Jeffs Log ~ Saturday, January 12, 2008 7 46.527N 98 18.212W

As you can see, I haven’t gone anywhere for a while. I have been working on the boat, however, and she is coming along quite nicely. The A/C powered refrigeration system is back on line. Working on the generator is very hard on my back, so I decided to fix some other stuff while getting my back in shape again. Nobody seems to like this refrigeration system. I had a couple of repair guys come and look at it, but they didn’t want to work on it. I went and found the adapters that I needed to hook up my gauges and diagnosed its problem. The system was pumping gas through the system, but high side pressure would not come up. Getting parts is out of the question, so I took the expansion valve out and blew some cleaner through it, put it back together and charged up the system, and I now have a fridge that goes both ways, AC and DC. What really is nice is the fact that when I run the engine now, I also run the 110 system, using the inverter. Things get much colder much quicker, thusly saving diesel fuel. The cold plates do a much better job of staying cold too, so now refrigerator run time is down to twice a day, unless it’s really hot day, then it’s three times. I also have fixed a couple of electrical problems so the batteries are charging faster than they were too. Unlike most cruising sailboats, the only means of charging batteries is to burn diesel fuel, either main engine or generator must be run. We have no solar or wind generators. We’re too fast for that stuff!!

I have been swimming routinely keeping the bottom clean. The water is very healthy here with lots of fish and lots of invertebrate life too. The prop and the shaft grow barnacles very quickly as well as the very bottom of the keel where the paint has been scraped off. The waterline on the port side usually faces away from the sun, so the grassy moss is a constant problem over there. It is very good exercise cleaning it, and I enjoy being in the water every couple of days. Yesterday I saw a group of about 6 or eight jellyfish riding along in the current as the tide was going out, and everyday I can see very large schools of small fish hanging out under the boat. Sometimes a school of larger ones come and start feeding. It looks like the water is boiling when that happens.

This morning when I called Clara, she surprised me with a whole gang of people to talk with. That really made my day, as I have been homesick for the last few days. I sure do miss the Fireplug gang. Everyone there sure is wonderful. I heard that Jessica is almost as tall as her Mom, and quite a pretty young lady with very long hair. You go Girl!!

Winter time here is called the northeast monsoon. Nobody has told the wind that yet. The bay in which I am anchored is open to the west. When the wind comes from the west, and the tide is running hard, I lay ninety degrees to the tide and if it’s really windy, sometimes the boat rolls fifteen or twenty degrees on the waves. Because of the shape of the bay, the incoming tide creates big rolling swell, especially the last forty-five minutes of flood. Today is one of those days, and pretty windy so I’m rolling a bit as well as dancing hard on the anchor rode. Doesn’t really bother me, except for having to repair a lot of typos because I miss the keys sometimes.

Tomorrow I have to do the visa run to Burma again. I did get some English newspapers and magazines yesterday, so at least I’ll have a little something to read this time. While signing up for that, I also have the travel agent putting together a trip to Bangkok for me to renew my passport at the US Embassy. That will be the next exciting trip.

I did a little reading and I’m sure you trivia buffs already know that the earth is roughly 24,900 miles around at the equator. I am halfway around the world from all of you, so that is roughly 12,500 miles. I just kind of roughly plotted a quick sail home, and with the obstacles in the way, it’s around 20,000 miles of sailing from here to Fort Lauderdale. I never thought about that before, and just thought it was interesting.

I want to thank my brother Keith for his supportive E-mail. My big sister Chris I want to thank also for her very welcomed New Year's e-mail. I don’t mention much about Family, but I do want them all to know that they are in my thoughts a lot. I will try and be better with personal contact. Extended time away from civilization as we all know it is really good for the soul, and really makes me think about how lucky I really am to have the friends and family that I have and I love all of you! Got a little emotional there, Hope you all don’t mind. At this point, I’d like to ask you guys to please take a minute or two and add some comments. It is always nice to hear from friends, and I think it helps spice up this blog page too. Just remember to keep it more or less PG rated as I hope there are some young impressionable minds reading this too.