week 14- Cruising: boat repair in exotic locations

Week 14 – “Cruising: Boat Repair in Exotic Places”

When in Bimini, be sure to eat at Joe’s .

 They really know how to serve-up conch!

We dined out on our first evening at the dock. The restaurant over at the Bimini Big Game Club makes a good burger, and likewise the deep-fried cracked conch. The service was prompt and the food was prepared just as you ask for it to be. After our meal we wandered down the main lane of Alicetown  

Streets of Alice Town

in a haze of satisfaction.

Mornings are taken slowly. Up at 7:00 or 7:30 with coffee in the cockpit. Read for a while. Do some boat chores. Lunch. Clearly we set a grueling pace!

Ohhhh…and speaking of lunch!

A local fisherman came by asking if we wanted lobster tails. His clarity of speech was left at home and when he said 12 tails for $20 we said okay. I handed him a twenty and he went all serious and then decided to speak clearly: “Forty Dollars!”. I got the nod from Sue and gave him another twenty dollar bill. The bag of lobster tails weighed at least 5 pounds so that was probably all right.

Susan then asked him if he had any other fish, “anything but conch” she specified. We told him we wanted twenty dollars worth of fish. He asked for payment in advance. I told him to get the fish – we would pay upon delivery. He drove away in his boat, returning twenty minutes later with a bag of fresh fillets. He did the mumbly thing again as he passed the bag of fish over. I passed him the twenty dollar bill – and – yup, déjà vu all over again. His speech got clear enough to hear that he watches TV advertising by McDonalds and thinks that he is selling filet cut for FORTY dollars. We said “no way, it is twenty or no sale”.

“You got beer?” he enquired.  “Give me thirty and a beer. What kind of beer you got?”

“Budweiser”, I responded.

“Okay, okay thirty dollars and two beers then”.

I told him that we had a deal. Gave him twenty and two beers and called to Sue to pass me a ten. And (this was bound to happen) she could not find a ten or any small bills at all. I had only larger denominations. The bugger had us again. He acted like he could not understand the concept of making change.  A really good act too!

When he drove away he had forty dollars and two cans of Budweiser in addition to the forty dollars we had paid him previously for the lobster. When I took the fillets below, I realized that we had bought ten pounds of fillets – easily two weeks worth of fish. The lobster took four meals to consume. The fillets are possibly Mahi mahi , and are very thick. We shared one for our evening meal tonight and it was simply too much. With seven more fillets to go I will not be surprised to find fish flakes in my morning yogurt and granola, fish sandwiches for lunch and interesting preparations of FISH for supper. I have always said that I could eat fish every day. Now it is time for me to prove it – right?

out for a stroll

Beaches of Bimini

Daily we are walking the lanes  and beaches of Alice Town, Bailey Town and Porgy Bay, visiting shops and slowly getting the rhythm of this place. 

Resorts world Bimini

Some of the older resorts remain closed and they and a number of homes are noticeable decayed. The development of the new Bimini Bay Resort, Marina and Casino has resulted in spin-off benefits – at least for some.

 There is a lot going on here and some buildings that had been abandoned are receiving new windows and doors

We think that we have found the ultimate cause of our repeated engine stoppages. After repeatedly fooling with carburetion and ignition I gave the engine a rudimentary compression test. Using my thumb as the test instrument, it was immediately apparent that cylinders 1 and 3 had no compression. On close examination, I could see that the exhaust valves were not moving. A syringe containing 50% Marvel Mystery Oil and 50% two-cycle lube oil freed number 3 immediately but number 1 was reluctant. When I leaned on it with a wooden dowel it would cycle fully, but its spring alone was not strong enough to return it to its seat. More oil got it to full range of movement and finally we got compression on all four cylinders! We are going to keep it soaked in Marvel Mystery Oil in the hope of dissolving the rust or carbon buildup which I suspect to inhabits the valve stems.

We added the Marvel Mystery Oil to fuel tank and lube oil as recommended by our engine manual. We will burn a gallon or two of fuel just to keep the valves unstuck before sailing to our summer destination in mid-April. Losing the use of the engine is a major pain in the neck when we have to negotiate narrow, tidal harbour entrances.

Several couples parked around us have been sharing their own ‘Atomic Four’ stories with us. It is kind of fun to hear all of the stories of problems and their sometimes ‘odd’ solutions. When one considers that it is possible to run a more modern engine for its entire service life on the original ignition system, it is like a return to the ‘dark ages’ of the gasoline engine to have to sleuth out the recurrent issues of the older ignition systems. Likewise, in the age of electronic fuel injection, the zenith carburetor stands as a relic of a bygone era, a time in which a puddle of gasoline in the carburetor throat was a sign of that everything is running just fine.

It feels good to figure these things out and make it work again. However, I must confess that I was dreaming about a replacement diesel last night. We will see how this engine treats us for the rest of the season before we make any hasty decisions. Moyer Marine still serves the Atomic Four market, even buying up take-outs and rebuilding them to keep an abundant supply of these relics available.

Susan correctly pointed out that she has yet to see a truly reliable sailboat engine. Two years ago we spent ten days in the Exumas scavenging for old springs to replace a broken one in a Volvo 2000 series plunger type fuel-injection pump. It gave us something to do to alleviate the boredom. Two years before that she was horrified that the ‘ultra-reliable’ Yanmar diesel in the Jane Ann – failed to start at a crucial moment (due to a dead battery). So our tribulations with the Atomic Four ( AKA the Atomic Bomb ) are just ‘sailing as usual’ from her experience.

We shared lunch with cruisers John and Carol ( Arabella, Tartan 34), and Steve ( Lagoon 38) prior to their departure to the Abacos and Spanish Wells. Steve shared an interesting definition of ‘Cruising’ which he found on a cruisers forum. “Cruising: boat repair in exotic locations”. That certainly describes our kind of cruising!

Returning to the boat after a shopping trip for fresh papaya, I elected to take an afternoon nap.  It did not last long.

“Get your clothes on” Susan called down the hatch, “we have company.” These words happily cancelled my nap. We toasted Jim and Judy ( Inzi 2, Hughes 38 ) who just dropped by to announce their departure for the Abacos - early tomorrow.

As some cruisers depart, others arrive. We are probably going to need a small database to keep track.

All of the departures kind of gives us the itch to sail somewhere else too. But for us, it will be all about: “boat repair in exotic Bimini”  until this boat operates smoothly.

Boat repair