Page 62

Tuesday

David has three crew members. Nat, Alex and Vincent. Alex is Swiss, Vincent a Bulgarian refugee, who lives in America. He has got to be the most bungling(/floundering) person I have ever come across. I saved him in the dinghy several times when he ran out of gas, when he couldn't start it or find out how to put it in gear and just drifted longer and longer away. This morning he went too close to the rocks and then the safety pin in the propeller broke. Shortly after replacing it he ran out of fuel and drifted towards the Galapagos Islands and I went out to get him back (here) again.
David had lost his patience with him and made a remark to me that he would probably have to bring(/get) him ashore before it goes all wrong(/will end in disaster).
I told David that if he brings him along, he will have to forbid him touching anything. But it's probably too dangerous ringing him along, both for himself as (well as) the others.
David had problems with the dinghy engine and Vincent had taken half the engine apart, when David asked me to come over and take over. The problem was that there was gas running(/flowing) out of the carburetter. I asked if they had remembered to turn off the gas tap after the last time they had used the boat and David admitted that they (well, Vincent) had forgotten for the first time.
The carburetters on the small 2-3 horsepower engines are tiny and the float valves a rather(/quite) delicate matter. So if you don't turn off the gas tap there's a big risk that the ??? will jam and then the gas will be flowing right through. I started by assembling the engine and already screws were missing?? (Ah, h...(/hell), Vincent). I took out the spark plug and "aired (out)" the carburetter and engine by turning(/rotating/revolving) the engine many times without the (spark, edit) plug (in it). Several of the screws Vincent had taken out were gone((/had (completely) vanished)) so I went(/turned) to Trojka to find others(/replacements). And then it of course just started again.

We wanted to go on a beach trip(/to the beach) and what better beach that the small deserted one could be better. So we sailed ashore and left the dinghy and walked to(ward) the beach. The beach was located behind some big buildings that General Noriega had used at one time(/back in the day). Luxury palaces for prostitutes and generals, but aren't in use any longer(/are now deserted), since he's in jail(/prison)(/doing prison time) in America (now). We explored the biggest of them. They haven't been(/'re not) locked, since they have already been totally emptied(/looted/stripped) of everything of value, including doors and windows. But we could easily see that it had (once) been extravagant luxury(/extravagantly luxurious). To get down to the beach we needed to crawl over giant rocks and along and rocky coast (up) on the rocks. It was(/turned out to be) a lot further (away) than I'd thought. So when we finally reached it(/our destination) we enjoyed bathing(/swimming) and lying on the beach. After some hours there came first one and then another and told us that we definitely couldn't be bathing there. (Turns out, edit) it was a crab resort inside a closed territory(/area) controlled by the Smithsonian (Institution, edit). But they were really sweet(/good) and we weren't thrown out of there. Most likely because of Nat, who looks incredibly(/unbelievably) enchanting in a(/her) bikini. We found a fountain, one of those drinking fountains you bend (down) over. This had so much pressure on the water that it went up in (the air in) squirts perfect for a shower. I dropped my trunks and stood naked enjoying the(/my) "shower" when suddenly a bus with tourists passed by only 10 metres from there. We couldn't see the road since it was half a metre lower. Some took(/got to take) photographs and they seemed very happy when(/as) they passed us.

During the rock walk I had lost my t-shirt so when we took the bus to town to go shopping I was stripped to the waist. Then I'll buy a new one there (a t-shirt is(/costs) a dollar). People here never walk around stripped to the waist. I think it's their religion?? The driver asked(/told) me to put on a t-shirt. The small girls on the bus couldn't keep their eyes from my naked(/bare) stomach and whispered and laughed a lot. The women acted completely giddy(/silly). When we got off in (the) town, in the middle of a large crowd, everyone looked(/stared) at me and I hurried inside the first shop(/store) to buy a t-shirt. Nobody in there "fainted" but it could(/might) have been a close call, and all because of a bare stomach.

We had dinner on board Beacon and had a pleasant time with David and Alex before Nat and I went to the bar. We were there until after they had closed and helped the bouncer cleaning up after ourselves.

To Page 63

From Esbjerg, Denmark to Tahiti aboard a Junker 22