Saturday 11 Dec, St. Augustine FL, cruising day 14: Lots of small jobs, ready for the next leg south.
After our day of rest yesterday, it takes some inner persuasion to be anything other than lazy again today. But the jobs list is already lengthening and there are several that must be done.
Firstly, we remove all the items covering the water maker elements to check for leaks following the change the membranes and running the system for several hours during the last leg from Wrightsville Beach. At first, the kitchen towel which we placed under the hose connections looked dry. But Oana rightly observed she could see where there had been water on it. And sure enough, we have a very minor leak from one fitting. And I suspected that might happen, because I accidentally backed off that fitting just a fraction of a turn when disconnecting the hoses, 3 days ago. At 50 bar working pressure, it doesn’t take much to form a leak. And as this is seawater, we need to address it.
While fixing this, the high-pressure hoses continue to shed their outer layer that has become brittle. I have it as a major project for next lay-up to change all these deteriorating hoses. But for now, I need to give them some support, which I do with some old water hose and then heat shrink on top. In the end they look a bit mickey-mouse (a bodge-job!) but at least they won’t burst and no more black bits shedding everywhere.
We let the fitting sealant (Loctite 275) dry for 6 hours, then test the water maker in the evening. And all is good. No leaks. Now we can re-stow everything and hopefully forget about the membranes for several more years to come.
Then onto the next leaks. The mid cabin deck hatch first. That leaked where the supporting hinge bolts onto the Perspex. The seal perished, and is easily fixed with 3M marine silicon.
On the bow deck hatch, I’m a bit perplexed how water could have entered this brand-new hatch, because I seem to have it sealed to the deck correctly. Admittedly, the hatch had been under water for a good length of time on these last legs, but a new hatch should not leak… damn it! The drips have been entering from the hinge side. I can only think it’s through where the hatch rim has a joint in the aluminium or were the hinges themselves are attached. So a few dobs of silicon go here and there on suspect places and we will have to see the result next time Cloudy Bay pretends to be a submarine… “Dive, dive, dive! “
Final leak to fix is the one coming through the rogue drill hole in the deck, just above the aft shower. This one gets a screw put into the hole, with silicon.
There, all (known) leaks addressed. One day, Cloudy Bay may actually achieve 100% water tightness! Maybe.
Last job is to remove all loose bolts that attach the goose-neck and vang plates to the mast. The ones which nearly fell off in the last leg! I applied red Loctite 271 while sailing, but with the combination of squeezed butyl and salt water, most of the bolts were still not locked-in. This time (taking ½ out at a time) I clean each bolt and bolt hole with acetone then put back in with liberal quantities of Loctite 271. Let’s hope they stay put now. But I WILL be checking on them quite regularly, until I regain my confidence in them.
It’s been another beautifully warm day. Even warmer than yesterday. As we sit eating our dinner in the cockpit just after sunset, a boat parade starts. We can see the shoreline covered with people while colourfully lit up and decorated boats, of all kinds, parade passed the crowd. We consider going ashore to join in on the atmosphere but opt to just watch from the coziness of our cockpit. Oh, and to make sure Cloudy Bay didn’t feel left out, we got our Walmart christmas tree out of stowage, plugged it in (for lights) and placed it on top of the liferaft 😊.
Tonight, a big cold front is coming across the whole of the eastern seaboard, right from Newfoundland all the way down to the Bahamas. It will pass us late morning in a weakened state. We might well jump on the back of the NE winds after it will pass, and get the next leg to Palm Beach done. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
