What Next?

I barely made it to town on my gas starved boat. Squeeze bulb, one hundred yards, repeat. Pop, pop. How can there be water in the fuel line? I have a top end water separator.

Once in town I found the source of the problem, resorting to using the handle of a fork as a screwdriver.  There was an air lock in one of the fuel lines.  I took her for a test spin. That solved the problem. I hung out with some visitors to town, friends of a close friend who was off captaining a sailing charter.

Dinner and off to the house. About a mile from my house the engine slammed to a halt. This was not a sputter and die, this was an abrupt, definitive halt.  What now?  It wouldn't crank. I registered over 12 volts.  I popped the fowling and the flywheel cover. The starter gear engaged the flywheels but could not rotate it.  I had no starter cord so I improvised one by dissecting a diamond braided mooring line and using one of the core strands. Nothing. Seized.  Damn it all to hell.

I paddled until I got to my neighbor's house and tied to the dock. My bright flashlight and calls elicited no response save a deep and loud barking of what was obviously a very large dog.  Hmmm.  I walked the sidewalk, past the hotel under construction to a residence on the grounds. No one home.

Guess I'll have to man up and paddle the rest of the way. I got back to the dock and encountered an enormous rottweiler that immediately charged at me. I bent over and he licked my face, attacking it like a parched dog at a water bowl.  I looked up to see an Indian sitting on a bench.  I explained my situation to him and he offered to take me home if I had some gas, as he had none.  He called his wife who scurried to the dock ten minutes later and he pulled me home in an erratic path that kept varying in speed.

It turns out that the guy was from Kusapin, a remote community of four or five thousand Ngobe. The people there have a reputation as being hard working.and honest. I asked if there was anybody he knew there that was looking for work. Turns out his father is.  I gave him my number, though it was kind of pointless as my phone won't take a charge. Twenty hours on an OEM charger and it won't do more than vibrate when I hit the power button.

I have to find some way to get to town, pick up a desk I had made for me, go to Almirante to buy a new refrigerator for my house, figure out how to get them both up my flight of 100 stairs, get the old one down, check on a broken computer and camera that I sent to Panama City, arrange to have my outboard rebuilt, figure out how I can get over to the farm so I can resume my scheduled activities.

I was shaken awake this morning by an earthquake that rocked every island in this archipeligo. 

That's today's list of fun filled activity.