Jeff's Log ~ September 11th, 2007

9/11/07
Trying to get anything done around here is like pulling teeth. The people in charge promise you the moon, but the Chiefs never speak to the Indians. Yesterday, my friend Andrea in the office had her day off. The fellow that takes her place when she is off told me that the refueling task would be no problem. Today, the fuel cans are right on the quay where I left them and haven’t been touched. He also told me he would send a maintenance man to see me and look at the refrigeration valve. That guy never showed up either.

I called the refrigeration company in the states, and he told me that the troublesome valve could be eliminated, and the system would function just fine. I asked him why they put an unnecessary valve in and he told me that that it was a redundant over pressure safety. So now, I’m trying to find the hardware that I need to put the system back together.There seems to be no such things as hardware stores in this part of the world. I did find an air conditioner store and tried to get the repair or installation tech to come to the boat. The salesman wrote info down to send him tomorrow between twelve and one o’clock, but that’s prayer time, so I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Today Andrea was in the office and I spoke to her about fuel. Hopefully, I’ll see some results soon. In the mean time, I am repairing the lower navigation lights and the wiring going to them.The boat on our starboard side left today to finish their trip to Dubai. After they left, the mooring buoy on the starboard bow lost a lot of pressure, so the boat ended up meeting the dock on an angle. I readjusted the bowlines and everything is fine now. Yesterday, a boat came in on our port side and the people aboard were from Austria. They have a two year old son who is just adorable. They gave me a dozen eggs, so as not to throw them away. They all left for the airport early this morning to return to Austria. The boat stays here until they go sailing again.

I dropped the laundry off this morning while making my rounds, and on the way back to the boat I stopped at the “best way” grocery store. I was trying to decide what to have for lunch when I came upon good ol’ Kraft MACARONI AND CHEESE. Well I bet you know what I had for lunch. The box was all in English, but they put a sticker over the instructions with Egyptian directions. Good thing I remembered how to make it, because I can’t read Egyptian.