Tuesday 15 Oct, HHN day 4: Tackling the leaking galley faucet and trying to remove some of the thru-hull fittings.
Today’s morning started with yet another phone call to Three UK, our mobile phone/MiFi provider to seek a solution for our data package. Another customer support representative, another feedback. This time we are told our MiFi dongle (a Huawei) will not work in the in USA. Hm, that was one of the main reasons we signed up for this new MiFi contract, to have hotspot in USA. Welcome back to internet-deprived cruising life!
Then time to tackle the leaking galley faucet. Now that we have the diagram of these faucets from the Hallberg-Rassy Parts, Glen decides he can swap the galley’s tap inner parts with the ones of the middle bathroom’s sink tap which works perfectly.
As he starts dismantling the galley faucet, huge corrosion is revealed. Lots of scrubbing and vinegar soaking is needed, but in the end it all comes apart and the parts are swapped between faucets. But with no success: the galley tap still leaks and now the bathroom tap leaks too! After more fiddling with, still no improvement. So the taps innards revert to their original place and we have to live with no galley faucet until a new one is delivered from Sweden. Washing up changes to our bathroom sink!
The other leak, the solenoid valve of master-cabin toilet is, on the other hand, a success. It needed its rubber valve refacing, which Glen did with some sandpaper.
Into the engine room he then tackles the biggest task of his jobs list: removing some of the thru-hulls (or attempting to, as it turns out). There are signs of corrosion on them and the brass turned pink in places, meaning there is some de-zincification which weakens the valves. If we don’t want to sink unexpectedly, it is time for new ones. He spends several hours in there, removing pipes and fittings. But after lots of cuts, bruises, sweating and cursing the thru-hulls don’t budge even a millimeter. Hm… not good.
Luckily, our acquaintances from sister-ship HR46 Matriarch have changed some of their thru-hulls last week and they are still here in Herrington Harbour North Marina. So we pay them a visit to their pontoon and get a download on how they did it. They had called in help from Phipps Marine and the job was done very quickly by cutting the thru-hull fitting from the outside without the need to undo any plumbing joints. Sounds like we will need to do the same. Clearly Hallberg-Rassy didn’t plan on any of these fittings ever coming out easily!
We end up spending a lot longer on Matriarch, chatting to Meghan and Greg and sharing experiences. Hopefully we’ll see some more of them before either of us leave HHN.
Back onboard, Glen goes under the floorboards of the middle cabin to check the status of the valves and thru-hulls there. The valve of the bow toilet drain was partially jammed, and when he tried to un-jam it (with a large hammer!) the valve itself broke. So this thru-hull will definitely have to come off.
And while in there, he took measurements of the bilge space with the plan to turn it into storage space for the new lot of spare parts. Plenty of space and mid-ship, perfect for the spare windlass, sprayhood and bimini (maybe).
Full-on day, and at the end of it we feel a bit unsure about the timeline we set ourselves for on-hard activities. Need to revise both calendar and priorities.