Ormos Karathona (second part)

Ticketeeboo
Sue & Alan
Thu 2 Jun 2016 12:09
It turns out Mrs Matoula also runs the local post office and her hubby Adam is the local fridge-man. We introduced ourselves properly and Mrs Matula was very happy with Sue's gift - one of her on-board store of Kemer pashminas. Adam offered to loan me his vacuum pump and decant me some R134a and suggested we should change all remaining fridge coupler O-rings (one changed in Leros 2 weeks earlier leaving me to change remaining 4).
Our good friend Carl, of EC Rewinds  http://www.ecrewinds.com  had kindly sent us the new electric motor, as spare capacitors and puller, so we soon had it fitted and our water-maker working again, as goo and possibly better than ever. Also, our fridge is now working ticketeeboo (again) and we are thinking "If it's still ticketeeboo in couple of weeks then we can consider our repairs complete". If not I think it'll be a new evaporator to buy and fit. For now and after 6 days use, the signs are very promising because the repair in Leros only lasted 6 days and tomorrow we're on day 7 this time round.
Last Sunday 29th we pulled our hook out of Koiladhia dirt and dropped it next in Ormos Devanou 2 hours/10 NM later. A fine place with all-round protection where we stayed next couple of days. We needed to do couple of unexpected repairs here. Firstly Sue informed me that our 'UP' windlass button was 'playing-up'. This meant, soon as we were settled on hook I needed to fit a new one (we keep couple of spares after I found some going at good price on Ebay when the first buttons unexpectedly failed - crap buttons made/sold by Lewmar! Secondly, later that night, just when we were charging batteries around midnight before going to bed, our Cummins Onan alternator unexpectedly failed. As has been the case many times over the last 7 years the soddin seawater impeller failed yet again. We've been talking to Cummins Onan about this fault since first one failed in 2009 when Ticketeeboo was new. The impeller is made by Sherwood (USA) and it's completely unreliable and unfit for the purpose. I've spoken to owners of different sailing yachts as well stinkpot and I have yet to find anyone who can reliably get 500 running hours/12 months out of the seawater impeller. Thinking "Best do this repair now rather than leave it 'till morning" our generator was available again less than 2 hours later............. and my hands and knuckles suitably sore from handling parts too hot to hold. At least the in-line strained I fitted few years ago successfully holds-back the broken impeller bits, thus avoiding necessity to dismantle the heat exchanger and get them out.
Yesterday  ½ hour and 3NM passage further along the coast ment last night we dropped hook to NW of Nisos Tolo, opposite the town of Tolo, We chose the spot because there would be a no noise guarantee and we were nearly right because when fireworks were set-off around midnight we could observe them and hardly hear anything.
We beat yesterday's record this morning. <½ hour and 2½ NM to Ormos Karathona. Only yacht here for now, looking like some good beaches and excellent shelter. A grand place to being kiddies (just like most places we've dropped hook these last few days). Surprisingly the forecast SE 5 kn has been blowing up to 23 kn this afternoon. It'll probably go to nothing before end of the afternoon. Oh yes, the water temperature is now up to 24ºC so it's nearly warm enough to go swimming with the fish.

xxx