2023-03-05 Watermaker issues, calm waters, projects

 A good weather window came up, so we decided to head over to Long Island for a while.  There was going to be some very calm weather, and Kris had wanted to check out an anchorage, that looked interesting, so we headed out.

We anchored in a nice spot, that had a blue hole nearby.  We had heard that there was good snorkeling, so headed over to check it out.  Nice dinghy ride, but we saw virtually nothing on the snorkel.  No fish, shells, coral - etc etc.  Pretty boring.   

Got back to the boat, and Dean decided to start up the water maker - and it would not start.  Checked all the electrical connections, and it was getting power to the motor - but would not start.  Kris went and pulled out the brushes - as they are a wear item, and usually the motor will start slowing indicating brush wear, but that had not happened.   Well, when we pulled the brushes out we found the problem - one brush had separated.

The brush doesn't have a lot of wear, but certainly won't work broken apart.

We were not worried, after all, when we ordered the water maker, I had also gotten two spare sets of brushes.  We could just get those out, and put new ones in. ...............  Two hours later - after looking in every conceivable spot - could not find the spare brushes.   So, plan B.  Fix broken brush.   Some time with solder, spare wire, and frustration, and then finally some super glue, we got it together enough that we got the water maker running, and ran it for 4 hours and filled the tanks.  - Good for now, but that fix won't hold, so started the process of getting new brushes shipped to the Bahamas from Trinidad.   That is a process in itself we won't go into.

With water in the tanks, we moved anchorages to the spot we thought looked interesting.  On google maps it looks like straight lines of deep water, and they were labeled "Grand Pa's channel".  We figured it was worth a look.

We anchored close by, and explored the channels

The water was clear, and very little wind, so bottom clarity was great, and we expected to see all sorts of turtles, rays and fish.   We were disappointed, not a lot of marine life.

Saw one nice ray

Found the remains of what appeared to be a bridge?

Sunny, clear calm day

Exploring the channel

Even though on the map it appears the channels look straight enough to be man-made, they appear to be natural, and based on the other boats we saw, used frequently as a shortcut for fisherman, who zoomed down them at high speed.

Back at the boat, took some time to work on a couple projects.   We have had a slow dinghy leak, so Dean worked on finding that, and sealed it up.

Found the leak, right at the seam of course.

Also still trying to track down where a small leak of salt is coming from when in heavy seas, so he took the kayak under the boat to seal up a couple of through hulls.

Dean on his back, on the kayak, under the boat.

The calm weather was going to go away next day, and as our anchor hold was not great, we decided to move back to a more protected spot, with better holding.

You can see the anchor is barely dug in.  But wow- what clear water.    This photo taken from bow of boat, looking through water at anchor in 8' of water.

Back anchored off town, went in and got groceries, and stopped at an auto repair store, just to see if they had brushes.  He did, but not the right size, but sent us down the street to a machine shop.  We checked it out as well, but no luck.   After our busy morning, decided to splurge and go out for lunch.

Dinghy tied up at very nice dock

Small restaurant we went to eat at. "Tiny's"

Ate at "Tiny's".  Good burgers, but a little expensive.

Since we needed to head to Staniel Cay in the Exumas, and a weather window looked good, we headed out next day to the north end of Long Island, anchored for the night at Calabash Bay, and next morning had a nice sail over to the Exuma chain  and anchored at Darby Island.

Went to try water maker again, but no luck, glue did not hold, and the brush had separated again.   Worked on it some more, using a Dremel to make some pockets to hold the solder, and got it back together, but haven't tested it yet.   We will wait until tank is at least at 1/4 full before running it.  There is water we can get at Black Point, so if it doesn't work we have options.