Well I can't fix a broken heart and fortunately I don't need to right now. I can fix lots of other things, and fortunately owning and maintaining a sailboat gives me lots of practice. Between Shawnee's visit last September, Pat and Celine's right now, and Mike's upcoming visit we've got a steady stream of spare parts finding their way to JollyDogs, our version of "just in time" replenishment. Thanks to old college roommate Tom and Laurie from SV Trovita we've had addresses to ship stuff to that Pat and Celine can collect. I tell you, the logistics of nomadic boat life can be complicated! Let's see, where to begin. . .
Last August the electric anchor windlass switch at the helm station started misbehaving, not working at all or sticking, but only occasionally, not consistently. Shawnee brought a new one and that problem went away. Recently the anchor windlass footswitch up on the bow started acting funky then failed hard yesterday. Pat and Celine brought a new one which I'll install in the next couple of days. When we departed Nuku Hiva on January 26th to sail down to Hiva Oa we had a nice overnight sail. Naturally Isabel had a shower before turning in after supper, and wouldn't you know it, the house freshwater pump failed just as she finished. Well that's just great - it's just about dark, we're on passage in sloppy seas and now I get to swap out a water pump? Of course I've got a spare ready to go, and in about half an hour that task is complete and Isabel can now go to bed. Once I've got a few spare minutes I dismantle the malfunctioning water pump and replace the internal electrical switch that tells it to turn on and off. Here we have a $250 freshwater pump with a $2 switch that fails about once a year, so I've got about 5 spare switches on board. Takes about half an hour to remove the bad switch, solder the wires on the new switch, reassemble and test the pump. Done, and now we've got a fresh spare ready to go.
We splashed after the haul out last week, and as we were motoring in the anchorage hunting for the perfect spot the starboard engine raw water pump decides it's time to leak like a sieve. Gee whiz. Whip out the spare (and brand new) raw water pump and an hour later it's installed and I'm looking for rebuild kits online as I'm now out of spares. Amazon Prime is my friend, and in minutes a rebuild kit is on the way to a pal's home where Pat and Celine can collect it before flying out to join us.
Monday I rebuilt the raw water pump; once again we've got a spare.
I had a swim and then rinsed off with the outdoor shower, only to find the nozzle had a big crack in it. Crap! Amazon prime again, and in the meantime magical JB Weld to the rescue, and in 24 hours the shower is back in service, the repair working great.
Silly me tied the dinghy up to the concrete pier at Hiva Oa during a rising tide. Darned if the dinghy didn't find its way under the pier, the outboard fairing getting cracked while banging on the structure. I've got West Systems Epoxy and fiberglass cloth on board so it's an easy repair.
We paid about $250 to have what we thought was a failing alternator rebuilt at the best electrical shop in Papeete. About 40 running hours later it failed! Gee whiz. It turned out I had misdiagnosed the problem and it was actually the external 3-phase rectifier that had failed. Shawnee brought spares and I fixed that, but this new alternator problem was more difficult to troubleshoot as the regulator fuse was blowing. Now I'm more of an expert at rebuilding alternators myself.
I constantly wander around the boat looking at rigging or machinery or electrical systems and imagining what will break next. I ponder my navel for a bit, consider what spares I've got on board and what I better get ordered, then think about who's visiting next. All visitors get to bring a suitcase of parts, part of the joy of visiting JollyDogs.
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