Just a few words about the Marina Cumana- goto, which is the only game in town if you want to stay in Cumana. There is no anchorage, either. All of the facilities are in terrible shape. The docks are falling apart, the electrical connections are nonexistent or questionable, the water pressure is bad. The showers are in the mall itself, so you get to share the space with everyone using the mall. The saving grace of the marina is the staff, who are personable, friendly, and helpful to a fault. We especially like the managers, Ruben and Gaston. The dockhands and guards are great too. The rates are almost 50% more than Bahia Redonda in Puerto La Cruz, where the facilities are so superior it's like a different world. But if you want to see Cumana, or need a mechanic, you will need to go to Cumanagoto.
Here's Larry in front of a neighboring boat, which seems to have been abandoned here, and left for the cormorants that splat on the deck all day long. Larry wanted to have someone over to the boat and stop here, telling them that we need to have a bit of work done.

We have a PYI Packless Shaft Seal, or "dripless" shaft seal, which has been great for many years. What we have found out, however, is that when it goes, it really creates a flood into the boat. The word in Spanish for flood is "inundacion" and that's what we had a couple of weeks ago. We found out about it 15 minutes away from the dock, thank goodness - because our automatic float switch for the bilge pump also decided to give way at that point too. We have an Ultimate Pump Switch, which has given great service for many years, but is now also kaput. After much footwork and investigation we have figured out how to get spares for both, and are having them shipped. Our simple haulout has turned into more of a project, with a shaft seal to replace, and also our engine motor mounts, which the mechanic strongly recommended.

In between things breaking on the boat, we are actually fixing some of them. Our latest project (which we haven't tested for water tightness yet) is a new kitchen sink drain. Here's Debby washing dishes out in the cockpit. We've been using a bucket for our sink for months now.
Here's the new sink drain. We couldn't find a drain to fit the holes for the sink; it's too small for standard kitchen drains, and too large for bathroom drains. So we found some plastic drains and had to cut some washers using a hole saw out of plastic plates. Everything is bedded with silicon.
Underneath the sink, here's the new fixtures. We are hoping for the best with this. It will be nice to have a working galley sink again.