Great progress forward but also a few new problems
26 February 2020
• Pittwater Bay NSW Australia
by John Tyerman
Last week, the mast was reinstalled but the rigger was still missing the backstay insulators which were back-ordered at the supplier. We managed to get him to install the old insulators temporarily until the new ones arrive. This meant we could now sail the boat.
While the mast and boom were down, we removed the old name and applied the new name and graphics to the boom. Although we have not held a renaming ceremony yet, the boat now shows her true name and hailing port.
I asked the electrician who disconnected / reconnected the mast wiring if he had experience with Fischer Panda generators. He said he did and would take a quick look at my generator while he was on the boat for the rigging. He was able to isolate the problem to the main control board and actually had a spare board in his shop. He came back the next day, replaced the board and the genset is now working properly - YEA!
Saturday dawned rainy and miserable but cleared around noon. We decided to go for a sail and headed to Refuge Bay in Cowan Creek where we anchored overnight - the first night on the hook! On Sunday, we went to Brooklyn, a little town nearby and then continued out onto the ocean intending to head north to Lake Macquarie. The northerly wind and southerly current had other plans and we ended up just sailing the afternoon out on the ocean and the returning to our mooring in Pittwater Bay. While out on the ocean, we fired up the watermaker and filled one of our empty tanks. The genset and watermaker appear to run well.
Monday brought the new problems. The forward vacuflush head would not generate a vacuum and so would not flush correctly. This head has been losing vacuum slowly since I arrived on the boat and Tom has been replacing parts trying to resolve the issue ever since he arrived. Since it was still Sunday in North America, Tom was unable to contact the manufacturer in the US so the problem will have to wait until Tuesday in Australia.
The next issue to appear was that the sea water pump for the water maker is leaking at the pump to motor seal. We took it apart and removed the seal and will try and find a new one. We have borrowed a car from a local sailor who very kindly offered us it use and are heading out now to a pump supplier in the hope of finding the parts.
The repair list is getting much smaller and we are getting good experience operating and sailing the boat.
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