Mike left Culpeper yesterday to make his way back down here. Debbie told us he would be here early this morning. 5:00ish Debbie calls down the stairs and says Mike is here but security wants to talk to me…..just wanted to check to make sure Mike was one of the crew. I met a couple of the security team here the first night we got here. It’s nice to know someone really is watching after the place……I’m pretty sure we are the only livaboards staying here….
Got Mike in and he went to bed. Susan and I made a pot of coffee and stayed up. Couldn’t go back to sleep.
Mervin showed up and took the wooden stair tread off the cockpit ladder to repair and checked the decking he was trying to dry out. He’s come up with a reasonable plan to repair the wood treads…good news.
I make my call to have life raft recertified. They will send someone over to pick it up, unpack and inspect it, and let me know what it will cost. The bad news is that the process will take a couple weeks….issues are the age of the raft (8years), my desire to have a case installed to be able to stow the unit on the fly bridge, oh and it’s a six man raft….. We plan on having six guests with us…..plus us equals eight people. So two people will have to swim. Don’t think that’s going to work.
So I’ve asked for a price for a new raft. About $4,000. She is checking price and availability. more bad news.
Im feeling sick to my stomach….really want a smoke, but thankfully grab Susan and head out to find bulk oil and filters to do oil changes on both mains and the generators. I’ve put a little over a hundred hours on them so for. NAPA auto has great prices on all the good stuff for marine engines. We find Duffys Bar and Grille, two for one drinks, all day every day….
Mike awake when we get back and he and Itackle the mains before dinner. A little messy but we get it done.