S/V Po Oino Roa: IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING

Ocean View Marina
Samal Island, Davao
Mindanao, Philippines

Working away on the boat attempting to get ready to once again enjoy true cruising rather than marina life and boat yard projects it seems I always find something that is not on the list that needs attention.

Last blog had me finishing installing the new sink faucet and then going to work rebuilding the aft toilet in preparation for once again being out of the marina. Now Mr. Groco, the toilet manufacturer, and I are old friends and he fully cooperated in being put back together, this time, with lots of new parts and on checking things flushed without any leaks.

Monday I was going to run a check on our high frequency radio talking to friends on S/V Carina now located in Palau. Leslie was able to copy me but not with the best of signals. I supposed I needed to look at the ground plane first. During this test another problem was noted! The pactor modem, which we use with the HF radio to send and receive emails while underway with no internet connection, did not initialize and just showed flashing red lights. The modem is very important as it not only is our email link but also our weather link while underway. I attempted a bit of troubleshooting checking connections etc. to no avail. An email was sent to the North American distributor located in the San Francisco bay area.

Wednesday morning brought the response that it was an internal failure and they could possibly repair it. Off I went to Davao to find a DHL office to send the modem away. I was successful and they should have it by their closing time Friday evening. Now we just hope it can be repaired and then shipped to Kathy in Southern California to bring when she returns. More on that in future editions of this blog.

Thursday it was time to investigate the ground plane of the HF radio. There are different opinions by the experts regarding this and I prefer the one from Gordon West mainly because it is far simpler. He says just a copper foil from the tuner ground to a bronze thru hull rather than others they that espouse 100 square meters of copper throughout the boat. In the past I had actually just used a heavy copper wire to the rudder post but had planned to change to foil and had brought it back from the states. When I looked at the old ground wire it was in fact broken and not connected to anything. This whole installation takes place in the aft berth and mostly under the bed. It was a day long job but I did finish it, today I once again talked to Leslie aboard s/v Carina in Palau and she said I had a stronger signal so I guess I was successful.

Today's first project was to finish the reinforcing of the tack and head of the staysail. this was started months ago and finally finished today. something actually crossed off the list. For my afternoon job I decided something simple. As tomorrow I planned to start on fluid changing for the engine, coolant, transmission fluid and engine oil that I would take inventory of what I had and would need for the future. Looking at stores in the forward bilge area I found a container that should have been full to be only half. The container had sprung a leak. thankfully this has occurred before and I now keep all liquid jugs inside a tray in case of leaks. It was a minor problem but at least not oil throughout the bilge. I then decided to do some further inspections starting in the engine room. Next found was a wire from the alternator to the batteries that the crimped and soldered terminal was loose and needed replacement. then on looking further in could see water dripping from the hose connecting the thru hull to the raw water engine cooling pump. I had noticed the automatic bilge pump has been cycling more often lately.

That's a lot of somethings in the last week!!!