Finally autumn has hit Cartagena. It has gotten a bit colder at night with temperatures as low as 17 degrees. A few days ago we had real autumn showers with thunder. The rain was pouring down. Out in the cockpit we had a lot of loose stuff stored up; electronics to be sold, tools and other stuff we haven’t found storage for yet. We rushed to get most of it inside, but all the stuff got wet anyway. This highlighted the need to be able to close off the cockpit in bad weather. Right now you are completely exposed to the elements when you are in the cockpit, and especially if you are at the helm. Martin was already looking at a solution to make some kind of auning with some transparent plastic. We have now ordered one, that is being especially made for us. Hopefully it will be finished and fitted today.
We had actually planned to leave Cartagena today, but the departure has been changed to Monday, where we start the journey down to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria. We will have a Danish guest with us on this first leg. It’s Ian, aged 18, who wants to spend his sabbatical year after high school exploring the world. Ian comes from a sailor family, and has plenty of experience we can benefit from. He joined us on Thursday and will be with us all the way to Grenada.
We’ve also got the team set for the Atlantic crossing with arc+. In fact, it was Peter who found us on the Arc website, and wrote to Martin about a guest spot. Peter is bringing his son Morten and friend Christina. All three have great sailing experience. Peter will join us from Las Palmas. Morten and Christina will follow from Mindelo in Cap Verde. With Ian we will have 4 guests on our way across the Atlantic.
Martin is scrambling to get the last bits fixed with the help of a local craftsman.
The water-maker had a salt water leak. It has been dismantled. It turned out to be a loose bolt at the back where water is introduced to the membranes that separate salt from seawater under high pressure. All pipe connections have been sealed and tightened and the watermaker has been tested with no leak. However, the salt water pump seal is still leaking, but this is a small issue that can be fixed easily.
Martin has spent some time getting the generator to work with our craftsman. As it has not been used for a couple of years, it was in pretty bad shape although the previous owner had assured us that it works. All the wires were corroded and some had fallen off. The Bendix for the starter motor was stuck and the starter motor had to be disassembled to get it out. Then the starter motor could start the generator if you hand-pumped diesel in. However, it stopped electronically due to electronic faults. The hand-pump leaked diesel and had to be replaced. One of the new electronic faults was that there was no 220 V output from the generator. It was therefore flashed by putting a 12 Volt battery briefly into the 220 Volt output to rebuild residual magnetism. We have been told that the lack of magnetism is probably due to the generator not having been used for a long time. Now the generator could be kept running with a hand pump. We couldn’t find an electric diesel pump in the generator and wondered if it ever worked. However, when installing the new diesel pump, we found the old pump in a very unaccessible place, which we could only get to by drilling a hole in the bulkhead to loosen a bolt in the back plate of the generator box. After changing the diesel pump, there were still problems keeping the generator running due to fuel supply problems. Eventually that problem got solved as well.
Finally our generator is working and we have tested it at high load using our Airconditioner.
The explanation above is probably a bit cryptic to most, but it shows how much energy has been expended to get it working and how much it has filled our lives over the past month. Although we can be sparse on electricity while sailing, we need 220V power to run the water-maker. Therefore it was essential for us to get the generator working, otherwise we only have 12V for the rest of the power consumption. The solar cells can be used to generate 220V with an alternator if necessary, but that’s only if we get a lot of excess power, which we can’t rely on.
We’ve also installed new LiFePo4 batteries, which you can read more about in a future post. The explanation for them is almost as long as the one for the generator.
Although Ian has only been here for a day, he has jumped in with both feet and has already been involved in several projects. The first is a water meter for each water tank, which is made low-tech by attaching a thin transparent hose to an outlet from the water tank. The hose is fed down and up again. When water is filled into the tank, the hose will be filled to a level corresponding to the water tank level. For every 50 litres, a mark is set, allowing the contents of the water tank to be read in the future by looking at the water hose.
Ian has also helped to modify the dinghy’s hoist system so that it can now be fixed properly for safe sailing and is easier to hoist up and down. Lastely he has assembled the cabinets in the hallway after all the electrical work that has been going on for a long time. We’re happy to have cupboard space for our stuff again.
Nice to have a crew member with a great hands-on approach. Here you can see him exploring how to seal hatches properly.
Anton has been servicing the winches, which was very time consuming. First it all had to be stripped, then cleaned with diesel until all the old grease came off. Finally, new grease had to be applied and the winch reassembled. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures while he was at it, but here you can see the difference between a winch that has been serviced and one that hasn’t. Video edited by Victor.
