Cruising - it is simply a case of maintaining your boat in exotic locations.
Yesterday I checked the voltage on all of our batteries as we noticed that we were losing voltage early in the evening and were having to run the generator a second time if we were to get a decent amount of sleep before the power alarm went off during the night. They all metered out ok so we obviously needed to start looking for the cause of the power drain. The compressors for the fridge and freezer were constantly running, drawing around 10amps which appeared to be the reason for the depletion, so I found a refrigeration engineer and he came round this morning. It is no wonder the compressors were working overtime, there was no gas in either system! We had them refilled and instantly the draw on the battery bank improved and the compressors gained some respite. Debra wants me to learn how to do the refills myself but it looks as though the system could explode if not balanced correctly, so maybe not. It is on our annual jobs to do list now though, and I did learn how to tell if the gas levels are too low so I will be able to react quicker next time.
I also serviced the four winches today, much to Debra's surprise, she went to do the laundry and by the time she got back, three of the four were already done. Busy me!
We're out tonight experiencing some local cuisine at the container park, a short walk from the dinghy dock at the far end of the bay. Our sailing friends Richard and Kathy have recommended it to us and we are going with them to give it a try.
We're also going back to the fish market tomorrow, the red snapper we had the other night was delicious and we want some more. At 8EC dollars per pound (approx £2.50 per lb) we can't pass up the opportunity for more. Yum! We also got some tuna that we'll BBQ tomorrow night with some other friends. It's great to be reconnecting with everyone out here!
