We awoke to completely dead house batteries. In theory, the combiner that charges both the house batteries and the engine starter batteries protect the engine starter batteries. But until the engines start we are holding our breath hoping the combiner worked right. And indeed, the engines start right up. But the house batteries don’t start to charge. Apparently, the combiner wants to completely disconnect the house batteries and leave them off line. Dave had to jump start it with a screw driver – manually connecting one battery to the other. This brough the combiner back to life and started the house electrical system working again. Sheesh.
We headed from Clam Bay to the Madeira government wharf figuring we needed a bit of a recharge. Coming in they put us on the dock nearest the shore. It looked to be way too shallow for us. Melissa hollered out to the dock attendant who was waiving us in to inquire as to the depth. 30 feet he said. He said the shoreline just drops like a cliff there.
We are nearing the end of the commercial prawn season up here. They are Canadian spot prawns that are prized for their flavor between a lobster and scallop and with a short 6 week season. One of the commercial vessels comes into the dock and sells their catch to passers by before loading it up onto the trucks. Early in the season they get 1000 lbs a day, but are down to only a few hundred now. Melissa and Margaret walked over to buy some, but they wouldn’t take the US cash. Well, they would have – but straight across at 1:1. Which is a total rip-off given that’s a 30% increase in the cost. So we walked into town to the ATM to get some Canadian dollars out. Then returned to purchase 2 lbs of live prawns. Hearing the little suckers rustle around in the bag was freaky.
Meanwhile Jim walked into town for groceries and gin.
A barge pulled up and loaded up with building supplies and lumber. A crane on the truck loaded the barge. Was unclear how they were going to unload it wherever they were taking it.
Dinner was BBQ shrimp with garlic butter and grilled lemons, grilled steak, roasted yams, and sauteed rainbow chard with garlic!
