Happy 2019! 🙂

I once read that owning a boat and full-time cruising means doing a lot of boat work in exotic places…well, it’s 100% true! Half the battle is just “diagnosing” the problem. Then you add limited resources in the islands on top of that and it gets stressful real quick. But hey, at least the water looks pretty…right?

Since leaving the states we’ve had four boat issues, so we’ve been using each stop south to assess and do work…it hasn’t been all work, we’ve managed to mix in some fun of course but more on that in the next post.

1. Windlass

Nothing scarier than this not working properly as your trying to anchor in a tight anchorage. We had just dropped the anchor in Great Guana Cay and as I let off the remote the anchor chain just kept running. We unplugged the remote thinking this will stop it, nope…now it’s time to panic. Physically one of the hardest things I’ve had to do was holding chain thats pulling your boat and holding it away from the windlass while Brent went below to completely disconnect the batteries underneath our v-berth, which btw is currently filled with food/supplies – not fun but it finally stopped and thank goodness because I thought my arms were going to pop off. Leaving Guana Cay Brent had to manually pull up the anchor for the first time (ever) and we headed over to Harbour View Marina in Marsh Harbour on New Years Eve to assess. Then on New Years Day we tore apart the v-berth and tightened up a loose nut. Tested out the remote, up and down were working so we pulled in all the chain from off the deck. However, still a TBD.

2. Deep cycle battery maintenance

Yearly maintenance that needed to be done and should’ve been done before we left Florida. It took an entire day to remove all 6 batteries and battery box from the engine room. Carefully clean and fill the cells using only distilled water, I was able to buy 7 gallons at Maxwell’s in Marsh Harbour. Why distilled? Distilled water adds minerals and chemicals that keep the batteries happy. Tap or bottled water will decrease the battery life. Then reassemble and put back in the engine room.

3. Bilge + Small crack in keel

The saddest of them all considering we just did bottom work back in October. Our bilge has been running non-stop, so we knew we were taking on water from somewhere. Brent had to jump in and check the bottom of the hull, sure enough theres a small crack behind the keel. For an immediate but not long term solution we had to use some underwater 3M marine sealant and apply it to the small crack. To help the sealant bonding (takes 48 hours), we also used two pieces of versa tape. So far, it’s worked and the bilge is running normal – fingers crossed. But in the long term the boat will need to be hauled out again and repaired.

4. Main tank water leak

This has got to be the most obnoxious problem, especially while doing dishes, washing my hair, or brushing your teeth. It took some serious leak hunting to get to the conclusion that the water line wasn’t venting which was causing too much vacuum and causing air to get in. So we had to clean out the vent. Happy to report it’s working normal again as well.

phew, what a way to start our cruising season!

Cheers from the Bahamas!