SoBe

Well we're still in South Beach (SoBe), Miami and very much against our will. Yup, you guessed it the beast has broken down AGAIN. Within twenty four hours of being here the engine wouldn't start and then when we did get it started the batteries wouldn't charge. Fast forward to us wandering around the city with an alternator desperately trying to find someone who could test it. I wouldn't say troubleshooting, thinking outside the box, empathy or helpfulness are big in South Beach. Turns out eyelash extensions for toddlers and padded bras for six year olds are. Very disturbing. We then took a very long dingy ride to a mechanic who said he could test the alternator - when we got there he said "oh no I don't test it I send it away", hanging in the background was a poster of Osama Bin Laden with bullet holes in it. 

    

 

Before Christmas is not a good time to break down - most mechanics are closed from Dec 23-Jan1. After calling almost every marine diesel mechanic in the city, we did manage to find a very nice marine electrician. He came to the boat and did some rewiring for us and got our batteries charging - we're still working out why they aren't charging as well as before. We also found a couple of rip off artists who were only too happy to come to the boat and mess around, take our money and not fix our fuel leak. We have been told by one mechanic to call back on Monday and hopefully he can fit us in early in the week. 

Homemade Christmas Stockings

When we couldn't get the engine to charge the batteries we were having some really windy days. The wind generator wasn't adding any amps to the batteries at all and we managed to determine what we have been suspecting - the wind generator was broken. After days and days and days of trouble shooting we found we have a broken rectifier. We have ordered a new one and once it arrives we hope we can get the wind to help charge our batteries!

When everything breaks at Christmas, brandy and eggnog is the only sensible solution. 

Cortadito - mmmmmmm

The "agenda" for Miami has gone completely by the wayside but we did get to Little Havana on day one before we realized we had any troubles at all.  We went to the "World Famous" Versailles restaurant and it was incredible. The places seats something like 300 and there is a line up to get in! We had a delicious Cuban lunch with amazing coffee and desert.
We also picked up our cockpit cushions and they fit! We are still hoping to do some early morning beach yoga before we leave for this far away and perhaps imagined land called the Bahamas.

The stockings were hung by the mast with care and we took Christmas off from worrying about the boat and trying to fix the engine ourselves. We went out for breakfast and made a picnic and took it to the beach. We have a great anchorage and are going swimming off the boat everyday.

Elaborate boat Christmas Decor

"Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree"

There are lots of little canals here and we can dinghy to different places.  We were out in the dinghy a few days ago and our propeller hit something in the water. It worked fine for a couple of days and we were really hoping that by some miracle that it didn't break but it did. James identified the problem and found a propeller repair place and incidentally the two nicest men in Miami. We paddled the dinghy to the shore (which is no small feat) took the bus to the closest stop to the repair shop and walked the rest of the way. Originally they told us it would be a couple of days to get it back but once we got there and they realized how far we had come they fixed it on site. We thanked them so much and explained how much bad luck we've been having since we arrived. They totally took pity on us - they gave us bottles of cold water, a box of donuts, let us use their phone to try to find a mechanic for our boat. One guy even started calling people he knew to see if they could fit us in. Turns out bullet-hole Bin Laden is "the best mechanic in the city".

The last boat has just left the anchorage for the Bahamas, waving to us and shouting "Good Luck", which in truth is a very hard pill to swallow. However, our boat has a New Year's Resolution .... to stop breaking down. We support her resolution one hundred percent.

Christmas Day on our boat

View of Miami from our Anchorage