October 25

Yesterday was a productive day for me. In the morning I put Jonah’s bicycle together. He was ecstatic and helped me with tools and stuff. We had it together in about 30 minutes and he was off riding. Kate bought him a new bike helmet, his old one was much too small for his big head. She took him to town while I stayed behind to work on some projects. I installed the 240v element in the hot water heater (we bought one in NZ last year – we use the 120v element when we are cruising so we can make hot water using out AC genset which of course is 120v, American style) so we can run the hot water heater off shore power. It was relatively easy as I have done it twice now.  

I also changed the filter cartridge for the galley sink filter which has its own charcoal filter. We hadn’t changed it since NZ last year and it was gross. We are supposed to do it every 6 months but I just spaced it out. We got a call from the guy who pulled our generator the other day. Its not repairable he says and further we cannot get one here in Australia . There is a dealer here for Newage/Markon (an English company) but in Australia AC power is 50hz (cycles) and our boat is, of course, set up for US power which is 60hz – so they don’t have a 60hz unit. I stayed up late and at 11pm (9am Eastern Time) I phoned the US Newage dealer and ordered one.  

They gave me a good price as this is the second one I have destroyed – both times through no fault of theirs. The first one died on the way to the Marquesas last May. It overheated because the external cooling in the genset enclosure stopped working. I had a replacement shipped to Tahiti , but failed to order the proper model and it came with no shaft (the ones with a shaft are designed to be belt driven, the one I got was designed to mate directly to the engine which has the shaft on it) and so I had one fabricated at a local machine shop. It looked fine but in the end the shaft came loose and the thing vibrated itself to death. Anyway, I am waiting for email confirmation that it was shipped which will include the actual shipping cost. He had no idea what it would cost to ship it (the unit itself they gave me for US$300 which is $200 less then the list) but I am assuming it will be at least $150 and perhaps as much as $300 – the thing ways 55lbs. This had better be the last money we put into that stupid genset.  

Today’s schedule is light, we have to scrub the dinghy (Zodiac) and stow it away in its bag. Right now it is lying on deck strapped down partially inflated which is how we usually stow it when we are moving from one anchorage to another. When we left Santo we had planned only to go to New Cal so we did not roll it up and stow it in its bag. Since we don’t plan to use it for the next few months we will do that now.  

My other project for today is to find someone who can help me design and fabricate an anchor wash down hose holder. I saw this on a boat recently and was blown away by it. It was just a stainless bracket which holds a short length of hose over the anchor roller. The hose connects to the deck fitting for the wash down pump (which is used to pump seawater for washing the anchor chain and anchor when in muddy waters). The bracket holds the hose right over the roller so as the chain comes up its gets a good spritz.  

Everything else is all arranged. We have a haul out scheduled for the 5^th of November. While the boat is out of the water we will do all the work on the shaft, stuffing box, shaft brake, etc. as described in the previous journal I wrote (see October 23rd). We will also paint the bottom using the super deadly, illegal toxic paint we bought in Fiji . This is the same stuff we put on in Mexico where it is legal. In the US and Australia (and NZ for that matter) tin-based paints are legal only for commercial vessels 100tons or larger. The US Navy, of course, uses tin-based paints on its ships for a reason – the shit works.  

Our current paint was put on (as I said, in Mexico ) two years ago and has been amazing. Most paint requires scrubbing every 6 months to keep stuff from growing on it. Except for the places where it has worn thin (which is now many places) our bottom is very clean. The stuff is amazing. As to the environmental impact of using this stuff vs. not using it, some people think using non-tin-based paints is even worse because people usually haul their boats twice a year to pressure wash them to keep them clean. This released some of the paint into the environment and with tin-based  paints this is not necessary.