Still in Trini!
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Sat 12 Dec 2009 15:22
We launched a day late, but we are now coming up to being
a week late leaving. The main reason has been problems with the diesel generator
we have on board. When it's running, when we're at sea or anchor, it gives
us up to 6.5kW - for that we can simultaneously run the watermaker, the
battery charger, the immersion heater in the hot water tank and still
have plenty to spare. The most important use is the watermaker which makes
105 litres an hour. Our water tanks are large enough to go where we want to
go without it, but we would have to ration water on the longer passages and
would have to head for ports where we could refill the tanks. The watermaker
allows us to cruise in more comfort - showers every day on long passages if
we want them - and gives us much more freedom on where we go. We also
don't have to worry about taking on dodgy water, which you do get from some
ports.
The first problem with the generator was trying to
fix a fuel leak from one of the injector pipes. The spare injector pipe
that we had brought from the UK turned out to be the wrong one. So we had
to order another from the States which took a week. We actually ordered 2
via 2 different routes, the second one is still somewhere in the States (we
think), tracking it down is no longer a priority. If it turns up we'll add it to
our growing collection of spares! Having fixed the leak, we found we were making
a great impression of the Flying Scotsman going uphill! Steam
was billowing out of the exhaust - this did not look
good! After much investigation, phone calls to Holland (where the generator
was made), and collecting exhaust water in a bucket to check the flow rate, we
were told to check one of the sea water cooling hoses as
they had had 3 other cases where the hose had delaminated on the
inside, blocking the flow. We did the check and the hose, which looked perfectly
okay on the outside, was 90% closed. We then checked the other sea water hoses
and they were all affected. It's a wonder that any water found it's way
through! The makers put it down to a faulty batch of hoses. Having changed
all the sea water hoses we are no longer making steam and we
finally put the sound insulation covers back on the generator today. The
generator is over the far side of the engine compartment and
so leaning over the main engine to work on the generator
engine I have a good impression of a Volvo heat exchanger on my
chest!
The generator, which we're getting to know quite
well!
Main engine (my cushion!) + generator behind
it.
The engine compartment - fairly well packed. The
generator's white capsule covers are finally back on!
The white tubes and pipes on the left are the
watermaker.
So now it's completing a few other jobs, including
servicing winches and the windlass, putting things away and preparing the
boat for sailing once again. The weather is not playing
ball though - the dry season officially started on 1st December, but we
have had more rain since then than we had in the previous 2 months. It's
rained every day since the 1st, with prolonged rain on many days, so outside
jobs that need dry conditions have had to wait. We're hoping for better
conditions next week and if we get them we hope to be on our way
again before next weekend. If we don't, it could be Christmas in
Trinidad. There are a lot of yachts still here and quite a few are not
leaving until after Christmas, so we will have plenty of company if we are still
here. We're currently listening to Radio 100 - they play Christmas tunes 24
hours a day for the 100 days before Christmas - so it's been Christmas
since September 25th! The new shopping malls are all decorated just
like home - with imitation snow! (It might be wet, but it's still
hot.) We've also been getting in the mood by going to a Christmas
choral concert in the main concert hall in Port of Spain and are going to
hear parang (Christmas music) and steel pan in POS tonight. We still can't
believe it's Christmas in less than 2 weeks, the time has just flown
by.
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