Day 36, Year 6 More Shopping
Date: Monday, November 29, 2010
Weather: Rain Overnight, Overcast Day, SW Winds
Location: Tuzi Gazi Marina, Richards Bay, South Africa
There’s not much to report today. We spent our morning putting away what we bought yesterday and then spent the afternoon shopping and putting more food stuffs away. We picked up the piece from our anchor windlass that we had hoped would be fixed, but not. And we picked up our alternator that we had hoped would be repaired, but not. So part of tomorrow morning will be spent on trying to find shops that can do the repairs we need. We are doing fine with the back-up alternator, but if something should happen to it we would not be able to produce power to send emails or keep the refrigerator and freezer going. So having a back-up is very important. So we will continue the search for someone who can get the parts to fix our alternator. The piece from our anchor windlass that we had hoped to get repaired is not quite as critical. The piece is called a gypsy and it provides the cogs that the anchor chain goes through when we raise and lower it. The current cogs on the gypsy are very worn and sometimes the anchor chains slips, but if we are super careful, we can probably make it back to the US with the current worn gypsy. So tomorrow morning, we will finish the last bits of food shopping and continue the search for places that can repair our broken bits. We will also do the last long-term food shopping, and when we return to Windbird and get those items stowed away, we will start looking for that window to head south.
