Water in the right places

I had a much better day today. I learned that my washer flood was a result of operator error: I didn’t have the filter housing in tight so the water just came right out the front of the machine instead of into the tub. This morning I did a load of wash and that brought the level in the tank down low enough that I could start making water. First I filled every bottle we have with filtered drinking water, then I filled a 5-gallon carrier with regular tap water.

The pressure on the feed pumps on the watermaker is a higher than the manual recommends, so I ran it on one pump only in case I’m in danger of burning out the pump. The literature gave some reasons why the pressure would start to increase, and after checking the easy stuff we came to the conclusion that it’s time for a new membrane. These things used to cost five or six hundred dollars but I guess with so much reverse osmosis going on around the world the price is less than a third of that now. I got a recommendation from the Manta list on vendors and put in an order right away.

Meanwhile I let the watermaker run on solar power for a couple of hours on just the one pump and made about a third of a tank of water. Jack called the watermaker manufacturer about the pressure and he said it sounded fine, so tomorrow I’ll run it again on both pumps and should be able to get close to filling the tank.

My other job today was to change the map card on the chartplotter. Readers who’ve been paying attention will remember that when we got to North Carolina we ran off the chart and when I put the new card in it wouldn’t read it. It turned out to be the pin connector inside and I was so nervous about changing the card because I didn’t want to have to open up the machine and insert the pins manually, as the repairman in North Carolina did. I took the old card out and very, very gently eased the new card onto the pins, trying to feel if they were all engaging the holes before I gave it the last little push. Success! Now have a clear idea of where we are without having to look at the iPad.

Jack’s day was a little less than successful. He worked on the outboard, cleaning out the carburetor and checking the fuel line. We were about the lower the dinghy to see if it would start but it was quite windy and with serious wakes from the gazillions boats that showed up this afternoon so we abandoned that idea until later when it calms down.

He also spent some time on the phone chasing down an answer to our autopilot woes and then once again cleaned and checked every electrical connection of every instrument to be sure there aren’t any loose ones. Electricity is all black magic to us, and the error message we get doesn’t even make sense to the authorized service repairmen. I blame the Brits. That’s who made our instruments.

It’s stunningly beautiful here. Being out of the southern humidity is a joy and we actually have to use a blanket at night.