Boat Works

There has been more progress on various tasks:

1. During the last heavy rain we identified the source a steady drip of water on the navigation to be the window. The next morning I re-bedded the window and flooded the interface with plenty of silicone sealant. There was no drop during the next rain.

2. It looks like the Raymarine ST60 wind unit is now working satisfactorily. It was returned from the support site in England with the cryptic report that all components were working OK and the unit was properly aligned. Initially I took that to mean "no fault found". But when we re installed the unit and found it to be working correctly we concluded that a fault must have been found and corrected. Because the unit was under warranty the problem cost me nothing - other than malfunctioning from New Zealand where I had pruchased it to Hawaii, and $60 USD postage for me to send it to England. (Grumble grumble)

3. Because the ST60 had been declared OK I bedded the above-companionway instrument board with silicone sealant this morning.

4. We replaced the CR2 lithium batteries on our "lifetag" man overboard bracelets and checked out the entire system. Once we were satisfied that the system was OK I sealed the base station, which we had to move to the above-companionway instrument board for better range, with silicone sealant because it is not supposed to be exposed to water. (When the base station was in the cabin the unit was unusable because it would go off in the middle of the night when the helmsman was behind the wheel.) Each bracelet had one CR2 battery, with brand name "Yun Tong", made in China. For the sort of serious money that I paid for the system you would think that Raymarine would supply a name-brand battery just to make the customer feel good. The original batteries lasted about six months and I hope that these will last longer. I have two spares on board and will probably get more in Seattle.

5. Yesterday we replaced the gas detector sensor in the lazerette with the new one that Brenda sent from Australia. Arnold helped with the threading of the cable to the gas detector base station in the galley. This morning looked at the failed unit and to my surprise the wiring leading into the sensor slipped out with little effort and was heavily corroded. Arnold and I think that the sensor - which was replaced sometime after I purchased Pachuca - is OK and the problem was with the wiring. I've stowed that sensor with a note to remind me about its history. Arnold and I think that if we reconnect the cable to the sensor with good joints it should work fine.

6. The winch parts arrived today from Australia. I hope to put the sixth winch together tomorrow. I had to make a fundamental decision regarding parts - get a few spare parts on the assumption of limited life of the winches, or a broad set of spare parts on the assumption of being able to keep the winches going indefinitely. In spite of the corrosion problem which I think that I can deal with now that I know about it, I decided to get a broad set of spares which will certainly see me through the return to Australia probably years beyond that.

7. The replacement intermediate "D2" shrouds are ready. Ron will visit Pachuca to put them up. He will also repair the Profurl roller furler now that the parts for that have arrived.

The winch and rigging items above represent the last major work tasks during our stay in Hawaii.