Seal deck hatches and engines test

Tuesday 9 Nov, re-launch 2021, HHN day 41: Success with FedEx. New ceramic on the way. Test-start the Volvo and generator.

First thing in the morning it’s the usual trying to get hold of FedEx and someone who actually cares about their customers. Miraculously, this time I land with an American voice located in Memphis (not an Indian call center) who actually talks like a human and not a robot reading out pre-set sentences. He is actually happy to help, real help. He explains that because the value of each shipment is over $2,500 they each need to have a full customs clearance, with all the rules applied.
For the HR-Parts shipment, this mean categorizing each and every line item on the commercial invoice. He goes through them with me one by one. It takes over an hour to do, but at the end he says the items can now be released for delivery. We can hardly believe it! Where was this Nick Watkins last week when we needed him?! I’m so happy that later on in the day, when the shipping status does indeed change to “out for delivery”, I ask for his manager’s contact details, and I send him an at-a-boy email.

Next is the Ceramic. Unfortunately, Karen doesn’t have enough to give me any. But she gives me the direct contact of the UndrDog owner in Texas. I call him and he assures me the product can be sent the same day I order. So order I do. 2 x 100ml bottles at $190each. About 10x more expensive than my cheapy Ebay ceramic – so it had better be good.
Knowing this is on the way, I decide to stop doing anything more to the coach roof polishing and instead concentrate on other jobs. Once the ceramic and the HR-Parts arrive tomorrow, I will have lots of other things to do.

First physical job of the day, after all those phone calls, is to seal the deck hatches with silicon. Silicon is not the nicest of stuff, but we cover the hatches with sunbrella anyway, so it won’t be seen. By midday I have masked off and applied the silicon all the way around the sealing strip between glass and metal frame. Let’s see if we get any more drips this weekend, when the next rain is due. I don’t do the fore cabin hatch because we have a new one arriving from HR-Parts. This forehatch has been a constant pain-in-the-ain for years now. So we decided we totally had enough of salty leaks into the fore cabin – time for a new hatch!

Next is to put the JonBuoy and 2 new life-rings back onto the pushpit rail. Then as it’s getting dusk I wash down the coach roof glass-fiber to de-grease, de-wax it as a prep for the UndrDog Ceramic that should arrive tomorrow.

In the evening we bring a water hose into the engine room so that we can test-start the Volvo and generator. I want to know it they work before we launch. They have been idle now for 18 months. The water is to feed the cooling system while I give each engine a very short test. Both start first time and run just fine. Great news! Or so I thought.
After running the generator, I decide to take a look around the newly installed heat exchanger. Oh-boy, water everywhere ☹ At first, I think there is a hose connection that I did not tighten the clamp on. But then realise it’s the hose barb that has come loose from the heat exchanger. Clearly the manufacturer neither tightened nor sealed the threads. While I’m rather annoyed at this, I’m also congratulating myself on trying these test runs now, using fresh water for cooling and not salt water. Fresh water spills will evaporate without harm. Whereas a salt water spill over steel machinery is a completely different matter.

After drying it out, I put the hose barb back on, using Locktite 275. When it’s dry tomorrow, I will give it another test run – with fingers crossed this time!