Good to have two gensets

As I said to Simon on Saturday, the previous owner went a bit OTT on the systems, doubling up on things; case in point, two 12kVA gensets is a bit much. But, the number of times I have been happy to have two gensets is not insignificant. Go ahead two days, and Monday morning I was happy again. Port genset, which had been running sweet, decided to issue a self-destruct command to the raw water pump.

I opened her up this morning, which turned out to be more involved than I had thought, since the hot water cylinder has been parked right next to the end of the genset. In the end I had to pull the covers apart and then remove the whole pump in order to get the impeller out. There was exactly half of one lobe left on it. Most of the rest were found jammed in the hose downstream, but a few are still unaccounted for - I'll have to open up the heat exchanger where they have no doubt found their way.

Having put in a new impeller on the port unit I decided I had better do the starboard unit as well, but once I took it all apart and found the impeller was fine I remembered that I had done it in California. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
 

The pump unit extends all the way out to the housing wall, so no way I could get in between it and the hot water cylinder to remove the impeller. Here I have removed the pump unit.

Hmmmm. That's not gonna move much water. Up until it died it had been spewing water out, so it must have been a wholesale spontaneous self-destruct.

Weekend Sailing

Waffly wind conditions didn't stop us from some great sailing on the weekend. With only 8-10 knots of wind most of the time we had to get everything up, including the mizzen staysail which we had not flown before. Great fun!

 

 

Going sailing. Yes. We. Are.

Simon came over today and helped us get the boat ready. We've put the #1 staysail on, got out the mizzen staysail and threw that up to make sure we get it right when the time comes, and basically are prepared to put up all the sail area we can, because for the next two days WE ARE GOING SAILING, but the weather forecast is for 10 knots variable. But, We. Are. Going. Sailing.

Getting there...

Kamalii is very 50's American: two-tone colour scheme with wood panelling...

Now that I'm starting to see how the masts will look when finished I'm getting anxious to crack on and finish them. But not this weekend - off sailing. Please let there be wind.

The weather sucks

The weather is not playing ball. Oh well, drinkies instead.

Sarah took these photos yesterday of me putting the first coat of gloss on. I'm really hoping I can get a few more coats on before next weekend - we are going sailing regardless!

Night Varnishing

9:21 pm.  I just got down from the mast. Varnish by torchlight.

Up at 6am tomorrow to get another coat on. Deep sigh.

UV - The Enemy

Here's a shot of the base of the main mast where I have removed the mast boot. You can clearly see the fading/bleaching of the wood through the varnish by the sun. It will be interesting to see if the dark finish I have gone with for the new varnish displays the same level of fading; supposedly it won't. The weather did not let me get any varnish on before we came back to the marina, so will be trying to squeeze coats on in the evenings after work, weather permitting.

Back to work...

Sigh. Final shots before we upped anchor and headed back. And as an added bonus we have a broken toilet pump to fix...

The mast that never ends...

That's what it seems like. Today I finished stripping the middle section - 5 hours up the stick with only a 20 minute break. I am very sore.

Hopefully the weather is going to let me get a couple of coats on before we have to head back to the marina. Hopefully.

Middle section stripped and ready to go.

The effects of 5 hours in the sling...

More Holiday Snaps

More holiday snaps. Back at Whangaparaoa tonight, then off to Kauwau for a few days.

Notice the top of the main mast is now newly varnished, and a different colour. I decided to go for a darker finish since (supposedly) it is a little more UV resistant, and it better matches the rest of the bright-work on the boat. Now for the middle section... 

I swear there were fish jumping everywhere when I took this photo. Must have been vampire fish...

Holiday Snaps

Very random collection of photos from holiday so far. Been out at Great Barrier Island, not a huge amount of sailing done, but good weather and all very relaxing.

Climbing the big kauri tree at Port Fitzroy

Up the business end of a kauri - quite cool.

Port Fitzroy

Me stripping and sanding the top section of the main mast in prep for varnishing. I now have the first coat of gloss on, will post some pics when done. Bloody hard work, but bizarrely fun. You proud of me, Simon?  :-)

Ahhhh, yessss.