St. Maarten - Done!

So have I mentioned that my husband rocks? Well, he does. The new oilpan arrived here on Thursday morning and since then we have been working from dawn til dusk fixing the generator. Kevin has been the brains (and brawn) behind the entire operation -- first tearing out and re-installing the mylar/foam insulation in the locker (the old stuff was torn to shreds and making a mess), then building a new mounting system for the generator out of marine lumber (which is like plastic and doesn't absorb water -- the previous owner mounted the generator on a piece of plain ol' plywood, which got saturated with saltwater and is why the oilpan got rusty in the first place), and finally hoisting the generator and putting the oilpan back on and then guiding it into the locker and attaching it to the motor mounts. And of course today he spent another ten hours just reconnecting all the hoses and electrical wiring. So this evening at 5pm it was showtime and after a few false starts (air was in the fuel line) the thing roared to life and we were back in business. Now we can charge the batteries on cloudless/windless days, run the air conditioning, do laundry on the boat, have hot water whenever we want -- basically all the things most other cruisers live without but hey, we like our creature comforts!

We still have yet to see much of St. Maarten but this was a pretty big project and it is good to get it finished. We plan to do a little sightseeing sometime in the next couple of days. So this has probably been a boring week for those of you reading the blog, but for us it has been a lot of blood (did I mention I got a small shard of metal embedded in my foot? Glad I got that tetanus shot before we left), sweat (all of the work was done outside, baking in the tropical sun), and tears (of joy, that is. Because it is finally done!). Time for a rum drink.