REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Bilge monsters and Dominicanizing things

It knows how to be hot here. Most mornings it is cool by tropical standards. By 10 am its just HOT. Fortunately every afternoon the sea breezes pick up and it gives us some relief. Each day we try to pick projects that are out of the sun or below decks. Im not complaining, I will take the heat over the cold anyway, but my white ass gets burned to easily these days.
We fished a little last weekend. We took some friends of the boss out. On the way off shore, one of the guys asked if we could have a chance of catching some Dorado. I told him that there are just not many here. and that all we ever catch is Blue Marlin. Ha!!! We had the lines in for 3 minutes before the first Dorado piled on. Nearly every boat that fished that day had Dorado in the box. Go figure. We did go 0 for 2 on Blues. One just spit the hook after jumping a bit. But the second fish gave quite a fight. All three anglers took turns at the Blue and just as the leader was getting close, The line went slack and the blue slipped away. Easy come easy go. But the guys on the trip had a blast.
Today we spent the day in the engineroom doing battle with the bilge monster. I have written about the bilge monster before. Its an evil little dirty monster that lives in the bilge of any boat. The live on a diet of dropped nut and bolts and small tools. I know one is down there, because I have lost a crescent wrench and a few screws that just seem to disappear. I think he bit my arm today as I was working on an air conditioning pump. Tyler says it was just a hose clamp that cut me but I think it was him. The only way to keep him in check is to keep the engineroom clean. So we spent the day cleaning the engineroom and doing service on some of the systems down there.
Last Thursday our washing machine developed a leak. I tried to find where it was leaking to no avail. A friend of mine here said he knew of a guy in La Romana that works on clothes washers. So he made a call and the guy came out. ( Thank you Josie) They spent 2 hours at the boat helping get the washer out of its hole and diagnosing the issue. It turns out that there was a hole in the retention tub. After figuring it out, The said they would take the machine to their shop and fix it. It turns out there was a hole in the retention tub. No one on the island has a tub and after some calls , we found that none are available stateside either, so the repairman Dominicanized the tub. They patched it with some kind of resin. They returned today and helped reinstall it. I asked how much I owed the guy. He hemmed and hawed a bit and then told me 90$ I ran as fast as I could back onto the boat to grab some cash. Back home we would have been charged 90 bucks for a one hour service call.
There are only three boats fishing today. They should be arriving soon. The sun is getting low on the horizon and is peaking through a few scattered showers off towards Santo Domingo to the west.
We have some of the most beautiful sunsets here at this marina. Its always a pleasure to sit out and watch them. I do love my sunsets. oops they all just came in... Therapy catch two blues, the Chasin tail catch 2 blues and a white, the Canyon Gear catch one Blue.
Tomorrow Tyler and I are taking a day off and playing golf with the crew from the Therapy. I have a feeling that the Tooth of the Dog Course here will never be the same again.