Testing Times

Thursday dawned and we set about finding remedies to various problems;

A.  Replace the Batteries
B.  Get Volvo to fix the intermittent stop/start problem on the new engine
C.  Provisioning for the best part of three months.

Having spent time online trying to find battery suppliers I took a cab to the north of the city to Casa de las Baterías, where they had a good range in stock. However when I measured up I found that the only suitable ones were too tall for our underfloor battery box. In the end I bought two on sale or return and Mark heroically lugged them, one in each hand, down the long, long bridge to the ferry dock. Once back aboard we took out old batteries and tried the new ones, but they were a few millimetres too tall and the floorboards wouldn't sit back

So on Friday we all set off to search for more batteries and to do a provisioning run. We came back exhausted without batteries but with lots of tinned food and 60 litres of milk.

Then I paid for the mooring and we motored down to the free anchorage at La Playita.

Saturday breakfast was amazing because we were under the densest concentrations of sea birds that we've seen for a long time. Huge flocks of pelicans, terms, little gulls (must look them up) were then followed by a black river of cormorants flying low round the headland in a dense stream that kept on and on and on coming. Meanwhile the water was erupting with the great splashes as flight after flight of pelicans suddenly tipped on one wing and hurtled into the murky brown water, chased by gulls and terns anxious for leftovers.

Going ashore we found that the elusive Volvo Penta building was facing the boat (albeit closed till Wednesday pm for Carnival). The marina had a good chandlery and although they had denied selling batteries when I had called them on Friday, I found three suitable ones hidden away. They said they could get more, so it seems our power problem may be fixable.