Category Archives: Repair

Where we fixed something that failed.

Waterman’s with Miss Roxy and Portsmouth with Bigger Boat

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Sunrise on Wednesday, July 9, 2025:

Eric’s morning chore was to grease the windlass. We’d replaced our windlass last year before we left San Diego with an updated version of the same model. Eric was pleased to find that the updated model was easier to service than the last one. It was easy to take apart — just one screw and 2-bolts. This model also doesn’t need the oil changed; our old one did. 

In the afternoon, we went to Virginia Beach to visit Miss Roxy. On the way, we stopped at West Marine to pick up some more parts. West Marine didn’t take as long as we’d anticipated, so we had some extra time to kill. We decided to visit the famous Oceanfront boardwalk. We parked at a public parking garage that Karen had told us was the cheapest parking garage/lot in the area.

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Repairs and Errands in Norfolk, Virginia

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Sunrise on Tuesday, July 1

On Tuesday morning, Eric went back to the hydraulic store in Portsmouth to exchange the fittings. He found fittings with angles that would work better in the space we had. Upon return, he finished installing the transfer pump. Much to his aggravation, one of the fittings was leaking. It was too hot to keep working in the engine room, so he gave up for the day. 

On Wednesday morning, Eric took apart, tightened and resealed both fittings on the fuel transfer pump. Since the transfer pump had fuel in it, it was messy. He captured the majority of the fuel in a bucket and used the oil pads (AKA diapers) to suck up the rest. In great news, it wasn’t leaking anymore! He started the transfer pump and it worked! Woo hoo!

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Visiting Portsmouth, Virginia

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Dawn on Monday, June 30

This morning, Eric went to a hydraulic service center near downtown Norfolk, which was southeast of where we were in Little Creek, to buy the proper size fittings for the new transfer pump. Eric wasn’t happy with the selection, so he went to another store in Portsmouth with better selection. Little Creek was surprisingly far from downtown Norfolk, and downtown Portsmouth was surprisingly close to Downtown Norfolk, though to get there, he had to take a toll tunnel under the Elizabeth River. When he got back to Kosmos, he went to work on replacing the transfer pump. Much to his chagrin, the fittings were the right size, but were the wrong configuration for the space it needed to go into. Since he had to go back to Portsmouth to exchange the fittings anyways, we made plans to meet some people over there.

We have another friend who moved to Virginia, Ed. Ed lived a couple of hours away from Norfolk, so Portsmouth was a tad bit shorter of a drive for him. He met us for lunch in Portsmouth, at a Thai restaurant in the Town Square, which was the heart of historic Portsmouth.

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Boat Repairs, Tidewater Comicon, and Dinner with Cruiser Friends

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Sunday, June 29 — View of the channel from the bridge taken during a morning walk. Kosmos is in the marina to the right, in the first row long the channel.

Statue near the bridge

This morning, Eric was feeling motivated to tackle some boat projects. But first, he transferred fuel into the day tank. Eric normally kept the day tank full. But because the fuel transfer pump wasn’t working, he’d let the day tank get low. The reason was that he normally used the transfer pump to balance boat. This means that if one fuel tank had more fuel than the other, the boat would tip sideways, so he used the transfer pump to move the fuel between the tanks to ensure the boat was level. Since the transfer pump wasn’t working, he was using the day tank to help with balancing. He’d let the day tank empty out, then he’d move appropriate amounts of fuel from each of the tanks into the day tank as needed for proper balancing. 

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More Exploring Deltaville, Virginia, USA

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Dawn on Wednesday

On the passage, Eric had noticed an issue with the newly fixed radio: it was working fine, but it was complaining about low voltage. He spent Wednesday morning on the phone with the company who’d done the repair to troubleshoot the problem. Eric eventually figured out that there was a knob to adjust voltage on the power supply unit (which was behind the panel), and that knob was in a spot where it could have been easily bumped when the converter box was installed. In the course of the troubleshooting, the “expert” gave Eric some incorrect information, which really bothered Eric.

In between phone calls, Eric changed the generator oil and filter, drained the engine oil, and replaced the O ring in the oil drain hose for the main engine. We also went to the boat yard next door to say goodbye to the family that had been hauled out yesterday. They were a really nice family and we hope to see them again when they return.

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