Jocara Newsletter
July 1, 2005

This newsletter comes to you from a Jocara stuffed with greasy, broken 
engine parts and oily carpets lying to two anchors for safety just off Gan 
in the Maldives.  Our local mechanic, Chilli, has been very hard-working.  
He's the only one on board both strong and small enough to crawl into our 
ATF swamp (aft bilge) to blowtorch the shaft coupling and remove the 
bolts.  With his help we managed to uncouple the shaft and remove the 
gearbox to reveal a bell housing crammed with shards of torn steel; our 
damper plate has self-destructed.  A week later we've finally managed to 
order a replacement part (Oh please let it be the right one) to be send 
out to us from Florida via FedEx.  Since it's not coming via DHL we might 
even get it. Oliver came out from Singapore for a couple of days bearing 
wonderful gifts from friends and replacement air filters for our sampling 
research. Meanwhile the waiting has not been boring, with a continual 
stream of water-related breakdowns to test our patience.  Fresh water 
plumbing spouting geysers (several times), leaking camera housings (both 
video and still), generator cooling pump, a water-soaked wind indicator 
shorting out...  We also had a 30 knot squall that almost took the awning 
away and another that threatened to put us on the rocks in the early hours 
of the morning.  Otherwise all is well.  OK, not quite.  We're out of 
beer, wine, whisky, gin... actually, pretty much every kind of systemic 
muscle relaxant.  So spirits are on the low side at the moment, but will 
surely be back on top when we get it all together again in a weeks' time.  
Until then, this is the crew of Jocara signing off.

P.S. Don't forget to check out our website at http://www.jocara.net for 
updates, pics and short movies, also archived newsletters.  Anyone can 
join the list or unsubscribe by sending an email to mandar@arl.nus.edu.sg 
with the subject line 'subscribe jocara newsletter' or 'unsubscribe Jocara 
newsletter' as appropriate.