Damage Control

9. December 2010

We got up fairly early this morning. After a quick breakfast Sven went to work to fix the generator, the battery, the engine and the autopilot. First he had to get all the 4 liter of oil out of the engine again, that he had poured in the night before. Unfortunately we cannot check the engine as the starter battery is not working, so we need to buy a new one. Autopilot, the chain is broken and luckily we found some spare parts in our many draws. It took him not too long and he got the chain fixed and while he was fitting in the repaired chain and checked it stability… two new pieces broke off, so there was no way around it, we also needed a new chain……that meant Sven had to go to shore to find some help and new parts. By the time we got organized, and the Dinghy down it was already 2.30 pm… I really was hoping that he would be successful in his mission. A bit of anxiety was there, what if….but we would deal with it when it was there to deal with…..I left the VHF on just in case he needed to get in contact with us. By six I heard Sven coming back from shore…. With a smile on his face… he got a new chain and a new battery and again he even managed to make some new friends in the Puerto Rico Fishing Club. He is amazing…….he even organized for us to go there tomorrow to have a shower and to check out internet….. What a day….but now I am very tired and need to get some sleep……I just said one thing to Sven…if we can avoid it I would not want to do any overnight trips for a while or if ever again…… he totally agreed with me…..