Back to the reality of semi-lockdowns and man overboard rescues

Coming back from a lovely week away to the wet and windy marina was not the best welcome home we've ever had. 

Remember how we said that we would have to go into battle with Xylem about our misbehaving fresh water pump? Oh, never was a truer word spoken. The lovely folks at Marinescene who obtained it for us contacted their Xylem technical rep who then sent something rather annoying back:

The 42755-0394 requires a constant voltage supply and if the batteries on board are low in charge or there is a voltage drop, then you will get some of the symptoms that you have advised.

Please check that the batteries are charged to around 27 volts.

Ever seen a boat battery bank that offers a constant 27 volts?

Anyway, we replied to his rather unhelpful email and waited. And waited. Then we waited some more, then we chased him. Still nothing. Then we sent a snotty "if you don't want to give us warranty support, who in Xylem will?" email. Still nothing. Finally a call from the Marinescene lady jolted them into some action. 

The action was to offer a different range of pump that needs changes to the boat plumbing as it is a constant pressure model, not one that works on a sensor. Great. So glad that our emergency replacement for the dead Marco pump during the Covid lockdown had a Jabsco label on it and was from a range with some BIG reliability issues......

Oh, guess what, the replacement pump is way cheaper than the one we bought and Xylem (Jabsco parent company) ignore comments about refunding the difference. Luckily Marinescene are going to sort that out.  The saga reminded us why we should not buy Jabsco pumps even in an emergency supply situation.

What else did we get up to? Well, the "goddog" needed some attention to her fur and claws as she was getting fluffier and fluffier. A groomer visit was booked (she just loves those....) and a very cute and tidy dog reappeared:

She was rewarded for her good behaviour at the groomer with a share of a rather nice pie filling we had for dinner:

even if the label they printed was a bit mixed up. The cooked game pie smells resulted in one very happy doglet.

On the maintenance front, we finally got around to swapping the domestic battery alternator on the main engine. We have had a new one in stock for quite a while, waiting to source a new pulley for it so that the old (still working happily) one can be checked over and cleaned internally then be kept as a spare on board. Any failure of the bearings or regulator in this effectively kills the main engine as it is driven from the same belt as the coolant pump. 

After waiting ages, we finally got a new pulley and so the old alternator could be removed for overhauling and checking. Here is the slightly naked engine before cleaning up the normal belt dust:

You can see the heavy battery cables that have been taken off the alternator and insulated so the domestic 24v power could be switched on again. 

The new alternator needed the securing nut for the pulley to be tightened and a special tool helps lock the alternator when doing this. So, we took the old unit and the new one to a very good auto electrician operation in Swansea - look at Shorts Auto Electrical. A proper old school auto electrical shop, old style stores counter, people who know what they are talking about and a real no frills service. Loved it! The old unit was left for disassembly and overhaul (not that the bearings seemed to be bad). The Shorts folks kindly tightened up the securing nut on the new alternator; we didn't have a suitable (big) torque wrench or anything to lock the alternator with whilst tightening it:

With the new alternator fitted the engine started to look more normal again:

Guess what, as the new alternator had been in store for a while, it refused to self excite. For the non tekkies who are even vaguely interested in what that means, go and Google it (other search engines are, of course, available.) That meant it needed a little piece of cable had to be briefly attached to the ignition terminal from the battery positive terminal to get it going nicely. The cable we made up for the job was left secured to the otherwise empty and bored ignition terminal just in case it is ever needed again:

For the non tekkies, this is the little red cable that loops back onto itself and looks / is rather pointless in normal running.

We also had some unwanted excitement. A big bang and shuddering when we were on board sent the dog crazy and the crew outside very quickly. A yacht was nearby, claiming they had not hit us, just the pontoon and the boat next to us. It was one heck of a bang! How they managed it is beyond us as the wind was taking them away from us. The lock office folks who had seen it all on their cameras said that we ought to check for any damage so we launched the RIB on the following day and luckily found nothing. The captain then took the RIB for a little run around the bay to "warm it up" and when returning, heard the sound of the bilge pump on a local passenger boat that was working quite hard. Looking at the outlet, he saw that someone was in the water, tucked in between the stern of the trip boat and the pontoon, in this gap:

He was clinging to one of the fenders on the boat and the top of the pontoon. No lifejacket, no yelling for help - perhaps the shock and cold were beginning to impact him. So, the stern line of the passenger boat that you can see in the picture above got used to pass under his shoulders to hold him up. Then the marina office was called on the radio for backup as there was no fixed ladder nearby and no way the captain could hoist him out alone. With the help of the marina manager's son who works on a Sunday we pulled him out, got him into the passenger boat with the heating running and made sure he was OK. 

He was very lucky that we had launched the RIB and taken it for a run as there was no other passing traffic, He was also lucky that the bilge pump was running or the captain would not have glanced over and seen him. Things could have ended rather badly.