Merry Christmas from Grenada! Yes, Grenada. If you can remember the old Credence Clearwater song lyrics, “Stuck in Lodi again” and replace Lodi with Grenada, that sums up our last 10 days. We have had many facts proven the past 10 days. The first fact is that Sally’s head will not explode if she is stuck in Grenada past December 15th. I told Bill when we got back from our trip to the States that we had exactly until December 15th to get out of Grenada or my head would explode. Well, it’s December 26th and my head is still intact so the exploding head hypothesis was proven to have no scientific evidence behind it. We have been stuck in Grenada testing the fuel tanks. Our engine system on Galt is pretty straightforward. Fuel delivery systems are designed so that they form a vacuum which moves fuel through the system and thus, the engine runs. You put fuel in the tank, the fuel pick up line sucks up the fuel and sends it in to the Racor filter. The Racor filter takes out any water or impurities and then shifts the fuel to the fuel pump which moves the fuel through the engine and then the leftover fuel recycles out of the system back into the fuel tank to be reused. Simple theory. Until it’s not. On day 1 of the test, we encountered our nemesis…the dreaded air bubble. If there is any breakdown in the system that allows an air bubble to enter the cycle, the engine will stop running. The Racor filter has a transparent bowl on the bottom of it so you can check for air bubbles which makes them easy to see. So, Bill tightened all the connectors and bled the system. Bleeding the system involves filling up the Racor filter with fuel, using a pump to move fuel into the system and then checking valves to insure fuel is flowing. Of course each valve requires a different size wrench to check it so that just adds to the adventure. Once bleeding was complete, we decided to run the engine for one hour because our theory was, if it could run for an hour, it would run forever. As the countdown to the hour progressed, the engine chugged along happily. Minute 55, chugging. Minute 56 and 57…chugging. Minute 58….glub, glub , glub. Silence. Neither one of us wanted to utter the words but the words “air bubble” hung silently in the air. Like the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray must relive the same exact day repeatedly until he gets his life right, the next week progressed exactly the same. Bill would tighten screws, change fuel lines, put additional fuel in filters, disassemble and reassemble the Racor all with the same repeated result. I would be on the internet researching possible causes that we overlooked. Bill even read the engine manual….which claimed that bleeding the system was never necessary because any air bubbles would be forced out naturally from the system. At this point, we could not even get the engine to start, much less purge itself of the evil air bubble. After the manual’s nonsensical claim, we voted to go the purveyor of all knowledge ever known to man….Youtube. There was one guy who made a two minute video and in his video he said, “Be sure to open these two bolts and bleed them or your engine will never start.” Sure enough, Bill bled those two mystery bolts and the engine started right away….and so did the air bubble….just floating around like a tornado in the Racor system….taunting us with its’ evil swirl. Finally, Bill and a local Jack-of-all-trades tried bypassing the entire system except for the fuel tank. The local guy bravely picked up the fuel hose and sucked on it. I watched in horror waiting for diesel fuel to come pouring out of his mouth but he simply shook his head and said, “No fuel” which was the most logical thing we had heard in days. No fuel. We knew we had fuel in the tanks but I stubbornly stuck my head into the tank to double check. Yes, fuel. At this point, Bill voted that the issue had to be with the fuel pick up line in the tank but it seemed unlikely since we were having a universal issue with all the tanks. Bill texted the guy who fabricated our tanks, “We are having an issue with the tanks. We think there is a flaw in the fuel pick up line.” We waited for a response. Ping…..then Bill read the following words….”What fuel pick up lines? I didn’t put any in. I thought you would do that.” Fact number two: engines will not run without a fuel pick up line. Fact number three: Bill’s head will not explode when faced with utter stupidity but it was really close. So now, we wait until Tuesday when the local stores reopen and we begin the hunt for items to fabricate a fuel intake line. So, the fuel tank saga day 145 continues.
On Christmas morning, we were awakened by a truck full of steel pan drummers rolling slowly through town playing “Feliz Navidad”. Luckily “through town” doesn’t take more than 20 minutes because Feliz Navidad seemed to be their only song. The marina restaurant hosted a “traditional” Christmas lunch buffet and we were curious which countries’ tradition they would follow. Grenada was historically a British island so we weren’t sure if we were getting British, European, American or Islander. Our first course was some sort of broth that did not seem to have much in the way of spices and was a bit bland so we assumed it was British. We asked one of the British diners if the soup was a British tradition and he responded, “No, I think it is from the islands. It is so flavorful!” which made us chuckle. Next, we took our ticket to the buffet and grabbed our plate. All the food was hidden under chafing dishes and the server would lift one lid at a time and put a spoonful onto our plates. We had green beans, carrots and broccoli, plantains, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, pigeon peas, corn casserole, rice, shrimp skewers, fish, ham and turkey with cranberry sauce followed by coconut cake or a brownie with ice cream for dessert. Luckily the pool was still opened so we could swim off the starch coma! We were joined in the marina by the crew of five huge, multi-million dollar yachts that arrived this week. Yachts that are 250 to 300 feet long generally have around 14 to 20 crew members. The majority of crew members are in their twenties. Fact number four: We are officially old because all the twenty somethings looked like they were 12 years old! Dodging the twenty-somethings-who-were-really-twelve-years-old that were sitting on the docks shooting selfies and talking on their phones, we strolled down the dock admiring the yachts and picking out which ones we would put on our Christmas list for next year. Given all the facts of the week, the one truly solid fact was fact number five: Santa should never be seen wearing a speedo. Fact number six: Once you have seen Santa wearing a speedo, you will never be able to unsee it. So, as Christmas 2021 draws to a close, I leave you with the image of Santa in a speedo floating through your mind….the image is forever burned into my soul!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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