April 7, 2016

I spent a lot of time this week spinning my wheels, literally and figuratively. Unfortuneately, a couple of “little” projects turned out to prove once again that the only reliable way to estimate how long a boat project will take is to start with your best estimate and then double the number and go to the next longer unit of time. For example, these projects should have taken no more than an hour and a half each. Instead it was almost four days. All I wanted to do was repickle the watermaker and paint an old spare motor/hydraulic pump for the autopilot. Well, it seemed no sea water was flowing through the watermaker, so a full day of troubleshooting ensued. I finally got it working, but I'm not sure why. Most likely it was fine all along, but I failed to look carefully at the outflow initially. The water was stealthily running down the hull side instead of splashing into the water, which I didn't notice until AFTER all the troubleshooting. Sigh. At least each time I go through something like this it helps me to better understand the system and more easily diagnose future problems.  The other issue was the difficulty of disassembling an old autopilot motor/pump module for clean-up and painting. I eventually got that done too, but not before breaking one of the pulleys. Sigh. On top of all that, I happened to notice grease seeping out from the base of my expensive windlass. Had possibly the same problem five years ago. Had to remove it, pack it up (a BIG job) and send it off the maker. That time they fixed it free; I doubt I'll be so lucky this time. Sigh. When I wasn't wrestling with projects, I was futilely driving around trying to find the right cable to connect the computer to the SSB radio to get weatherfaxes. Had to order it online. It just arrived, so by next week I should know if I can successfully receive and display them. Hopefully it will be a better week, although it could be a rainy one!