Wednesday 30 Oct, HHN day 19: Hoses getting re-installed and A LOT of time again wasted on a faulty galley faucet and mission-impossible to reinstall.
More dreams (or nightmares) about thru-hulls, valves, epoxy and 5200! They are starting to haunt us. Luckily, today we should finish installing the last 4 (11 drilled out, 2 filled in, 5 already installed).
We start the day at the Weaver workshop where Glen shortens 2 thru-hull fittings (the other 2 don’t need shortening). Back onboard, straight on with gluing the 4 backing plates – the cockpit drain starboard side, generator intake, bow sink outlet and bow toilet inlet. They go in “text book”, Glen comments. We’re getting good at this!
Next project is to install the port cockpit drain before the rain starts. The new black hoses fit perfectly on the upper part and certainly look better. But as one thing leads to another, we can’t install the lower hose until we install the galley faucet. The new one!
One easy job turns out to be very time consuming because the tap (new from Sweden) doesn’t look right. We even had to read the installation instructions leaflet to make sure we got everything right. Yet more fiddling with the pipes and tightening it, with no success though. It just doesn’t look right. Where the upper and lower bodies meet there is a gap at the front and touching at the back. And in that gap we can see the seals, so something is clearly not right with it. Nearly two hours later we abandon the task, pipes are disconnected and new Mora faucet goes back in its box. This one will have to be returned to Sweden. And we postpone the “let’s have a functional galley sink” mission for later.
Reverting to our priority, cockpit drains. According to forecast rain starts at 5pm so we have only two hours left to finish this job. Measure the needed hose length, cut, then install. And we are ready exactly as the rain starts. We are quite happy we changed the upper section of the hose, as it is now very easy to dismantle when Glen needs access behind it to service the Volvo impeller.
Back to the sink and the faucet, the old Mora faucet comes back on the scene together with the servicing kit which we received yesterday. In theory it shouldn’t leak once we change cartridge. And to test it, Glen makes all the connections and tests the tap in the engine room, before going through the trouble of actually installing it. All looking good, no leak.
Encouraged with this result on he goes again re-installing the old faucet, with its new cartridge. Fiddling with the 2pipes is a lot more painful, as they are solid. And access is close to impossible. He even has to take apart the engine wall to make some room for his hand to secure the faucet from below, while lying on the Volvo. His arms and the back of his hands are covered in scratches. Not a good time to pull his leg or joke with him. This faucet business is driving him crazy. Bad enough that it was not on the planned jobs list… even worst that the new faucet seems to be broken.
Once finished, we make arrangements to reinstate our galley sink to its former glory and just as I was finishing wiping the corian worktop I notice water dripping from faucet. Bloody hell! It leaks again, after all this trouble. Needless to say, Glen isn’t a happy camper 🙁
To take his mind off the frustrating faucet, he tackles a task that can’t go wrong: painting. The engine room floor and the bow bilge around the newly mounted backing plates. And it all looks great once he finishes the task and the paint.
For later evening it’s admin, mainly emailing Hallberg-Rassy Parts with regards to the faulty new faucet and writing the blogs (which we are so behind on). Needless to say, the email to HR-Parts is rather demanding!
With the bread-maker set to do its business throughout the night, we venture to bed to the sound of rain. Totally pooed as usual.
