Maintenance day

Today was a maintenance day. Initially we thought we would head further south and join a mess of kid boats anchored about 16 miles from here at Rudder Cay. But the day was so windy and our anchorage so secure, we decided to just take it easy.

We divided the day among our usual activities: schoolwork (Moss is learning about mean, median, and mode although this new-fangled math of hers doesn’t use those terms yet), reading, swimming, and maintenance.

This may be TMI for those of you with vivid imaginations, but because there are no boats nearby, Ellen and I have been skinny-dipping. It is a treat to be able to swim, shower, towel off on deck without worrying about prying eyes. My concern is, of course, that our naked bodies will just attract crowds of admirers. That sort of attention just gets exhausting after a while. (Don’t bother scrolling down, there are no pictures of us. This is a family blog.)

Anyway, last night the wind was howling from the east, probably blowing well into the mid-30 knot range in gusts. Thank goodness for Pablo and all that chain. Cupcake held fast and we all slept without worries. (I also checked the chart and realized that in the unlikely event the anchor dragged, we would drift at least 15 miles downwind before we would have a chance of hitting anything.)

Despite the wind, the day was lovely with fast-moving clouds and bright sun. (I really want to use the word “scudding” in this sentence somewhere. There, I just did.)

And in the maintenance department, we all worked together to replace the autopilot with the new unit brought down by Tom and Delwyn. It’s installed, wired, tested, and most importantly, functioning well. Tomorrow we will see how it does at sea, but all preliminary indications are positive.

All the flags have been repaired and reinstalled except our yacht club burgee (landlubbers: a burgee is a wee flag). That FPYC (Flying Point Yacht Club) burgee was so tattered we had to retire the poor thing. The cool old Maine state flag is about 25% shorter than it was when new but has been hemmed to take care of the fraying. Ellen even re-stitched the US flag flying at the stern where it has started to fall apart. That harsh tropical sun is no friend of fabrics.

Stargazing has been excellent lately. This part of the Exumas is far enough from any sky-glow that the only light pollution we see is from masthead lights on anchored boats. With the waxing crescent moon, the night sky is a beautifully spangled wonder. Last night I taught Moss how to find north using the Big Dipper. 

Now she can find her way home if, for some reason, she prefers shivering through the four remaining months of Maine winter to cruising with us. 

NOTICE: technical watermaker jibber jabber ahead. Stop reading here and you won’t miss much.

We’ve also been experiencing a little difficulty with the watermaker. Although the product water is well within the acceptable levels of dissolved solids, the numbers have been creeping up. (Landlubbers: for our purposes, water purity is measured in parts per million of total dissolved solids (have I described this stuff already? If I have, sorry for the repetition.) We have a little TDS meter that gives us a reading on the water the watermaker produces so we know it is safe to drink before we send it to the tank. Any TDS reading below 700 ppm is considered acceptable.) 

The best TDS readings we have seen have been in the 200ppm range but last week we started seeing numbers in the mid 500s and then high 600s. Troubling stuff. Additionally, it seems like we’ve not been producing the 6 to 7 gallons/hour we were used to. Lately more like 5 gallons/hour at the most. 

Anyway, this afternoon after the autopilot success, I changed the prefilters (which are probably unrelated to the TDS and output issue) and started the watermaker. At first the TDS readings were crazy high (680+) but over time they dropped to less-upsetting 500s. Then I realized that running the watermaker off the batteries with the sun low in the sky meant the pump was getting less than 13 volts. More volts means more power to the pump. More power to the pump means more pressure through the watermaker membrane. More pressure to the membrane means lower TDS and more gallons per hour. 

So as a test we started the engine, the voltage jumped up to 13.5 or so and the TDS dropped to the low 400s. Still isn’t the 200s we used to see but it’s much better than what we were seeing last week. I’ll keep an eye on things. We will make a point of running the watermaker during the sunniest part of the day from now on.

Cruising tip of the day: put some kind of UV protectant on your flexible plastic solar panels to protect them from sun damage. That way, when you take a look at them on maintenance day and realize they are getting hazy, you won’t have to wax them like I did today. Should have been waxing them all along.