4-5 Jan, Cartagena, Colombia days 16-17: Just two days after ordering it, our Starlink has arrived! So much for us worrying if it would arrive before we departed Colombia!
Once I’d made the two simple connections and plugged into power, the dishy rotated around the sky for 10 minutes, apparently “mapping obstacles”, then it locked on. But at first it refused to link us to the internet because we were “not at the registered address given during the purchase process”. But once I added “portability” (@$10 per month) it sprang into life with a 180mb/second download speed. I think the fastest internet we’ve ever had on the boat! We both jump with sheer joy. This will be life changing on board, where we are normally internet deprived. Now I must modify the setup so we can power it on 24vdc (vs AC supply) and work out where to permanently mount the dishy. But for now we are just happy to have it on the aft deck, on its own stand. Brilliant!
Now back to more mundane boat things. Two months ago, when still in the USA, I had noticed, by way of salt deposits, that there was a raw water leak on Volvo’s heat exchanger. In theory a simple seal change needed. But in practice half the engine needs to be dismantled to get at that connection on the heat exchanger! A job way beyond my skill level, not to mention the ridiculously tight confines where the work had to be done. Lucky for me, all the local mechanics were unavailable to do such a job. I say “lucky” because at over $100 per hour for such work in the USA, the total bill would have been eye watering.
So instead, we decided to risk the leak and have the work done once we got to Colombia, by the local Volvo dealer, LJ Prop Center. Right from the first contact, communication with them was impeccable, and in very good English. They ordered all the required parts and were ready to start the job as soon as we arrived in Cartagena. And, get this, only $570 total for all the labour involved. It seemed too good to be true.
Today, Wednesday 4-Jan, a supervisor, lead mechanic and two Volvo technicians arrived to the boat. At one point all of them were squeezed into the engine room! After a short discussion the supervisors departed, leaving the 2 technicians to work on the actual dismantling of the engine. And this continued for the next 2 days. They removed the water pumps, oil cooler, all the fuel system, injectors, heat exchanger, starter motor, charge air cooler, all raw water hoses and the turbo. And of course, the heat exchanger. All these parts were then taken to their workshop for service and rebuild, leaving the Volvo looking half-naked and about half its original size!
Their work was quiet and impeccable. Not a drop of water, oil or diesel spilt, and all parts removed and clearly labeled. They even packed their tools neatly away for their lunch breaks!
It’s rare that we allow so called professionals to work on Cloudy Bay but on this occasion I felt very at ease. They are real professionals.
When we return from Bogota, they will come back and reinstall all the serviced parts. And they even include a sea-trial in their cost estimate.
Meanwhile, Oana and I have canvas sewing to do. A lot of it. We had purchased new mesh material (Soltis-86) for the cockpit shades, which is supposed to have >80% UV block, whilst still being see-through.
So, while the Volvo technicians sweated away in the engine room, we made 2 new bimini side shades, 2 sunbrella covers for the aft deck seats, and finally completed the sunbrella cockpit windscreen cover, including protective lining to give a soft-touch on the glass and aluminum.
Once the technicians had departed on Thursday, all we had to do was pack for our flight to Bogota tomorrow. It will be the first time for years that we have left the boat moored afloat for more than a day. And first time ever leaving it without a working engine!