The lockdown continued so we had to keep amused somehow - watergate #2

Faced with many weeks of lockdown and pictures from folks we know in Asia who were"going about life pretty much like normal" we tried hard to avoid the being miserable about it all thing. Finding amusement in the local area was easy enough - the end of our pontoon is a favorite spot for the local fishermen to congregate, stalk their prey and then dry their wings afterwards: 

It does tend to turn the pontoon a little bit white but the marina guys are very good at cleaning up and we don't need that end anyway - this hammerhead is nicely longer than we are.

We also planned to get some electric folding bikes. Our antique cheapo folding bikes had been fine but the crew's issue with hills (both up and down) and advancing years made some assistance on the hilly bits tempting. There was plenty of time to research what to have and knowing Andrew (Mr Zephyros, the Nordhavn 43) made it so much easier as he is a bit of an expert. The choice ended up between a Brompton or a Gocycle. Every bone in the captain's body loved the engineering and design of the latter:

but the lazarette was not as keen. Folded they are way bigger then the classic Brompton and putting two of those, plus the Avon roll up dinghy, little Tohatsu outboard and spare oil etc into the laz was very very tight on space. No matter how many times it was measured up, the same reality struck, it was just too tight and getting to anything else in there (eg flopper stopper, wet and dry vacuum, stern gear, inverters, hydraulic pump for the crane, batteries etc) would involve dragging 2 bikes and a dinghy out.

A test ride on both bikes made the reluctant captain realise that the benefits of the Gocycle on the road were not worth the mayhem they would cause in storing them or trying to keep them safe when out and about.  So, it looks like we have to go for Bromptons instead, mainly because they do this:

 

and weigh a bit less too. Life is full of compromises but this one isn't too hard.

Maintenance news: (for those folks who really have had enough of lockdown and just want help to sleep):

Having had a Brexit import duty moan in the last post about the extra cost of importing a Marco fresh water pump, we struck lucky. A UK marine engineering shop had one for sale at less than half the normal imported price. It was old stock and so we risked the dreaded "seal on the pump shaft failing so the electric motor gets a bath" problem. It duly arrived (after they had sent it to the wrong address initially) and the fun of #Watergate2 was upon us. 

Working on the basis that nothing on a boat is ever simple, we were not disappointed. First of all we had to remove the failed elderly Jabsco backup pump and then move the working one into that space as it is too small for the Marco. Naturally Jabsco had changed the size of their mounts which meant some playing around with the original backing pad and pipe runs to get it snugly in place and far enough away from the little water heating boiler:

Then, to mount the Marco pump nicely in the vacated space, we had to move the salt water washdown pump for the anchor chain as far as possible outboard. The Marco has a very delicate strainer assembly and any nasty angle on the water inlet pipe attached to it causes distortion and encourages the strainer seal to leak water out or air in or both. So, the washdown pump was duly removed and parked for a while:

and the nice Marco UP12e fitted into place:

The pipework to the relocated washdown pump needed some trickery as the outlet is solid stuff - the blue pipe in the picture above - but it all worked eventually.  Well, sort of. After priming the Marco and enjoying the nice pressure and flow rates (plus the noise a bit like a jet engine spooling up when it runs), the captain was less amused to find air bubbles appearing in the strainer when the pump was switched off.

The so called "old stock" pump had clearly been fitted to something at some stage in its' life as there was some silicone style goo around the hose fitting that screws into the strainer and a very impressive 24v DC connector on the wiring together with some cable protection. That is not standard from the factory! The strainer had to be removed to be cleaned up, sealed with PTFE tape not whatever some bodger had in his sealant gun, and then refitted. Time to talk to the suppliers.... See, maintenance stuff is never easy. However, we regularly bless the decision we made years ago to have two pumps in parallel with a simple swap over involving two valves and a switch. Having no fresh water is no fun especially as the heads need it....

Doing stuff and keeping amused / warm

What do you do in the New Year with Covid rampant, scary infection increases and a lockdown? Well, try to keep happy is one good idea. There seem to be various approaches to that. Dry January? Er, no. We went for the dry couple of days followed by a couple of days of badness (or goodness, depending upon your point of view). Massive exercise regime? Well, we did up the step count a bit as it stopped raining for several days and we did a bit of maintenance stuff.

Wandering around town, upping the crew's step count for the Fitbit friends competition, the local independent pet shop amused us with their new window display:

On the way back we found that the council had brought in contractors and one huge crane to start clearing the dangerous trees etc following the pre-Xmas landslip into the car park and boatyard:

As you can see, they have lots to do. According to the marina staff, they have already removed 400 tons of material in clearing up the landslip and this area of the cliff:

Maintenance news:

More fresh water pump stuff, sorry to say.  Our old Jabsco pump had kept going happily until it didn't. Like many things. Suddenly it was drawing in air after running and so it then had to re-prime each time you went to draw off water. No leaks anywhere but you could hear the air being sucked in. So, the captain (who thinks that the O ring and plastic clip seals used on these pumps are a bit suspect / a poor engineering solution) swapped out the three O rings used. Still the same. Put some soapy water around the filter - no signs of bubbles from it or any of the plastic fittings. Knowing that the pumps have a tough time in liveaboard use, the assumption was a dying pump that needed rebuilding so it was duly removed:

Jabsco had finally sent us a replacement for the useless electronically controlled pump we bought last spring. However it needs plumbing changes to work in our system as it is not a variable speed pump. Instead it is pressure controlled and so needs an accumulator tank. We have an expansion tank to handle the expansion from the calorifier and that is set to the wrong pressure for this style of pump and plumbed in the wrong way too. The tanks are the same, it is just where and how they are fitted and pressurised that changes their function. Effectively, we would need a second tank, rigged as an accumulator.

However, needs must and all that so the pressure controlled pump was fitted as a temporary backup, knowing that it would cut in/out far too often if we had to use it:

It worked well, primed itself all OK but when it turned off, there was that noise of air being drawn in again and the filter (the clear cover and black plastic thing on the left of the picture above) showed a slowly dropping water level. Grr...  The captain found an old filter, fitted it and hey presto, no more air being drawn in. There must have been a hairline split towards the top and back of the original which the soapy water trick could not reveal as it was well hidden. No matter, at least we could refit our old pump and put this replacement into the "spares" stock, knowing some plumbing changes will be needed to use it as the primary fresh water pump.

We still loathe the Jabsco diaphragm pumps and might save up to get another nice Marco gear driven variable pressure thing. They are just a truly stupid price but even they make things like the Headhunter 240v pump look obscenely priced. The biggest problem is that importing one now, post Brexit, will incur some hefty duty charges from the UK customs folks. That was not the case in December. Wish we had ordered one then......