After our break in Antigua while Catherine and Nigel returned to UK, we set sail again last Thursday for Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean. We were barely a few miles south and Sally came on deck to report the water maker broken. We sailed onto Deshais and anchored for the night to start trying to work out what the problem was.  

Our water maker has been super-reliable and makes 60lt per hour consistently (that is roughly the daily consumption for the four of us). It’s a fairly simple system that takes salt water from the sea, via a high-pressure water pump through a series of membranes to remove the salt and make fresh water; a process called reverse osmosis. Except now, instead of building pressure, the pump just kept releasing it, meaning no more making fresh water. Our plant has one high pressure pump with two means to drive it: an AC motor (which only works on shore power we know now) and a DC motor (powered by our batteries). They drive the pump using a pulley and a clutch mechanism on each motor that only drives in one direction, and spins when the other motor is running. After some fault finding, including WhatsApp conversation and videos taken of the process breaking down, with the technical team back in the UK, we were able to discern that the clutch on the DC motor pulley was slipping. By now we were conserving water in any which way we could, but you know when the gremlins are bored, because while we motored south from Deshais to Pigeon Island, a water pipe connection came adrift and spilled the entire contents of our aft fresh water tank (200lt) into the bilge. We only became aware when the engine stopped after we’d anchored, but the bilge pump carried on for just too long! What a waste; and now we really did have a water issue. Thankfully we were able to join up with Jean Marc and Vanessa on The Adventurer in Bouillante the day after, and they could make water and ferry some to us.   

I enlisted the help of Jean Marc again, to translate for us in a conversation with the local (French) dealership on Guadeloupe. They had an old one they would sell me (for 290 euro with no guarantee) or were able to get a new one from the supplier in France. We opted for the new, given the importance of making water. It arrives (hopefully – this is the Caribbean) early next week.  We decided to go ashore for some essentials, and to see if we could find some washers to act as spacers to jury-rig the water maker while we await spares and took the dinghy to the dock. There was a bit of a sea running so we tied up down tide of it and expected that to be fine. The hardware stores actually turned out to be plumbers’ merchants and had no washers. Sally struck on the idea that the energy plant in the town would be able to help us, and bold as brass, walked up to the manager (M. Pierre) and asked for his help. He took us through to his workshop and “voila”, washers procured five (at no cost – thankyou M. Pierre).

We got back to the dinghy dock and “zut alors”, the dinghy was buried under the dock with the engine gear lever twisted out of shape “nous sommes desole”. We could not start the engine and called on Jean Marc (again… what are friends for) to give us a tow back to Cassini. Initial investigations showed a couple of broken bits of plastic and some very misaligned gear controls. We anchor wherever we go, pretty much all the time; a dinghy with a working outboard engine is really essential unless you are always going to be moored up in marinas. The last time were alongside in a marina was December 7th in Grenada.

Back to the water maker, I managed to swap the AC pulley and clutch from one side of the high-pressure water pump, and installed it inside out (so it drives in the right direction) on the DC motor drive, with those washers from Pierre, to align it properly, and we are making fresh water again, so water panic over for the moment. 

Yesterday, we made our way around Guadeloupe to the main port and after some ‘negotiations’, including a death-defying leap off the stern by Nigel, onto the Capitanerie’s dock, have wangled an alongside berth in the marina.  

We were able to order the water maker part last night and see what could be done about the dinghy engine today. We tried to contact various local dealers or an engineer to help, but to no avail. I went around to the shipyard workshop this morning and asked to have some space to work on the outboard. The very nice man in charge agreed, and in exchange for a couple of cold beers, I set about disassembling the outboard to get to the broken components. There are no spares to be had here, so I’ve glued and wired the cam together which stops the motor starting when it’s in gear, and with a combination of spanners and a little ‘persuasion’, I was able to rotate the gear control bar back to its proper position, and reattach the repaired bits of plastic and all the links to the gearbox.  

Nigel and I went to test the engine after this, which, after some initial carburettor problems (which had to come off to get to the gears) we were able to successfully test the engine.  

So, we are pretty much back up and running again, making fresh water (and have full tanks again) and we’re able to get about from our boat at anchor!  A well-deserved beer beckons and something a little stronger this evening, I think.

Simon
Skipper (and Chief ‘tiff) 

Outboard ‘fixed’ but before carburettor re-installed.