Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Life in a washing machine … Sat 10th February 2018


 Life in a washing machine   …   Sat 10th February 2018

It’s starting to feel like we are having a lot of breakages and strange electrical problems. Our one, and only, electric winch would work fine sometimes and then it wouldn’t work at all; the electric fan that blows hot air out of the engine compartment keeps blowing a fuse; the almost new sump pump that drains the shower and the fridge also blew a fuse, and to add insult to injury, the “sonic hub” music controller run through our navigational system also stopped working. Why is this happening? We think the answer is that the boat and all it’s systems, of which there are many, are taking a real beating in the heavier winds and seas in which we are sailing. I’ve contemplated how often washing machines beak down and suspect not that often, but I’m convinced that anything electrical that is inadvertently put through the wet and turbulent cleaning cycle never works again! In fact, on reflection, it’s amazing that anything works on this boat … “it’s a bloody miracle”!
After many false starts trying to fix the intermittent problem the electric winch, including replacing the deck switch, we managed to pin down the cause to some loose connections on the control panel circuit board, which we were able to solder back into place. (Believe it or not we actually have two soldering irons on board – one electrical and one propane!). The problem with the engine blower is almost certainly a dodgy thermostat that we may just replace with a manual switch, and I’m hoping the problem with the sump pump is simply that I put too low a fuse in when I installed in the first place. 

Saturday morning saw me working on the music issue. I tried various reboots of the system to no avail and so set about inspecting the control box, which is in the bathroom cabinet with much of the other navigational electronics. This cabinet also contains our first aid, medical and bathroom supplies and would give many drug stores a good run for their money. Simon was so impressed by this collection that he questioned my honesty in responding to the standard immigration and customs question – “Any drugs etc” … “No” … Really? Anyway, it turned out that simply unscrewing the unit from the cabinet wall and wiggling the wires fixed the problem … for now. I hate these flaky electrical issues where you aren’t sure if or how you have really fixed the problem. So picture that I am now in the “aft head”, slowly screwing the Sonic Hub unit back in place and re-packing our mini-pharmacy. There’s not a lot of room in there so the door is closed. However, the Sonic Hub is now working just fine and music is blaring out in the main cabin at a volume that those who are not yet stone deaf might find uncomfortable. I later found Gloria cowering in the V-berth with the door closed … “what’s wrong” I shout, “I can’t hear myself think!” I’m guessing she replied, “what did you say? I can’t hear you – speak up” I responded … you get the picture!

On Saturday afternoon, with many of our boat jobs completed, we wandered back over to the Botanical Gardens in Soufriere and again had a fabulous time. Afterwards we ate out at a small Creole restaurant in town. Our three meals, jerk pork, creole shrimp and goat curry were advertised as coming with a variety of side dishes, but in fact all came with plantain, yam, cassava, mashed potato, fried potato and carrots, as well as a large bowl of rice and beans for the table. The range of starches impressed us, but actually the food was really tasty.

Mike


The ever present Boat Boys, in this case trying to sell us bread


Purple throated Carib Hummingbird


Purple Throated Carib Hummingbird


2 comments:

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