Faucets, outboards and more.
05 September 2016 | Secret Harbour Marina, Grenada
Bill/ partly cloudy
The start of another week. It's now Monday and the jobs continue.
Late last week, we decided it was time to change out the faucets in the stern head. We'd bought a replacement set in the Maldives and I'd installed them while Tracy we back in the US last year. These had replaced original faucets dating back to 1982. They have proven to be totally unsatisfactory. First, when you turn on the tap, brown rusty water comes out for a couple of seconds. Second, when you turn off a typical faucet by rotating the knob clockwise til it stops, the water shut off. Not with these. They still run when turned to the off position. You have to unturn them about 10-15 degrees to get them to shut off. Third, they are mainly plastic and while that's not so bad in a sea environment, well they just felt cheap and turned out to be just that. We've carried around another faucet but never installed it as the current set up calls for two different taps, one for hot and one for cold. This one is all in one faucet through a single hole in the counter. Last Thursday, I climbed into the stern head(smaller than an old phone booth) and squatted down and cleaned out under the sink, took a flashlight and mirror and reached in and took out the old one. Tracy helped out by turning the faucet on the counter as I held the nut under neath. Much easier. Once out, we took the new fancy one and tried it out. OOPS, it was to big to fit everything through the existing hole in the counter top. Since we need water regularly in the boat and had no other faucet to slap in, I put the old one back in. We were headed for Ace Hardware on Friday. It's a regular shopping day with the minibus taking everyone(for 15EC(about $5.50US) per person to Ace, Budget Marine, the bank for the ATMs, and then on to IGA(grocery store), then a meat market and finally a "wholesale" grocery store that is anything but. Many of their "Wholesale" prices are higher than the big grocery store we had just visited.
Now this bus leaves at 0930 and we get back about 1300. The bus is packed full and most times a second bus has to be called. We found the needed faucets and did some more shopping at the other stores.
Saturday morning, I installed the new faucets and all went just fine. Well sort of. Once the new ones were in and I'd screwed on the existing water lines(used on the old faucets), we turned on the water pump and water sprayed out from the connection of the old water hose and the new faucet. Lucky me, I'd bought two new water hoses when I was back in the US and had come back with them. Out they came and in they went and with nice rubber cone washers in the ends, they sealed the new faucets just fine. Then old ones had no rubber cones washers in them strangely. Project done and no more leaks. One big problem with the old faucets since they had to be turned at just the right angle, some times they would drip water if we didn't catch it. Amazingly, these faucets are made in South Africa by the same company I bought for the forward head. With us having replaced the kitchen faucet a while ago, we have all new faucets in the boat.
Yesterday, I took off all the cushions in the main salon and checked all our batteries to make sure they had plenty of water in them. Many boats out here us AGM or Lithium batteries but we have always stuck with the old fashioned lead acid style like are in most cars. We check the water regularly and keep them topped us and all has worked well. These are Trojan batteries we installed in the Philippines back in 2013. Still doing just fine.
Today way the day to try and start up our outboards. We've got a Tohatsu 18HP and a Mercury 8HP on our stern. We bought the Mercury back in 2008 before we left the US and it's been a good engine, at least til we got water in her gas tank. We've had her serviced numerous times and finally replaced the carburetor as well as the fuel pump. We bought the Tohatsu in 2014 while in Thailand. She's used but after a big trip to one of the local mechanics in Thailand for a tune up, she's been a great motor. The Mercury is a 4 stroke and the Tohatsu is a 2 stroke. The big Tohatsu allows us to get our dinghy up on a plane so she more much quicker. The Mercury just couldn't quite do it.
When I put the Mercury into a storage mode, I'd run her dry of fuel with fresh water flushing the system, changed her oil, put a cover on her and fastened her to the stern rail. The Tohatsu's been our motor of choice since Thailand but we stopped using her about four months ago when we were in Trinidad. I'd drained her of fuel also. It was time to get both of them back up and running. The Tohatsu, so we could lower Puff, our dinghy, and tour around the different bays in the area. The Mercury so we can put her up for sale. We don't really need two outboards though it's nice to have a back up if something should happen to the Tohatsu. I got rid of all the "old" gas in the tank and replaced it with a fresh blend of gas and oil(2 stroke), hooked up the fuel line to the engine and after about 10 pulls of the cord, she started right up(fresh water being flushed through her plumbing). As is the case with the Tohatsu, all the moving parts(throttle linkage) had pretty well frozen up and needed some good spraying of WD40. She's now up and running and dong just fine.
As for the Mercury, I took the engine cover off and she looks spotless inside. Nice and clean. I wiped off the dust from the refit in Trinidad, poured sort of new fuel into the fuel tank, hooked it up, pulled out the choke and yanked on the cord. She started up on the first pull!!! Now of course, she promptly died(too much choke) but on the second pull of the cord, she purred to life!! Not bad for an outboard that hasn't been started in over two years. Now we can put her up for sale with a clean conscience. I've even got the service manual for her so who ever buys her will get and good motor.