Lightning Strike Update 2
18. January 2021, Monday
11° 9' 57" N, 119° 23' 14" E
As you know from the last logbook entry, we are in a beautiful country where sinfully expensive "EXPRESS" deliveries from UPS or DHL can take 2 months or more instead of 2 days.
Not only that:
We have learned that we are in a country where over 100 phone calls and emails with the local service centers are necessary to get things moving.
However, this only works if you call the suppliers in the respective countries in a rather angry mood and they contact the respective parcel service providers in Germany, the USA, Australia or Japan.
These Parcel service providers put massive pressure on the gently sleeping Filipino colleagues and it works. ;)
You can imagine that sometimes it is difficult to be patient here.
But miracles happen again and again and so things gradually come here.
Every now and then I find out that I have ordered the wrong spare parts or that they are no longer compatible with the ones installed.
In a more progressive country that would not be a problem, but here in the Philippines where every LED lamp or other little or big spare part has to be ordered separately from abroad and is then often "lost" on the way at the customs or post office, this is a nerve-wracking task.
Also you won't find any mechanics who have any idea about ship's electrics or electronics and so, as a self-proclaimed "technical bogeyman", I have no other choice than help myself with the Internet or tips from other sailors through the constantly new subject fight.
A yacht like this has innumerable cables that mysteriously disappear behind panels and then reappear in another surprising place.
At 35 degrees below deck, I can imagine more refreshing tasks, this search in the bowels of Odin.
But little by little we get things going again and luckily Frel has more patience with electronic things and so it's her job to program and set things like autopilot or charging computer for the lithium batteries.
Christian a sailor from Canada helps with the work in the mast and so we will hopefully solve all problems little by little and learn from the mistakes we make at the same time.
REMEMBER:
An old sailor wisdom says that a circumnavigation of the world means nothing more than repairing your ship in the most beautiful places in the world. ;)
Not only that:
We have learned that we are in a country where over 100 phone calls and emails with the local service centers are necessary to get things moving.
However, this only works if you call the suppliers in the respective countries in a rather angry mood and they contact the respective parcel service providers in Germany, the USA, Australia or Japan.
These Parcel service providers put massive pressure on the gently sleeping Filipino colleagues and it works. ;)
You can imagine that sometimes it is difficult to be patient here.
But miracles happen again and again and so things gradually come here.
Every now and then I find out that I have ordered the wrong spare parts or that they are no longer compatible with the ones installed.
In a more progressive country that would not be a problem, but here in the Philippines where every LED lamp or other little or big spare part has to be ordered separately from abroad and is then often "lost" on the way at the customs or post office, this is a nerve-wracking task.
Also you won't find any mechanics who have any idea about ship's electrics or electronics and so, as a self-proclaimed "technical bogeyman", I have no other choice than help myself with the Internet or tips from other sailors through the constantly new subject fight.
A yacht like this has innumerable cables that mysteriously disappear behind panels and then reappear in another surprising place.
At 35 degrees below deck, I can imagine more refreshing tasks, this search in the bowels of Odin.
But little by little we get things going again and luckily Frel has more patience with electronic things and so it's her job to program and set things like autopilot or charging computer for the lithium batteries.
Christian a sailor from Canada helps with the work in the mast and so we will hopefully solve all problems little by little and learn from the mistakes we make at the same time.
REMEMBER:
An old sailor wisdom says that a circumnavigation of the world means nothing more than repairing your ship in the most beautiful places in the world. ;)
