We have seen better weeks

If you think living on a boat is all glamorous, think again.

Don’t get me wrong we still enjoying our journey but there are setbacks on the way.

Last Sunday – before leaving the Solomon Islands – I realized that my wallet was gone. Sometimes I loose it at the restroom (falling out of the pocket), so I checked the marine restroom and nothing was there. I checked EVERYWHERE that day, even in the dumpster. The next day our neighbor told me that a yard worker is looking for someone who lost the wallet. Steve from the yard actually found it in front of his car (no idea were the car was) and I was extremely grateful. Unfortunately I could not give him finders reward as all the cash was gone. So I think someone found it in the restroom took the money out and threw it away in front of Steves car in the rain. Hey nevertheless I had my ID and CC back and my wet wallet Jolanda gave me for Christmas.

Task List

Beginning of this week we made our way to our wonderful Coltons Point Marina to get some work done on our boat. The list was not too long and discussed with the marine management:
1. engine maintenance – so I can observe and learn how to do it myself next time
2. The heater was leaking fluid, so the connections needed to be refitted
3. Windows in the bedroom needed to be fixed. One was broken and needed to be replaced and the other was leaking water during rain
4. Upper Saloon corner was leaking during rain – must be the bottom sealing from the rear
5. Replace Autopilot it broke on the way here
6. Inverter / Charger – I installed the inverter some month ago and it started overcharging my batteries and eventually fried the batteries. I send the inverter back, the service center confirmed that it is working 100% correctly and sent it back to me. Now I wanted an Electrical Engineer to install it with new batteries, done by the book
7. list of small things which is a lot but never got to

How it went

So the first day morning we were told that we can’t stay on the boat as some workers did’t feel comfortable with the COVID situation. We totally understand and moved our office to the canvas shop in the shag next door.

Unfortunately that meant that I could not look over the shoulder to learn how to service the engine (item 1).

The fittings of the heater (item 2) were sealed after two days, no problems with that.

Windows in the bedroom (item 3) where removed and cleaned up and installed. Some previous owner was trying to fix it and used glue which could not be removed, so we had to cut out some fiberglass out to get the windows out.

• 

• 

• 

The leak on the rear corner (item 4) was a design flaw and someone was trying to fix it before with limited success. We had to take the floorboard out and re-cork the junction.

• 

• 

I wanted to get a replacement for the autopilot (item 5), but it turned out that I had to replace the entire systems which was far beyond our budget.

Our friend ABYC guru Phil and incredible engineer installed the returned charger / inverter (item 6) BY THE BOOK with all bells and whistles. Of course everything was inspected by our curious cat Luna:

Result

So after spending a small fortune (other people by a medium size car for that money) this was the results:

(1) engine maintenance done, unfortunately only limited opportunity to learn how to do it next time myself
(2) heater all fixed and dry until now
(3) The morning after the installation showed that there was still a big puddle of water inside (it really rained that night). So back trying to find where the water is coming from. Jolanda and I have a long conversation with condensation water. I’m trying to fix the water leak for the last 2 years and no end is in sight.

(4) So after the rain we had a little swimming pool in our saloon, the corking solution did not work.

I actually found a spare part for the old autopilot (item 5) and replaced it myself, so I can wait until the next item breaks. If you think until now it was bad wait for item 6!!!!!

Remember I installed the Inverter/Charger myself and it killed my batteries. The service center came back and told me that everything with the unit is 100% fine and it is my setup which is faulty. So I got Phil to install it with new wires/batteries switches and everything else (one could buy a small car for that money) and the outcome was ……

STILL THE SAME AS BEFORE, the Inverter/Charger is overcharging the batteries!!!! NO DIFFERENCE AS BEFORE which means the assessment of the manufacturer of the inverter must be wrong… And it is still not working.

At this point we forgot Item 7 already, never mind. BUT the workers actually found another leak in the ceiling and fixed it. (I hope they were not going around with a screwdriver to find some leaks 🙂 – just joking, they were really amazing and went out of their way to get everything done in time.

The final straw this week was that Jolanda made me go to the ATM last weekend and I withdraw some couple of 100 dollars to have enough cash for expenses for our journey. The wallet was in her bag, but when she wanted to buy a lottery ticket today, all the cash was gone. We anyway bought a ticket with new money and maybe we getting lucky again. She put 40 $ back in her wallet with a note: If you steal this money, please use it to buy something nice….

FINALLY our lovely boatcat LUNA went for an unintentional swim when she was trying to jump onto the boat:

End of the day all three of us are healthy and there is still money in the bank account. Next post will be from Jolanda and more up lifting. Promise