We wake up at 5:45am and attempt to get done in the galley before the guys arrive to finish the shaft install. Paul attempts to make a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave and discovers that it no longer works. Well that is just greatL. Now what do we do? We have no car, our boat is in a drydock, and the kids are coming next week. The microwave had overheated a number of times and stopped working, but it always came back to life. This time the keypad will not do anything. It is dead. I make the oatmeal on the stove (the old fashion way).
By 6:15 "Shock Wave" as he is known, shows up to finish the shaft install. While he continues working, Paul works on polishing the hull and I try to figure out how to get a microwave. The microwave that we have is a special size and it took going to quite a number of stores before I found one the right dimension. The microwave fits into what was a cabinet over the sink. What are the chances that we will actually find the right size on St. Thomas, and how are we going to get to the stores?
A little while later, I see Brian (the engine mechanic) and he offers me the use of his jeep, but I turn him down not wanting to take the responsibility of using his car on this island of crazy drivers. I do remember that Pamela Wilson (the mgr. of the charter boat Catatonic) had offered to go pick up the kids next week if I needed her help. I figure that the least she can tell me is no, but I call her to see if she knows where I can get a new microwave. She offers to pick us up at Compass Point later in the afternoon and take us to the circle of stores in the Tutu Mall area. Perfect, but I am still concerned that we will not find the right size.
At 8:30am Gene tells us that they are going to start putting us back in the water (even tho the last of the connections of the shaft are not done). It is determined that "ShockWave" will continue working while they lower the dry dock and float us. We will only have the use of one engine so Gene has a guy ready in a dinghy to act as tug boat for us. He will help push the boat next to the old dry dock so that the work can be finished.
It takes about an hour and a half to get the dry dock down, boats floated and us pushed to our dock space. It goes surprising smoothly. Once we are docked, Paul checks out our gas grill that he had trouble with last night when cooking dinner. He puts the hose & regulator on, turns it on, and it appears to be working fine. Not sure what the problem was last night, but it gets hot quickly this morning.
By 11:30am the boat is ready to go out for a test ride. We want them to check the temperature of the bearings and Brian wants to check the engine work that he did. With Brian from Offshore Marine, and Bob from the dry dock we get ready to leave. We look for our thermal gun to check the temp. and cannot find it anywhere. No that is really NOT cool. We know that we had it when we arrived at the drydock, so where is it now? Bob goes and gets his and we leave the dock. Once out in the channel, Paul heads downstairs to work with the guys while steer out to sea. We get the engines up to 3000rpm and I am running at 16kts. according to the GPS "speed over ground". The new bearing appears to be behaving by it still reading 20 degrees hotter than the port side. We all wonder if there is still a problem, but there is absolutely no vibration of the shaft and everything looks great. Time will tell.
With everything working, we drop the guys off at Sub Base and head a quickly as possible to Compass Pt. Marina where Pamela is meeting us to microwave shop. We arrive at exactly 1pm (as scheduled) and Pamela meets us. We decide to start at Kmart. Paul and I go in and Pamela keeps LuSea in the car with her. Kmart has a number of microwaves that are small enough to fit into the cabinet, but they are so much smaller than what we had. We go back to the car and tell her that we would like to try another store before buying the smaller one in Kmart. She takes us to Price Smart. Amazingly, Price Smart has a Samsung (same brand as we had) that is the perfect dimension. Only two issues……. First, the microwave keypad is completely in Spanish. Not even Spanish & English. OK I guess we can live with that. There is no book with the unit. Also unfortunately, we can't find any units in boxes. It seems that have just the floor model. We find an employee who helps us to look and when he can't find them either, he makes arrangements for us to buy the floor model. Score! Guess we will have to learn more Spanish. With microwave under arm and a bottle of Baileys for Pamela, we head out to the car and back to the marina. None of us believe that we did it in only two stores.
We thank Pamela profusely and take our new prize to Cattitude. It fits perfectly! Guess our Spanish microwave will serve rice and beans with all meals cooked in it. J
Paul takes the old micro to the dumpster and we are off to Whistling Cay for the night! Actually, feels like vacation for a few hours. When we get to Whistling Cay it is pretty wind so we decide to take a mooring ball at the far north/west end of Maho Bay. It is one single ball all by itself. However, it is close to the channel between Whistling Cay and St. John. It is now 5ish so we decide to call it a day and have cocktail hour while watching the sunset. We set up our beach chairs on the aft deck and have a cold one (or two). While sitting there, a ferry comes barreling thru the cut and we rock and roll. Paul & I go sliding across the aft deck in our chairs. Luckily, we didn't slide right off the deck. It was actually pretty funny, and probably funnier to anyone who might have been watching us. While relaxing, the local "Volunteer Boat Rangers" pulls up. (To be a volunteer, you check on what boats come into the mooring field and write down the names. You also tell them of the park rules. Performing this service gets you a free mooring for the length of your stint. I hear it is a month minimum. Mr. & Mrs. Volunteer take their job very seriously with matching hats and their clipboard. They remind us that we need to put our $15 mooring fee into the "Iron Ranger". (An anchored boat with a metal drop box attached). We will do that tomorrow when we are leaving. Lucky, I have an envelope from the Park Service that I can prefill and then just get a new blank envelope for our next visit. Go away, we just want to relax. We should have stayed at the end of Whistling Cay. It appears that that is too far for our Ranger Volunteers to travel.
I put a call in to the BVI Vet but there is no answer. I also email him. I want to be sure that he can meet us tomorrow at Soper's Hole to clear in LuSea.
We have dinner and I shower & head to bed while Paul reads for awhile. Tomorrow we go back to the BVI for some fun. (now there is a novel word in our Cattitude Adventures).
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