Day 3 and 4 Simpatica Delivery

Day 3 and 4 Simpatica: Sailing, Stopping for fuel and Nav Lights:


Day 3 was great. We sailed all day only running the engine for a couple of hours for battery charging. The wind was only blowing about 12 to 14 but the boat sailed along on a beem reach all day at 6 to 7 knots. It kept up untill this morning (day 4) and then died away all together. Today we headed for Ocean World in the Dominican republic because we are able to dock there and do all the check in rigamaroll and get fuel and HOPEFULLY light bulbs for the nav lights which have been failing us one after the other.

The other night the red and green sidelights failed altogether and Richard and I dug around up forward until we located the comon connection which was coroded. Richard reconnected them while bouncing around in the Vberth on his back with his head stuffed in a little compartment. The Green then went on but the Red was still out. The next morning we checked the red bulb and it was totaled. We checked on the white stern light which was failing intermitently and it was also coroded to the point of near failure. We figured that was ok because in a pinch we could turn off the steaming light and with no stern light we could just use the all around white anchor light… but it only stayed on half way through last night before it failed as well. Soooo being offshore with no nav lights is a big mistake so it contributed in a big way to our decision to pull in to Ocean World today.

I am sitting here at the dock now, we have filled the fridge with ice, done our laundry and filled up with fuel and some guy here ran off on his little scooter with a wad of Jimmy’s cash to see if he could find us 3 new Nav bulbs… I am not very optimistic at this point and since we are all checked out already to leave early in the morning and we have a great weather window to continue our quest for Key West.

Hope he shows up soon. One good thing about stopping… Jimmy, Richard and I have been jonesing for cheeseburgers and theres a place here to get em.

Frustrated,
Captain Tofer