This morning we thought we’d have a lazy day, just a bit of snorkeling, kayaking and relaxing between the incredibly vibrant shades of azure, turquoise and mint here on the southern side of the lagoon. But when breakfast bread had been on the stove for about twenty minutes, the flame suddenly started shrinking and soon after went out. A clogged up line? Out of kerosene? No, the pressure gauge showed 0 bar and the handle of the air pump was pushed up: the valve of the air pump had started leaking. Damn. We quickly pumped up the pressure again, put the bread back on the flame and then took turns pumping for 10 minutes until the loaf was done.
After breakfast Christian took the kerosene tank out of its compartment, took out the air pump and tried to disassemble it. While trying to get the lower bit out it cracked open a bit and voila, suddenly the valve worked again. Of course we wanted to try out immediately if it would actually keep the pressure, so I put my little finger on the kerosene hose (the one that usually leads to the stove), Christian started pumping and we were thrilled to see that the needle of the pressure gauge remained stable. Hurray, without thinking I took my little finger that had started cramping from the hose and immediately a kerosene fountain shot out, drenching us and the cockpit until I got my finger back in place. How stupid can you get? I paid for my lack of intelligence with a cockpit cleaning marathon… Even the bimini had got a stain, so we took off the rain collection canvas that sits on top to keep it from contamination. As it was already off we got the sewing machine out after the
cleaning frenzy and I restitched the seams that had started to come undone.
When we had finished it was already 5 in the afternoon–not exactly a relaxing program…
