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Bottom Cleaning Day
In order to make any speed, the bottom has to be scraped of barnacles. They grow quickly here and it is a mess. I don't want to go in the polluted dirty river and so I hold the dinghy by the boat as john scrapes the sides with a putty knife. When that layer is done, he makes a long handle for it with wood and duck tape. Just as he finished round two, Carlos paddled up and will finish up the bottom, rudder and propeller for $40 real. That's about $30 USD. I think it's a great deal, John grumbles.
I don't make any head way with the sat phone. It has to be the phone itself. I am starting to get the feeling that nothing works on this boat. John rewires the auto pilot but the navigation brain shorts out. The ham radio only listens. No proper ground to transmit. I don't know enough to fix that. I am basically out of ways to communicate once we leave the wifi of the marina.
Peanut butter and jelly again. We head to town. It is the only thing aboard that is not more than 2 years past the expiration date. The spaghetti expired in 2000! John leaves used oil in the field. This is not my idea of traveling the world and leaving pollutants behind. John buys diesel. They will hold it while we shop. We check the internet for weather and it looks good for Sunday. Backpacks full of onions and potatoes, we drag the diesel back to the dock.
An unfortunate incident occurs. I have possibly shorted out the anchor light while wiring a plug for my electronics. When I ask if a fuse may have blown, John blew up, i think he has been festering since I didn't clean the bottom of the boat myself. I do not feel good about going to sea with this man. He has been rationing food and dictates what I will eat. and I am wondering just how he deals with real survival issues.
I plan my departure. I find a flight for the day after tomorrow and do not say a word through dinner. His stories of past crew experiences leaves no doubt that this is not the boat for me.
