I know we had breakfast, but can't remember what we had (I didn't put it in my 5" x 7" log book),but I bet I could guess. So, breakfast consists of...who knows?

Took a shower at 8:30 AM up at the dock facility. When I entered the shower stall there were two empty beer cans in it. Oh, I forgot to explain the toilets. Of course there was no toilet paper in the stalls. That would be expecting too much. And unlike most of the world, in the 3rd world you never put toilet paper down a toilet. Never. Not unless you want to shut down the entire sewage system in the city. So you put your used paper in a small can next to the toilet. Sometimes the can has a top; often times it doesn't. And then there are bathroom facilities where there is no can. Like in our marina in Salvador. So you 'stack' your used paper in a corner where the can used to be before someone stole it. And no, I didn't forget to bring my own paper with me.

Going back to the showers themselves, the marina has a unique way of making sure that the very nice shower heads (they ARE very nice) are not stolen. They energize them. By that I mean if you have the misfortune of trying to adjust the water angle while you're taking your shower, you get electrocuted. I'm not talking about a 9 volt battery to your lips like some of us experimented with as children. I mean a real hair raiser. Bradley from Alpheratz and Terra from Adela both got shocked. So be careful what you grab for in a Salvadoran shower. And Jeanine just told me as she's washing the breakfast dishes that she got a minor shock by just touching the water on and off handle in one of the lady's shower stalls. I guess we'll have to wear our rubber sandals in the shower from now on. There might be a business opportunity there. Selling rubber sandals made in China to people using the showers who want to adjust the water angle on the shower head. Oh, and there is no hot water. At least its so hot outside that the water isn't really cold.

So why do we use such extravagant showers when we can shower on our own boats? Water. Or a lack, thereof. In our marina in Salvador, the water isn't potable, i.e., drinkable. So we can't fill our water tanks from a dock hose, even using our charcoal filter. Because its not safe. And we can't make water in the marina from salt water because we don't want to run yucky water thru our water maker. Because then we'll need a new set of filters. So we use the dock shower. Boats that want to put water in their boat water tanks can order 5 gallon containers of water, like the ones you see in office buildings where you use a small paper cup to drink from; and then have to pour that water into their boats themselves. So if you need 50 gallons of water, you need to order 10 of these very awkward water containers. And if you're lucky, they'll be delivered to your boat.

At 11:00 AM Joel and I pulled the dingy up to the cabin top and then inflated it. We then put the empty jerry cans into the dingy, and Joel motored over to the fuel barge about a quarter mile away to fill them. There wasn't enough space for me to join him. He made a total of 4 trips, getting diesel fuel for Ghost and Alpheratz, also. During this process we had lunch on board. I cooked up some hamburger patties in the gallery and then some homemade French fries.

Jeanine was out buying SIM cards with Civetta II and a new SIM card for my phone, which still doesn't work. We bought 300 Real for the phone (about $100) and can't access it.

The last fuel run was at 2:20 PM and we finished fueling by 3:40 PM. Joel then showered and at 4:40 PM we took the 'elevator' up to the upper city to go to the Rally Rendezvous Party starting at 5:00 PM. The drinks and food served were very good; and then prizes were given out for the last leg from Cape Town to Salvador. Merlyn of Poole in our division took first place honors, even though they finished last a couple of days behind most of the other boats. But because their engine hour usage was low, they won. We were back at the boat by 8:00 PM. As we passed Marcel's office, we noticed that our whisker pole was back. It wasn't fixed because he had said that it wasn't fixable the way we wanted it; but I'm glad we got it back because he had been promising he'd have it for us and never following thru when he said it'd be back. He also had my 'repaired' flag staff that was broken; and a plug for us to splice into one of our electrical lines so we could use our air conditioner.

At 8:50 PM we watched a movie, 'The Hours at the End of the Street.' A 'horror' movie, I think. Not a bad movie. Joel and I went to bed around 11:00 PM while Jeanine stayed up doing emails on my back up computer.

Brian Fox


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