Boat Business

Our visit in North Palm Beach extended out to two weeks. It was an incredibly productive time and we got most if not all of our “to-do’s” accomplished.  We snuck some fun/social times in there, but for the most part, it was all about the boat and provisioning for the Bahamas.  I didn’t even take any photos while we were there!

Here’s what we’ve been up to…

Warranty Work:

Rob, Chris & Fernando came first thing last Monday morning. They flew through the list and addressed all but one of our issues that day. They had to wait for supplies to come in for the last task with was completed later in the week.  They rock!

• Main Shaft. The amount of compression in the shaft seal was adjusted which enabled the seal to be better seated and eliminated a possible chafing risk.
• Windshield Wiper. A C clip that the tensioning spring was attached to was replaced.
• Hydraulic Leaks. Two leaks were fixed. One was caused by a faulty crimp so the hose was replaced.  The other was repaired with a flair saver.
• Popping breaker. Unstuck the raw water wash down pump. The metal impellor got stuck and was causing the breaker to pop.
• “Grey” tank smell. Nope, we were very wrong. It was in fact, permeated black tank hose.  We had upgraded to Trident hoses which are supposed to permeate much more slowly than regular hoses, but it seems we got bad hose. Trident was used in the system going from the tank to the through hull for when we can pump overboard (3+ miles off shore).  All these hoses were replaced and the smell is gone, replaced by a mild rubber smell of new hoses.  Apparently it’s very unusual to have this happen. We’re just very grateful to the Nordhavn folks for their quick service and for replacing all that hose under warranty.
• Watermaker.  The control board on the front watermaker has failed. Tom, from Watermaker came out to help diagnose. Setttings were figured out so we can use it until we get the control board replaced.

Detailing:

We had a bit of drama with this one.  We had scheduled well in advance (a month) to have the boat detailed by the guy who had worked on Blossom while she was in Stuart. Old Port Cove has limited space where this work can be done and they said we couldn’t do it there so we had to find another marina where both Nordhavn and the detailer could work. This is why we came to North Palm Beach Marina rather than Old Port Cove. We called to confirm a few days before arriving and got a call back on Sunday to say he’d be by to start on the boat the next day, Monday morning.  Monday afternoon he called to say he’d be by next week!  We estimated that it would take about 5 days to get detailed. We hoped to be ready to head out to the Bahamas the following week. We knew there was a chance the weather wouldn’t cooperate but we wanted to be ready to grab the first possible opportunity. Cancelling/postponing on us the very day work is to begin is - not cool.

We didn’t know what to do so Martin called James Knight in a bit of a panic to see if he could refer someone. 30 minutes later one of his team showed up at the boat to assess what we needed done.  Hours later we had a quote. The next morning, 3 men arrived and began detailing Blossom. They did a fabulous job and Blossom looks so much better. Thank you James (and Chris, BJ and Manni)!!

Martin the contortionist working on the black tank sensor

Maintenance:  Martin has been burning through his maintenance to-do list.

Dinghy: Outboard serviced. Oil change, filters changed. Grease points attended.

• Raw water system: All raw water strainers were inspected and cleaned and a couple of baskets were repaired.
• Engines: Oil change, filter change, secondary and final filter changes on main, wing and both generators.
• Windless inspected and lubed.
• Maretron black tank sensor died, he replaced it with a new one. (*A special thank you to Alex from Maz Ocean for exceptional service, again!)
• Replaced the flopper lines with Spectra line (non stretchy)
• Updated Maretron ipad software, and helped the developer figure out there’s a glitch in the new version! J
• Recalibrated rudder indicator for autopilots
• Downloaded and activated the explorer charts for the Bahamas onto Furuno and Nobeltec
• Ordered spare parts for the John Deere engines.
• Wired the extraction fan in machinery space to on/off rather than timer switch.
• Lowered the middle float switch in the grey tank. When the tank level reaches this switch it triggers a pump to empty the tank overboard. By lowering the switch, the pump triggers more frequently and there’s less water standing in the tank and what is in there is pumped over board more frequently.
• Replaced the membranes in the forward watermaker (which turned out not to be the problem so now we have spares).
• Mildewcide packs were placed in all outside lockers.

    Phew!

Provisioning:

We also spent the past two weeks provisioning. We bought enough stores for 3 months. This required combing through recipes and updating the spreadsheet I have for our supplies. We rented a car for a week and managed to get to Costco, Publix, Trader Joe's, Bed Bath & Beyond and Total Wine & Liquor :)  

It's surprising how much thought is required to think 3 months out. Food, alcohol, paper goods, bug spray, Rx's, cleaning products, spare parts, quilt fabric ;)... We've got it all. Of course, you can shop in the Bahamas but it's likely to be more expensive and we wanted to not need to shop for anything other than fresh foods. We're sitting low in the water and are well prepared...