but I can't bring myself to sit down and do it regularly. I guess I
don't feel like there's necessarily something exciting to write about
every day. I suppose we can take a composite of the last 3 days to
make something readable...
The weather finally started to calm down a bit after what, 4 days of
strong wind? There's been some rain from time to time, but overall I'd
call the weather pretty damned nice. The kids have been doing school
in the mornings until about 9:30 or 10:00. Today, for the first time,
I joined in and did English with Massimo. He did pretty well with me
and complained a little less than he usually does with Sophie. I only
had to threaten to throw his Nintendo into the water once. After
school we go for a dive. Despite being a popular spot here, there's
good fishing on the reef just outside the anchorage. We can always
spear a parrot fish or two for lunch. I speared a nice fat one this
morning, but the camera was apparently off when Sophie snapped a
picture from the dinghy.
Yesterday was Annabelle's 5th birthday so we had a party at lunch.
Massimo and Annabelle baked cupcakes and decorated them while I
cleaned and cooked a fat parrot fish. Annabelle got a huge doll house
(which I find absolutely ridiculous to have aboard a boat, but...),
and a Nintendo DS. A pink version of her brother's favorite toy. They
spent the afternoon networking them and sending each other messages
and drawings. Annabelle even got a phone call from grandma, but she
refused to talk to her (sometimes, like me, she doesn't like talking
on the phone).
Our friend Jaques aboard "Mamou", a Nouméa-based Outremer catamaran,
gave Annabelle a lobster for her birthday. We had it for lunch today
and it was delicious. I've never been good at hunting for lobster.
Takes too much patience looking in all those holes.
After diving and lunch, we usually have a siesta for an hour or so
while the kids watch a DVD. It's our only break from them. Afterwards
we usually do a bit of exploring in the dingy and then it's time to
cook dinner.
Interspersed through all this I've been doing a little bit of
maintenance and so on. I installed a small electric bilge pump in the
dinghy so we don't need to use the bailer and sponge to keep it dry.
Unfortunately the engine is not producing voltage the way it's
supposed to, so this has turned from an "install a new toy" project to
"troubleshoot the outboard motor" project.
Also, after not running the generator for a couple of months, it's
exhibiting some strange behaviour. It has a hard time starting and
then has a very rough, very low RPM idle. Then the RPM will slowly go
up, then back down, then slowly up to it's correct speed. Then the
thing runs fine. I suspect a fuel delivery problem. Feel free to send
an email if you have any suggestions. Could be air, but once the air
is out of the lines, the problem should go away (and it doesn't- it
comes back every time I start the thing). So my guess is either crud
in the injectors or crud in one of the fuel filters. I hope it's crud
in the filters, which I will change when we get back to Nouméa. Crud
in the injectors will require professional service and persistent air
in the fuel means an air leak somewhere which could be a nightmare...
Oh well, not really a big problem, just that it's nagging the back of
my mind all the time. I even devised (in my head) a scuba tank-powered
blower to clear out the fuel lines after I awoke from a bizarre dream
at 4am this morning.
I dreamt that I was riding a bicycle at the Berkeley Marina. The
fascist government there (that part's not in the dream, it's real) had
made it illegal to ride a bike on this 100 foot long stretch of trail.
Somehow I knew that, but the sign illustrating the interdiction was
faded and had graffiti all over it. I rode to the end of the little
trail, turned around at the dead end and started riding out. As I was
bout to exit the path onto the frontage road a barrier sprang up. It
was designed to catch violators, but it malfunctioned and only came up
about 12" above ground, then slowly came up the rest of the way. I
shook my head and was convinced that some group of militant Berkeley
Hippies had rigged the thing, so I pulled out a knife and cut through
the 3 cables that were stretched tautly across the path. No sooner had
I sawn through the last cord than a Berkeley Park Ranger SWAT team
descended on the scene. I won't bore you with the rest of the details,
but I remember being very stressed out when they pulled my mom's car
(the big one Mom, since I know you're going to analyze the beans out
of this) onto a flatbed tow truck to take it to the impound yard. They
also confiscated my bike, which I was upset about, but mostly I was
furious that they were making such a big deal out of such a silly
misunderstanding. I found myself spewing a wonderfully rich and
profane string of expletives at the head Fascist-Hippie-Park Ranger
protesting the idiocy of Berkeley's public policy. Perhaps deep down I
want to go home but just can't come to terms with the social climate
there.
I dove on the hull today to inspect the results of my mooring error
the other day. There are a few scratches in the bottom paint, but
nothing even into the gelcoat. Very minor. In fact the worst of it
seems to have been caused from that fishing lure I wrapped around the
prop on the way here... Never mind, another small error... $100 for
the lure and a clean spot on the hull where the taught line scraped
off the slime.
Since the weather's gotten nicer, we're going to stay here one more
day to wait for our friends aboard "Sol Maria". They're a wonderful
French-Canadian couple we met in New Zealand last year. In the morning
we'll have a mission to get fish and maybe some lobster of a big feast.
Now I have to go read the kids a story for bed, then off to bed
ourselves.
Bonne nuit from Ile des Pins.
