Sunday 20/04/25 Easter Day

18:18.86N 64:37.26W

In the idyllic surroundings of the BVI we have been fighting battle after battle with the watermaker, which has been unhappily squealing away at such high pressure that the pumps eventually cut out. So far, we have: disconnected, blown through and chemically cleaned the supply hose, changed the carbon and micron filters, checked voltages at the pumps and control box, changed a cracked ERS block, changed a leaky block above the accumulator, washed through the system several times, purged and reset the machine. All this has been to little or no avail so we recently embarked on full seal/O-ring change which involves an entire dismantling of the system and replacing around 50 of the little buggers. Almost every step of the dismantling process presented a fresh challenge and the need to create a special tool as well as meticulously photographing every step, labelling parts and accounting for every O-ring. Half-way through a part broke whilst dismantling which then involved all of Emma’s renowned problem-solving ability to have it picked up from Weston-super-Mare and delivered to Charlotte (a huge thank you to Rob and Tony), a few hours before she set off to join us. After using up the contents of an entire tank washing through the system, the hot water feed hose to the galley faucet decided that it would be a perfect time to split and empty the contents of the other tank into the bilge!!

I am cautiously optimistic that we will get the watermaker functioning properly, although aware that one little bugger mis-placed would render the whole thing useless. The backup plan is to buy a whole load of jerry cans and live like submariners.

But of course “fixing our boat in the Caribbean” can only be a joy and we have enjoyed fresh breezes, clear turquoise water, snorkelling, picnics and sundowners ashore with John and Sally Boughton who are out here on “JUNIPER” an identical Grand Soleil 50.