The next morning I saw him on his deck pumping up his dinghy, so I jumped in ours and went across. It turns out he is a retired schoolteacher sailing solo and has only had this boat since May. But he had a boat similar to ours before in that it was an older, 43ft, long keel, heavy displacement cruiser. That boat dragged anchor on a lee shore and was wrecked on a small atoll in the Cook Islands. He still misses his old boat even though his new one is modern with all the creature comforts. He’d exchange it in a flash if he could, but he thought because he is getting on a bit now, solo, he’d better be sensible.
We chatted for an hour about the route; weather, where the counter currents run etc, and he invited us over later for sundowners. Sandy really wasn’t keen to go because it would just be 2 guys talking boats! But she eventually came, I think just to please me.
We ended up having a totally enjoyable evening. We took snacks and dips and a contribution from the vast stock of drinks we’ve inherited. The conversation flowed easily... Frank is quite the story teller.
All of a sudden at about 8pm it started raining. We’d left our hatches open because it was so hot and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We scrambled into the dinghy and raced back to our boat, with the perfect excuse to repeat the evening because all our stuff was still there.
As happens so often here, the rain was all but stopped by the time we got back.
I checked the battery bank and decided I needed to charge them for a couple of hours.
Generator on, and in 5 minutes it died. I checked fuel knowing we had to have plenty, and we did. Fault 58 on the monitor. This is a cunning machine. If it has a fault it stops before damage can be done. Checked the manual. Over heated exhaust. Lifted the floor panels and checked the seacock, raw water strainer, no obvious split pipes or hoses in and around the generator. The belt tension looked good, so that basically left the water pump.
I started the main engine and the big Balmar alternator had the charge duty for the evening. It just takes about twice the amount of diesel to run. We turned in with the Onan operation manual for a little light reading.
This morning I ran the main engine again for a couple of hours to charge the battery bank, dug out the spare impeller kit, boxes of tools everywhere, and set to work. It actually wasn’t too bad once I had worked how it all operates.
A couple of hours later we had a sweetly running generator again, and I had a handful of impeller bits. Not one of the rubber fins was intact. I’m really not sure if it’s been slowly disintegrating, or if it’s more a big bang theory. I will watch the operating temperature a bit more closely because if 1 fin goes, the temperature is bound to go up a little. That will enable an impeller replacement before it totally self destructs.
When does a steep learning curve start levelling out a little?
But we are getting a better handle on things. We’ve just run out of water again. Sandy’s been washing and cooking, we’ve both showered, and our water making routine has been out of whack because of the generator issues.
Not a problem this time. Switch to the starboard (reserve) tank and schedule when to fill the main tank and when to top up the starboard tank again.
Are we having fun yet?
More than before....