… is performing boat repairs in remote locations.
We believe the majority of our friends and staff have a vision of us having a grand time cruising and enjoying the beautiful weather, sun bathing, catching fish, and all around enjoying life.
Well, this IS true, but it is only half the picture.
Boats are a lot of work on a daily basis. If at anchor, you are monitoring your batteries’ charge, always checking your swing (when we do a perfect “donut” we cheer, as this denotes a good hook), monitoring your water and fuel usage, and waste buildup, making water (we love doing this!), checking fluids on both main engines and both generators, wiping down the teak after the rain or dew in the morning, oh and then just your daily normal house chores on top of all this.
Boats are also meant to be used, and the majority of the boats out there are only used for maybe two months a year. When pumps, motors, engines sit unused, things tend to go awry. In the same breadth, if a switch, pump, motor, engine is heavily used (and then throw in there sitting for eighty percent of the time), things tend to go kaput.
We were diligent about running systems on a monthly basis since we came back from last season’s cruise. However with the age of our boat (she’s a 1992) and the fact that she sat for a couple years before we purchased her last year, is a recipe for things to fail.
It can be as simple as corroded connections (that was our bow thruster and port alternator last season). Or a fuse that may have blown (this season our macerator pump, and the pump for our reverse air system), and hope you have a replacement fuse in your inventory on board. Or a switch that went kaput because of age (our bow thruster switch on the aft steering station, the v-berth light switch), which you Jerry-rig with what you’ve got on board. A sanitation hose has failed (we now have extra sanitation hose on board). The pump that moves the davit crane left and right failed from age (and we only used it once this season!).
Let’s mount the external Iridium GO antenna, she said. Running wires after the fact on a boat is never easy. This proved to be one of those “easier said than done” projects. The motor that lifts the aft lazarette where we stow the 50amp power cable and fenders failed. Tom Jerry-rigs two switches that you press simultaneously to activate the motor, as the diodes have failed. The aft lazarette hatch is mainly rotted wood, so you have to solidify where the arm that lifts it attaches for the newly Jerry-rigged electrical to the motor to work for the whole assemble to be functional again.
As we say, there is ALWAYS something to be worked on, on a boat. And on a somewhat regular basis we ask ourselves, why are we doing this?! And then we have a speculator day; whether it be glorious blue skies and calm wind, the fishing being hot, or seeing a humpback open it’s humongous jaws right next to the fish boat feeding (their breath stinks!), or being able to share these experiences with friends. These days are the days that keep us boat owners, and make the never-ending list of projects and repairs seem like a short manageable list.