It’s been a productive few days around here. I can attribute that to having the crap kicked out of us by wind, day and night, which effectively killed my diving. The wind was averaging about 30 knots, with seas upwards of 15 feet. Without the ability to dive, the only thing to do was work on the boat – which I did.
Wind and Work
The Christmas Trades blew in, with a vengeance. I’m happy to have wind again, but this much isn’t exactly what I was hoping for. The forecast is calling for the winds and waves to decrease over the next few days – but it’s been near gale-force here and actually gale-force in Cartagena, Colombia (where we have some friends hunkered down).
The good news is I’ve been diving the anchor and the only thing the wind did was dig us in deeper. Despite the wind, I was confident enough in our anchor that I was sleeping well.
Generator
First I got the generator working (temporarily). After troubleshooting, I was able to narrow it down to a fuel problem, and I attributed it to a clog in my portside fuel tank. So I blew out the fuel lines, bled them, and after a couple of hours – the generator cranked right up. I was feeling pretty good about it, and moved on to my next task – the saildrives.
Saildrives
Some fishing line around the props damaged an oil-seal, which was allowing saltwater into the saildrive oil. On my starboard side it was worse. The absolute fix for this is hauling the boat and replacing the seals. I really, really don’t want to spend that money right now, unless I have to – not to say anything about the time and hassle involved. So I brought over a friend (thanks Mike!) to tell me how serious he thought it was, and he did far more than offer his opinion on serious/not serious. He suggested a similar fix to a commentator on this site – Doug. Doug – you were right, and Mike convinced me to try it. Thanks for the intelligent suggestion! The “fix” is installing a sail drive oil reservoir above the waterline, that feeds into the sail drive. This creates gravity-fed, positive pressure in the sail drive – meaning that I don’t (in theory) get saltwater into my sail drive. I created this system over a day or so, with an empty gear-lube bottle, some aquarium tubing, and some super-tricky drilling. I’ll post pictures after I sea-trial it. Of note – I did this on only one sail drive (starboard) to test it out. If it works, I’m going to convert both sail drives to this setup. It’s not too difficult, but doing any modification to something as important as my saildrives does give me pause.
Watermaker
Next up – dumming down my water maker. The water maker I have onboard is the Spectra Catalina 300 MPC. It’s a 12V system that is capable of a whopping 12-14 gallons per hour, when it’s working correctly. When I finally decided to do my change/upgrade I was producing (maybe) 1 gallon an hour. Because there was no blockage in my lines/my thru-hull, and my accumulator was pressurizing correctly – the feed pump was suspect. It was corroded, hot, and making funny noises. It’s also the most failure-prone part of the system.
When I purchased the boat, I was told that the MPC (computerized control unit) wasn’t hooked up but that it worked. That was a bold-faced lie, courtesy of the previous owner. And I was such a fool I didn’t check it. The truth, which I found out afterward, is that when the boat was struck by lightning 3 years prior – the MPC part of the unit was blown. Since then it had been operating in “emergency mode” – which is, in effect, a manual water maker. That’s fine, but the previous owner didn’t remove all of the excess wiring, tubing, solenoids, etc – that were the brains/heart of the MPC. And, when operating manually, the Bodine Electric Vane Pump didn’t have the automatic safety checks in place.
These vane pumps are especially sensitive to being run dry, among other things. They’re also expensive. So I decided, on my boat – they aren’t a real solution. With that in mind, I needed to remove that part of the system, all excess wiring and tubing, and then cannibalize the stuff I removed to use for spare parts. That, replacing corroded hose clamps, and tightening connections took all of a day. Not a ton of fun – but I got it done. As of now, I’m waiting on Luke to bring in those ShurFlo Pumps (part number: 8008-943-839) – which should be fairly simple to install. I ordered mine from CLR Marine. The only other thing I needed was a couple of ShurFlo elbows, a couple of T’s, and a couple of Y’s. These were much harder to find than I thought – but I found them at US Plastics.
Windlass
Since I’ve owned the boat, I’ve been popping the 75AMP breaker that “protects” my windlass. It doesn’t happen every time I pull in the chain/anchor, but it does happen. Since the problem is intermittent, and I only notice it when I’m picking up anchor – I didn’t tackle it in my “refit” in Puerto Lindo. But I quickly became sick of it. There’s nothing worse than having your anchor halfway up, in strong winds, and having to run below to flip a breaker.
So I did two things – first I checked the breaker. Seemed fine. Then I pulled the manual and sat down to do some reading – turns out that there are two models of my windlass – the Lewmar H2 and the H3. I didn’t know which one I had – but both called for a breaker over 75 AMP. So, again, the previous owner had done something not-so-intelligent by installing an under-sized breaker. I sifted through my spares and managed to find a 110AMP breaker – which would be perfect if I had the H3 version of this windlass. Since I didn’t know, and wanted to inspect the windlass anyways – I got into the anchor-locker and pulled apart the windlass. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was still in excellent shape, and I learned it was the H3. So I swapped the 75AMP breaker for the 110AMP breaker I had onboard. We’ll see today if this fixed my problem, but it’s pretty likely fixed.
Generator (again)
About this time I began using some power tools. Which means that I cranked up the generator I thought I had “fixed.” Of course, it ran for awhile and then died again. Not cool. I managed to get the rest of my work done using my inverter. Then I pulled everything out of the locker with my generator in it and started all of the troubleshooting again. After awhile, it seemed like my fuel/water separator might be clogged. When I put the filter-wrench on the filter, it became clear that it was a little too tight. I managed to crumple the outside of the filter without it budging. Before I completely destroyed the filter, I went below to look for it’s replacement – and I didn’t find it. I tore the boat apart – but I couldn’t find the replacement filter. That was a major bummer. I dropped everything, jumped on the computer and tried to find somewhere I could overnight the filters to Luke. I managed to find a place that would ship quickly, but nowhere would guarantee delivery by the date I needed it. I took a chance and ordered the replacement anyways. If they don’t get here, I’ll just have to figure something else out. Complete amateur move – heading off without a filter replacement, but I swore I bought them.
Dinghy
The best all-around dinghy is the inflatable dinghy, if you excuse price and the fact that they don’t sail well, don’t row well, deflate and are a PITA to repair. Which means they aren’t always the best all-around dinghy. But for my purposes – they’re a pretty good dive platform, pretty light, simple to get in/out of, don’t sink, and are fairly comfortable. Add to that the fact that they don’t ding up my (or other people’s) boat when I come alongside.
Well.
Mine started to deflate. It’s clearly not a new dinghy, and I’ve been threatening to get a new one. My thought on the inflatables is that if you choose to go the inflatable (also known as “deflatables”) – with heavy use you’ll probably need to replace them every 5 years or so to keep them from adding to your list of maintenance items. Mine is about 7 years old. It’s had a tough life.
More than a couple of people have asked: Why replace your dinghy? Why don’t you just patch it?
Experienced cruisers know better. When a dinghy starts to go, there are a myriad of problems that begin happening all at once. One pinhole leak turns into 5. Things begin separating. Seats fall off. Handles tear out. Old patches fail. Fiberglass bottoms become waterlogged. Davit-points begin to leak. Oars don’t clip in anymore. My thought is that I have so many maintenance headaches already – the last thing I want is to have to worry about my dinghy. As such, if I can afford it – I’m going to replace it relatively soon. I don’t know if I can afford it yet, but here is what I’m looking at.
The contenders for my new dinghy are:
- Caribe 10ft Fiberglass – Solid, dependable. Heavier than the all of the AB’s below. Likely slightly cheaper.
- AB 10ft Fiberglass – Same as the above, with a slightly lower weight and likely a little higher quality.
- AB 10ft Aluminum – Lighter than everything above, decently thick hull, more expensive.
- AB 11ft Aluminum – Roughly the same weight as my current dinghy (and the new Caribe 10ft), with greater stability, a very high-quality (thick) aluminum hull, more room, and more waterline. A definite favorite, the issue being the price.
Two things put the AB’s ahead of the Caribe, right now:
- They have a limited 10 year warranty. I’m hoping for 5-7 years of service out of this inflatable. I’m really happy to see a company show some level of confidence in the longevity of their products. Especially considering what kind of abuse these things take.
- They’re made in Columbia, which is my next-door neighbor. I can justify a trip to Cartagena to sell my current dinghy and replace it with a top-of-the-line AB, if I get a good enough price.
Stuff
Having people come in from the States has helped me immensely during this refit. With the speed at which things break and need to be replaced, refitting without having people that can help by being boat-parts-mules would be longer and more difficult.
Luke is coming down to help me start capturing the trip on video. I’m finally at a point that The Nomad Trip will start proving to be an adventure, as opposed to an exercise in boat-refit futility. So I didn’t plan on shipping much to Luke. But that’s changed as things have broken. From the simple to the complex, having access to the postal system and system of commerce available in the US is immensely valuable.
Here’s a small example. Yesterday I ran out of drill battery in my portable drill. I slapped in my spare, which I always keep charged, and found it wasn’t charged. I plugged my charger in, put the spare battery on it, and found that the charger wasn’t charging it. After a bit of inspection it became clear that the battery had corroded – a result of an ex-crewmember leaving it out in the rain overnight. Without a spare battery, simple boat projects can drag on for days. But with someone coming down from the States, I was able to buy a refurbished drill, and two new batteries (for the price of a single new battery in Panama). Thank the little Baby Jesus. Even more important is replacing my French Press – which Mom dropped off of the back of the boat the other day when cleaning it.
So. Today we’re going to get some water from a (very nice) neighbor, then sea-trial all of my fixes. Then Luke comes down, and we’ll have a full boat until Mom leaves. It’ll be cool to have another young freediver aboard, and I’ll be able to provide a better look into my life – through Luke’s video. Stoked about that, and hope you are too.
Wind and Work
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