More tinkering thanks to the forecasts

Another update for the technically minded or very bored:

One last little pre-departure thing was to check out our fire control stuff. The boat is fitted with a Seafire system which automatically shuts down the engine room fans and the main engine and genset if the fire extinguisher bottles are triggered by a rise in temperature. Has to be done or the fire suppressant that the extinguishers put out would get dragged out of the engine room by the fans / eaten by the main engine rather than sit there to put the fire itself out. Not too good for the engine either, breathing all that stuff in and trying to burn it.

Some Nordhavn owners have reported that the unit has failed and will not reset thanks to component failures in the Seafire control box meaning no main engine..... Not nice if underway. We had considered this ages ago and got a few diagrams showing what to do if it failed but we probably hadn't taken it seriously enough. So, we did some checking of our control box. Luckily it is of the older type which doesn't have the same "prone to failure" problem as the later boxes.  All the same we looked at the wiring to ours:

which of course did not tie in exactly to the wiring diagram provided with the boat. Luckily the "normally open / normally closed" logic for the relays was the same and to get the main engine going again if the box failed is simple enough - one wire to remove and isolate. Getting the engine room fans going needs some wires to be bridged. Our wing engine is not part of the system and so could be used whilst the main is being restarted.

The nice Nordhavn technical folks in the USA are looking at the problems reported and said they will come back with a suggestion after escalating the failures with Seafire. We think that will mean simply wiring a couple of bypass switches around some of the relays in the unit.  In the meanwhile and until a definitive suggestion has come from them we've just made up a simple kit of parts that is taped next to the unit with instructions on which wires to isolate and which to bridge:

We sincerely hope not to need to use it of course.

Finally the weather suggests that there will be a window with waves around Land's End lower than the recent 6 metres. We plan to take advantage of it to move to the south coast somewhere.

To magnetron or not to magnetron, that is the question

Sometimes things like to bite you. Well, the rather nice Miele microwave / grill thingy decided to do that at the worst possible time. We were just back on board after dropping off the Defender in the Solent area, ready to use during our coming lift out. Firing up the microwave to cook dinner, it made the "dead magnetron" noise and gently expired. Is it worth trying to repair it? 10 years old? Nope, we decided to get a new one and duly removed the deceased device:

Of course, going wrong when we cannot easily collect a new one and just as Easter is approaching when delivery of a new one gets difficult, is perfect timing. Thanks. Finding one of the same dimensions was not too hard as Miele do a more modern offering. One was duly ordered and cooking was restricted to the oven, cookpot and hob for a couple of days. Hardly a problem. We just like having a microwave to easily heat up pre-prepared freezer food whilst on passage. Fortunately the weather was bad enough to delay our departure to later than the microwave delivery.

Stuff is never simple, although the new one slotted nicely into the cabinet, the fixing method has changed and so we need more height to put the fastening clips in place. Grr.... Of course, the jigsaw is in store.

Luckily the forecasts meant there was no rush at all:

No desire to be off Land's End with 6m wave heights and the normal confused wave pattern there.

The very good news was that we got the hull scratches, inflicted by the old lifeboat (see last post), sanded and polished out. "John the Gelcoat" (Apex boat repairs) has a great reputation locally and did a careful and excellent job.  He didn't want to fill the marks unless he was forced to as any new gel matched to the hull colour would, of course, fade differently to the original over time. John is also a very nice guy!! Strongly recommend him if you need any GRP work in South Wales.

Back to the microwave / grill thing. Having borrowed a jigsaw from Simon, a local yacht surveyor, we were armed to do battle. For those interested, Simon's survey business is YSC Surveys and he knows his stuff! We also believe that he doesn't use his jigsaw during boat tests. If you need a survey in Wales or the Somerset / Devon / Cornwall areas he is well worth a call. This post sounds more and more like an advert - not meant that way, just worth commenting on good folks when you find them, as in the marine world they are sadly few and far between......

The hook things that are designed for use in standard size kitchen cabinets are totally useless and a complete nightmare in non standard boat apertures. After cutting out more access space, fitting wooden packing blocks to the locker to allow the hooks to sit at the right separation and lots of trial and error and even more bad words, the new unit finally latched in place. Maybe a new magnetron would have been better after all!

Of course, the surround is slightly different so the wooden trim pieces that fitted around the old one beautifully have some gaps with the new. So be it! Replacement can wait until we have more tools to hand. At least we have a microwave / grill again that should not come out to join us when the going gets bumpy:

One positive bit of news, think we have tracked down a little fluid leak from the heating / air conditioning system that has been bugging us for a while. Loose hose clip(s) in the main cabin air handler had let some coolant leak out which was tracking between the pipe and insulation wrap, then ending up in the bilge. Couldn't see it as it was hidden under the insulation of course. Perhaps we missed our vocation and should have been detectives.

Just got to replace the insulation now.