Port Washington - Tuesday & Wednesday & Thursday & Friday & Saturday

Tuesday

Relaxing day. Later in the day took the dinghy over to the supermarket dinghy dock - Deidre bought some new sheets (we  are having visitors soon) and I wandered over to West Marine to buy some supplies to fix the fuel line problem. On the way back we stopped at the fuel dock and filled up two 5 gallon containers of gasoline. Heading back to Tide Hiker we discovered one of them had a leak so hightailed it back to the dock where I turned the container upside down and put some electrical tape over the crack. Returned 15 minutes later and transferred to fuel into a better container. That was the excitement for the day.

Wednesday

We have been having some issues with generator #2 since we bought the boat. I cannot "load it down" without throwing a breaker. I have had two "technicians" look at the issue over the last two years. But there is a certified "Northern Lights" dealer in the bay so we visited them today to get the problem investigated. After three hours of "trouble shooting" we have decided one of the breakers in the circuit (there are three before it hits the panel) was undersized and maybe even faulty. I assume we will return in the AM to get the replacement part installed.

If this works then we will finally be able to charge the batteries AND make a cup of coffee at the same time. Now that would be something! The dockmaster scalled and said we could stay at the dock for "free". (I will decide how free that is when I get the generator repair bill.) To celebrate we walked to a neighborhood Mexican joint and enjoyed a light dinner.

There was some good news on the canal. July 16 was even mentioned.

Thursday

Progress. We eventually found a serviceman, and for the "meager" sum of $410 the refig now seems to be working OK. The part for the gen has been found and will arrive Friday. We found a little woodwork shop in the neighborhood and dropped off the damaged cabinet door and it will be ready in the morning. And the honey boat paid us a visit so the tank is empty again! .I sanded and varnished the panel that was removed to gain access to the refrig. I will let it cure overnight and reistall in the AM. We are all feeling better.

Deidre walked up to the local shops and purchased new sheets - we are having visitors soon.

Friday

Deidre made pancakes for breakfast while I "watched" Collingwood and the cricket. After breakfast I picked up the repaired cabinet door. Deidre and I washed the aft deck screens with detergent and Chlorox and reassembled them. I spent some time polishing stainless. Deidre filled the water tanks. The Captain from the 135' Hataras came over for a chat. The people in the Northavn "next door" invited us in for a drink at 5PM.

But the part did not arrive! Turns out it was not sent overnight but UPS ground. We decided to have the old one re-installed on Saturday so we could leave, and have the new part FedEx-ed to us up north "somewhere".  We had planned to leave early to catch the tide Saturday. Now we are delayed a day before we even start. Bummer.

Saturday

We were thinking that if we could leave by 12:30 PM we could catch the afternoon tide and make it up to  our target anchorage by dark. But Oscar did not turn up till about 11 AM and the he really seemed to mess around re-installing the old breaker.  He is a nice guy and I did not want to make a big fuss, but at $125 an hour.....

Oscar

"Oscar" he was finished at about 2:00 PM and I called the Dockmaster to get the invoice. All the time I was preparing for battle, but that turned out to be unnecessary. Oscar had only turned in one hour for his work today and then the Dockmaster discounted the rest of a bill - plus we had stayed at their slip for 3 nights. So although it was basically all a waste of time, they had treated us well. I was relieved.

We backed out of the slip and moved to a mooring ball and enjoyed a relaxing evening.