Happy Birthday Jer! We were looking forward to more island exploration but the winds picked up in the morning out of the South. It became quite rolly in the mooring field and not very dinghy friendly. Furthermore, David’s engine inspection revealed some salt residue on the outside of our exhaust/saltwater outflow pipe that he had not noted before. He felt there might be a leak there which could be a major problem.
He started the engine and no leak or dampness was noticed but we remained concerned about the salt residue. We opted not to investigate further with the storm coming and the possibility that we might make things worse. We will have to investigate further once things calm down a bit. We are hoping to find a hose clamp problem rather than pipe corrosion.
David decided to do an oil change and was able to accomplish that. We spent the rest of the day on basket weaving, reading and cleaning.
Our pre-storm gathering was cancelled due to sea state conditions. We will try again as we continue up the chain. We had good solar so we were able to use the internet for a lot of the day without impacting our batteries. We were able to charge the Jackery fully so we can keep devices charged and use internet to check weather apps tonight. David has gotten quite good at rotating that solar panel all around the boat to maximize charging.
I watched some videos about coconut care and use. There are a lot of delicious looking recipes for coconut cream and pudding but I do not have a blender aboard. I am opting for roasted coconut slices sweetened with a little maple syrup. That will be tomorrow’s project; today I opted for the sauna technique of removing the meat from the shell. 10 minutes in a pot of boiling water loosened it right up. Then a vegetable peeler to remove the skin.
We blew the conch at sunset. Nautilus answered. Winds are still from the south becoming west and then northwest by morning.
