Sunday, October 16, 2011

The never-ending story of repairs continues !

After making a smooth passage from Blue Lagoon back to Vuda Point Marina, weaving through the reefs. we arrived and got reattached to land one more time. Our refer/freezer needed help big time as it was consuming a bit more energy with every passing day. It was time to tear the whole unit out and get to the bottom of this nagging issue once and for all. As with most things on Sidewinder, access is the main hurdle to jump over and my old body doesn't bend into the positions required for getting into and around the small area where the refer/freezer components are located. But as usual, after a little cussing ( little ? ) and the normal bloody knuckles, I got all the parts out (with a little help from my dear wife, Suzi :)) and gave them to our good friend "Rama" the local Handy Man for repairs. The fact is Rama doesn't do anything himself but hands the projects over to his young helpers who do all the work and who really don't know that much about what they are doing. But that doesn't stop them from diving into anything and after a couple of days they returned with our "repaired" unit. Since the reinstallation is so complicated I did that myself with them looking on but they took over when it was time to connect all the rigid copper lines and the compression type fittings. To make a long story short, ridding the system of leaks took two days but was finally completed with an air tight system that was holding it's charge. The ending of this saga arrived with a unit that runs as well as it ever has and so far ( three days later ) it's still going strong. But we have been here before so I'm still keeping my fingers and toes crossed. Please keep us in your prayers, Man needs his cold beer.
So with projects completed and life in the Marina getting old, we headed out to Musket Cove for some time in the water and some R&R before heading off to New Zealand. Why is nothing easy ? The first hour of the short 3 hours trip to Musket was spent motor sailing with light winds out of the west  just off our nose. But within 15 mins. it swung around to out of the east and built to over 20 knts. So for the next 2 hours we plowed into wind and waves and it was during this time I noticed a piece of the UV protection cloth of our headsail torn and flapping in the wind. Next project, sail repair..... aren't we having tons of fun ???? Got to love this cruising life style, never a dull moment. I still haven't figured out what I'll be when I grow up !!!   " 18 till I die "

No comments: