Back at Ocean Reef and most of the people we knew here have moved on. It's funny that in 6 weeks since we left spring has come to this part of the Bahamas. There are new plant shoots popping up, Bougainvillea flowers blooming and birds chirping everywhere. And there is much lower humidity here than down south which is great!

We also noticed as soon as we got back here that our hull chewing critters are back at it! It didn't take long for them to start their crackling noises at various parts of the hull. It funny that we didn't have any of that going on after we left here in January so another thing that is different here.

Sam did a pile of laundry and I took the opportunity to troubleshoot the knot meter. All of the sailing instruments, vhf radio, AIS and chartplotter are all networked together via a backbone data system. As the knot meter quit working the other day there are a few places to look to try and troubleshoot the issue. One thing leads to another so you have to decide where to start looking. You could start in the middle f the network and work your way to 1 end to try and find the issue but I thought I'd start at 1 end and go from there.

The sending unit or transducer is mounted in a collar located in the bottom of the boat just ahead of the keel. It is removed by undoing the retaining collar, pulling it out and replacing it with a plug to stop the intrusion of water. a seeing as it is approx 18" below the water surface water comes gushing in once you take the unit out. Even having the plug ready to go it's a bit nerve racking having water gushing into the boat until the plug is installed and tightened down. i waited until we were safely in the marina to do this vs. doing it on our crossing from the Berries the other day. If something went wrong and I couldn't get the plug in, it would be better to be able to get help here vs. out in the middle of nowhere.

The photo below shows the depth transducer (top left), speed transducer plug installed ( bottom left) and the paddle wheel transducer complete with its new fur coat like build up of marine life. I originally thought it may just have something stuck in the wheel stopping it from turning as it worked 1 day and then not the next. But, this was growth stuck on the wheel and sides and took a few minutes to scrape off. Hopefully, this was a relatively easy Fixx!

https://youtu.be/JHYIGy1dyd8?si=WOkmh2sY6IwRzRy0

once down, I removed the plug and tried to reinstall the transducer. It took a couple of tries to get it aligned properly with water gushing in the whole time. A finally clicked into place and I got the locking ring tightened down. I also safety wired it down so it can't work it's way loose. Surprisingly it's a plastic unit but it's fairly well protected in its location in the bilge. You wouldn't think anything could happen to this unit but there is a Youtube channel where a guy had his boat sinking because 1 of these fittings came out, and his bilge pump didn't work. He looks down inside his boat while he's underway and sees things floating around in a foot of water. luckily he found it in time and stopped the flow and managed to bail it out. Supports the rationale for checking your boat before going out!

https://youtu.be/XkAsfunh7HM?si=eGlxPxtckzYbnSZo