Today was mostly a work day on the boat, some planned and some not. First up for Tom was to implement some recommendations for additional repairs on the watermaker received via email from the very helpful technical support person at Spectra Watermakers. That involved adding some sealant around the filler valve on the air tank mentioned in yesterday’s post. The support person suspected (as did Tom) the filer valve was the most likely place for the leak and some sealant underneath its retaining nut and washer might be an effective plug. Once done, Tom started the watermaker and the air leak appeared to be fixed, at least for now. Having now cleaned the membrane and plugged the air tank leak, the system finally began producing high quality water. In fact, it made the best water we’ve ever gotten out of it. We let it run most of the day until our main tank was full.
Meanwhile, Paula made two loaves of bread and prepared more meals for the next leg of our journey. She also did more cleaning. Intermingled with these tasks, Paula has become quite adept at carrying on multiple conversations simultaneously with family and friends using the WhatsApp messaging application on her phone. There were brief rain showers and high wind all day long so it was a good day for inside jobs.
Next up for Tommy was to further investigate a slightly different sound and vibration coming from the engine that Paula noted on our way back from Rose Island with Glennis a few days ago. He dove on the prop and rudder yesterday and all looked well, so that wasn’t the problem. He ran the engine for a while today at various speeds and everything looked and sounded normal. He then put it in forward and reverse and still couldn’t hear or feel anything unusual. He concluded there was probably something rattling around in one of the cockpit lockers while we were moving. We’d been in them a lot in the days before Glennis came and never properly stowed their contents before we went to Rose Island. Tom decided to repack both lockers just as they were before we left Florida.
It was now mid-afternoon and we took a break to play a game of Chess. Tom had been on a three game winning streak but that ended today. It was a long game, but Paula stuck with it and won the match. To celebrate, she took Tom out for dinner (featured picture).
The most exciting part of the day occurred when we came back to the boat from dinner and Paula noticed water leaking under the galley sink. It turned out that the drain hose from the sink had developed a severe kink at one of its bends which appeared to be assisted by some of the heavy items stowed under the sink and shifting around while we were sailing. We found enough spare plumbing parts and hose to effect a repair, but the 3 hour job took the rest of the evening away. The joys of boating!