Thursday, April 02, 2009 1:04:17 PM Location: Santa Barbara de Samana The boat position was not recorded. This weather observation was taken on Thursday, April 02, 2009 12:46:21 PM local time. Observation location: Santa Barbara de Samana. Observation position was not recorded. The air temperature is 84, and water temperature is 0 degrees fahrenheit. The forecast is Sunny. The current weather is dry. The sky is broken clouds (60 - 90% clouds). The wind is 10 knots from the east. The visibility is 10 nautical miles. The wave height is 2 feet with 0 foot swells. The barometer is 1018 millibars and falling. A new sailboat came in yesterday morning from Puerto Rico. They are a nice french couple who sailed across from France to Granada. They worked their way up the islands to here and are heading for the east coast of the US. She is the sailor and adventurer and he is the somewhat reluctant crew. It is nice to see a flip flop now and again. She wants to see NYC and then work their way back down the coast and head over to Jamaica and then go to Guatemala. There they will leave the boat and backpack through Central America. Cool. She then wants to cross the Pacific, and he wants to head back to France. They still have a home there a little north of Niece. I had drinks on board their 35 ft Dufour and they are coming over for drinks this evening. She speaks English well and he only speaks French. I am trying to dust off my French, but Spanish words keep coming out. A few last comments on the tiresome refrigerator. It seems to work well on 120 volt current, but not on 12 volt. After 15 years, I think the whole system is probably marginal and the 120 VAC is supplying enough energy to overcome the overall set of problems. The 12 VDC side either does not have robust enough wiring, or the DC side of the circuit in the refer is weak. The refer is supposed to work on as little as 10 VDC and it is getting nothing less than 12. So, I think the refer components are the problem there. I started to run new wires, but found that I just don't have the stuff on board to do it and the effort would probably not produce any better results. So, the answer seems to be to run the inverter full time now until we get it replaced. It means an additional 10 amps being consumed all the time, but I see no other option. My project list for Brunswick GA is fairly large now. I hope the West Marine store is not closed due to consolidations. I both want to work there to get a discount, and want to be able to walk to my parts store! It sounds like Shelter Bay Marina (Colon Panama) is really falling apart. They switched management and apparently pissed off all the workers. Everyone running the place has quit, the restaurant is closed, dinghy motors and computers are disappearing, and they raised the rates!!! They must have hired a gringo... I still have not gotten to the Pizza restaurant, but soon! And Mary arrives on Tuesday! David Powered by BoatExec http://www.BoatExec.com