Boom light

Thursday 20 December, Jolly Harbour Marina: Constructive day, fitting boom light and re-seal water heater pipes.

A leisurely morning with no firm agenda. Just tidying up. The spray top is dry and we put it back on. Certainly much cleaner after the scrub yesterday, but on the underside there are still some mildew stains. Hm, not sure we will ever get rid of that.
Glen has another go diving for the swim ladder piece which he dropped in the water yesterday. Unsuccessful again. Visibility is very poor, and even with an underwater torch he still couldn’t find it before he stirred up the mud again.

Moving onto practical stuff, it’s time for an electrical job: the boom lights. We used to have 2 spot lights under the boom, which would have been fine if water wouldn’t keep getting into them. Glen tried to make them waterproof several times, but water does go inside the boom all the time. And lights were corroded quite frequently.
As a result, last year we bought a waterproof LED strip to glue in the slot of the boom. But we never finished installing, because in the process we burned one of the EmpirBus electronic board that controls the boom light. The board was serviced in Sweden, has been back to us for a couple of months and Glen refitted it.
So it’s now time we tackle the actual lights, as I’ve had enough of blind torches in the cockpit. Well, we do have the in house made cockpit lamp, but boom lights will be nice to be revived too.
This task has been sitting in his “projects office” since February, when we burned the circuit board. We have all required pieces of equipment, so it’s a straight forward job. Run the new electrical cable through the boom, glue the LED strip, clean the electrical contacts on the mast, connect the cable, and seal with self amalgamating tape.
And what a delight when we press the boom light button! Wonderful, we have light! Well, true verdict will be tonight in the dark.

We checked the gas pressure in the fridges and with the knowledge we now have from Philmore, they all seem to have the right pressure. Just to be sure, we do call Philmore and he comes back to Cloudy Bay in the afternoon. After Glen explains to him all the measurements he read on the gauges, we have the expert confirmation that they are all with the right gas pressure. Perfect. Now we can go to the supermarket and provision!

After sunset I am looking forward for the darkness to come. Boom lights on and …oh, we have a surgery room in the cockpit! Very bright LEDs. But I will not admit out loud that maybe I overdid it when I insisted with Glen to install as much length of strip as the boom would allow 🙂 Well, once the bimini will be back up, the LEDs will be above it and we will have a nice golden glow through the bimini. So I hope 🙂 Otherwise, Glen will have some comments to make, and I will still not admit that I overdid it 🙂 I may not always be right… but I’m NEVER wrong!

I have nearly finished the video with the sailing to Antigua, and while reviewing it Glen comments a few times “oh, that varnish…why did I peel it off”. Hm, that’s exactly what I think too, but no need to twist the knife in the wound. But the video is looking good, lots of active sailing.

For the evening activity, Glen gathers all his patience to tackle the fittings under the water heater, again. After discovering where the fresh water leak was coming from, he had a go at fixing it while we were in Herrington Harbour Yard. Back then he used a sealant recommended by the local hardware store … but it didn’t work.
So now he wants to re-re-seal. With the long-proved-and-tested Teflon tape. Trouble with this particular leaking pipe fitting is that it is nearly impossible to access with the hand. And certainly impossible to access with any spanner. Well, with a normal spanner that is.
Glen sets about to make his own spanner that would fit under the water heater and have the right size for the fitting, which is 26mm.
So, armed with the grinder, a sacrificial 22mm spanner and a pair of mole-grips to be used as a vice, he installs his workshop on the jetty. I can hear the grinder sound from the saloon, as I edit video. He is surrounded by an orange glow, from the steel sparks made by the the grinder. It’s quite a show in the darkness!
Once finished, he has made a 26mm spanner with a very short handle. A dry run is successful on a similar, more accessible, pipe fitting. The problem fitting, right at the back, is a lot more difficult. On his back, working out his abs, with 2 fingers only just reaching the spanner on the fitting, he manages to do just one-sixth of a turn at a time But eventually it is screwed in tight. Then all the hoses are reconnected. If this fixes the leak it was significantly easier than removing the entire hot water tank, which is about the same size as a small household tank.

As he finishes cleaning up after the engine room activities, we hear music from ashore. And immediately we realize it’s karaoke night at West Point Bar. Oh no, not karaoke again! Most of them sound like anything but singers. And that’s the sound we will go to sleep with. Ear plugs, you are my best friends!