The watermaker breaks down!

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sun 12 Jan 2014 00:44
Off all the times to start messing about, the watermaker picks the most remote spot it can to start playing up. Just before everyone arrived last night, we had set it off and, after 5 minutes, the pump cut out and that was it. A couple of simple tasks such as cleaning strainers etc, failed to improve matters, so we left it until this morning. We have tried clearing the inlet and outlet hoses both from inside and outside the boat, changed filters and oil and bled air out of every possible area, but to no avail. It works for about 5 minutes, then stops every time. The good news is, we are able to store water about 10 litres of water in that time, so we are one stage better off than Suzie Too whose watermaker won't work at all! Pat and Stuart have offered us a bucket full a day, but hopefully a call to Seafresh on Monday morning might give us some more clues as to what to do next.
Just to add another complication, we have had to change our toilet over to saltwater rather than fresh only to find that the solenoid which controls the amount of water coming into the toilet, can't cope with the increased saltwater pressure, and the toilet keeps threatening to overflow on flushing - there's always something!
Anyway, having failed to fix anything at all, we swam to a nearby island for a short stroll. The island is 'Bounty advert beautiful' and exactly what we all thought we would see in the Caribbean, but which has been missing for the last three years - bliss.
Todays dinner kill has been a bucket full of crayfish provided by the local fishermen. We had almost given them up again, thinking that maybe they don't fish on Sundays, but then they appeared. The 'kill squad' swung into action, and much flapping later, the tails were still going in the pan even though the heads had been removed a while ago, they were steamed and ready to eat. In fact I had to loan out the 'kill squad' to dispatch the crab purchased by Suzie Too this morning. There was a big disappointment when they hauled up the net bag where the crab and lobster had been stored over the side of the boat overnight though, the lobster had escaped despite a huge knot in the top of the bag! The crab was considerably feistier than ours and tried to run away several times despite having a skewer through its head and up its backside. Both David and John had a few near misses with the claws, but finally the job was done and he too was ready for the pot.

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This crab is saying his prayers!

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He won't be wiggling anywhere now!

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Next, it was the turn of the langoustines!

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How perfect is this? This is what we have spent that last three years looking for in the Caribbean

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