Category Archives: Boat Technical

Specifics about the boat.

Day Two of the Water Pump Saga

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This morning we got confirmation that ABT has shipped the broken part to their repair person in Mallorca. He will fly out to Gibraltar to fix the stabilizer next week after the part arrives. ABT has been great to work with.

Last night he found the number for the Shurflo manufacturer in England on the internet. He and called first thing this morning. They told him they only sell in bulk to distributors and gave him the number to their distributors in the UK and Spain. The UK distributor said to call the Spanish distributor in Barcelona. We tried, but they don’t speak English and we don’t speak enough Spanish to carry on a conversation. We went to the marina office to see if someone could call for us. No one on duty spoke Spanish, and they said to come back later.

Eric went back to the chandlery to buy different hose clamps, hoping maybe he could find ones that would fit better. He went to work on trying to beef up the connection so that the water pump we have is usable, this time using the new clamps and plumber’s tape. We are sad to report it is still leaking slightly. Here is a picture of his craftsmanship.

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While Eric worked on the pump, Christi washed the boat (using the marina’s spigot). It was a windy day to start with, and while she was out there the wind picked up dramatically. Christi only got Continue reading →

Water Pump Failure in Gibraltar

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This morning, Christi went to wash the dishes. She turned on the sink and no water came out. Uh oh. After checking a few things, Eric deduced the water pump had died. Thank God it happened on shore and not out at sea. Here, it is an inconvenience. We can use the marina’s toilets and showers, and buy bottled water until it is fixed. And it is easy to fix when the boat isn’t moving. At sea, it would be a nightmare. Yes, there are ways to tap into the water tanks or watermakerbut it is awkward and tricky when the boat is moving. We’d have to give up showers until it was fixed. And, since the pump is in the lazarette, we wouldn’t be able to work easily on it unless the seas were calm enough that water wouldn’t be coming over the cockpit walls into the lazarette.

We decided to go out for breakfast, knowing we’d deal with the situation better on a full stomach. Ahhh, it is such a wonderful luxury to go out to breakfast. We think we mentioned this in Australia, but a traditional English breakfast is Continue reading →

Looking Around Gibraltar

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Continued from yesterday”¦ As we were getting ready to go out, we could hear a bunch of planes taking off and landing. And they were loud. This tiny airport can’t possibly have this much traffic, and certainly not big planes. Eric poked his head out and saw a new super high powered state of the art jet fighter doing acrobatics. It would take off, do trick in the air, then land, then repeat. Eric watched for a while. Here is a shot of the waterfront as we were leaving Kosmos to get some lunch.

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Eric was delighted to see a Mexican restaurant on the boardwalk. He thought Mexican food was the ideal way to celebrate our passage completion. We are sad to report that Continue reading →

Entering Gibraltar

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By 0200, we decided the wind was confused. It would pick up for a while, then die down for a while. It changed direction often, rotating from starboard to port and back. It was afraid to commit. Seas had picked up some more, but it was still nice ride overall.

By 0230, the seas really picked up out of nowhere and it started to get a little bit rough. If it were head seas, we would definitely be well into the “uncomfortable” category, but since they were following seas, and it was tolerable, but not fun. The stabilizers were Continue reading →

Start of the Passage to Gibraltar

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Yesterday was a nice day in terms of weather. It was a little bit warmer than it has been, and there was no rain or wind. As soon as we got up we started our “get ready to go to sea” routine. We planned to leave shortly before sunset. Eric worked at getting things ready to go on board while he waited for the Simrad repair guy. Christi went to pick up fresh fruit and bread for the passage. Conveniently enough, there is a supermarket directly across the street, right next to the restaurant we like. And, from the fancy awning and red carpet, it looks like a nice one.

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It wasn’t open. Odd, since it is normal business hours on a weekday. She went and peeked into the windows and realized it is a nightclub, named “Supermarket”. Oops. She set off Continue reading →