Fixing things in exotic locations

Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador

Lack of progress report for October, 2013

Considering we have been here for over two weeks now, we have accomplished surprisingly little.  One of the first items on my to-do list when we arrived was to get the dinghy launched and the outboard motor serviced.  Until we have this done, we are really stuck here at the marina - there is very little of interest within walking distance (at least in this heat and humidity), and we cannot go far by boat without a reliable motor because of the tidal currents that flow up and down the estuary.

After procrastinating for the first week, I finally got the dinghy in the water and got the motor out of storage (they have a small, secure building where they kindly keep the small engines).  When we left last June, the motor had been running a bit rough, obviously in need of a thorough cleaning - that has always been the answer when I have had any problems with it in the past.  So, with that in mind, I set up the motor in the cockpit and proceeded to clean the carburetor - I'm actually getting pretty good at this now.  It was very disappointing when we put the motor on the dinghy and attempted to start it, only to find that I have again worked my magic and turned a badly running motor into a completely non-functional one.  Not even a hint of trying to start this time.

Two days later, and two more attempts at taking everything apart and putting it back together again, I decided the problem must be "bad" gas.  So, I borrowed some fresh stuff from another cruiser and re-cleaned everything and was able to get a few unenthusiastic sputters and backfires out of it before giving up for the day.  Note: also replaced the fuel filter and checked for spark, etc. etc.  No luck!

I finally enlisted the aid of one of the mechanics here at the marina.  Together we spend many hours doing everything I had already done, all over again.  We did get it to run once, but it was not happy.
The old fuel hose was definitely bad (very stiff, and the squeeze-bulb no longer worked), so we rigged up a replacement on the slim change that this was an issue - still no luck.  Our best guess at this point was a faulty fuel pump - not good news as I do not have any spares for that.

An ACE outboard specialist was due to arrive on Wednesday to work on some monstrously large outboards on one of the power boats in the marina, so I was able to book his time to look at my problem.  When he got to my little engine, he dicked around for about 10 minutes, managed to get it started, listened to it for a few minutes and announced that the spark plug was bad.  (No, I did not have spare).  He left and returned later in the day with a working plug, albeit not the right one for the engine, and got it to work fine.  Woohoo!

The next day, Susanne and I took a trip into San Salvador, courtesy of Jose, our favorite taxi driver.  We went to three different supply places and were finally able to find the correct spark plug (Yes, I bought two), all the pieces I needed to create a nice new fuel hose for my gas tank, and a few spare fuel filters.  While in town, we did some provisioning at the grocery store, and visited the Claro store to buy some more time on our phone and internet dongle.  The phone was not a problem, but the internet stick was no longer active and we were forced to get a new simm chip and phone number for it - a process that took over an hour and required more paperwork than buying a house.  In the end, it turns out the chip is free.  I had to buy enough time (2 days worth) to finish off the month of October, at a cost of $3.00.  Supposedly I have also purchased data time for the month of November for $28.00, but that does not seem to have shown up anywhere as yet, so we may or may not have any internet after today.

Tomorrow, we are scheduled to move the boat out of the marina and down to a mooring field closer to Bahia del Sol, where most of the other cruisers are hanging out right now.  It should be a lot less lonely up there.  We took the dinghy up there yesterday to check out the mooring and had lunch at the resort - the motor behaved itself admirably.

As for the weather here, it has become a little less predictable.  We have had the occasional nights with no rain at all, leading us to believe that rainy season may be coming to a close.  Then yesterday night, we had an extremely scary storm - lots of lightning all around us, some big gusts of wind, and an incredible amount of rain.  The pictures here were taken just before it got to us - it would be pitch dark out except for the lightning, which often makes it look like daylight.  Today we had blue skies, and not a drop of rain.

Regardless, it is still hot and humid all of the time.

Right now, we have no plans to leave the estuary for a while.  With all of the almost nightly storms, we are not eager to be out on the ocean if we don't have to be.  Checking our cruising guides, it appears that rainy season is not officially over until December in Costa Rica.  Possibly a little earlier here?  Who knows!  Meanwhile, life is still good.