Saturday 16 June 2018

NZ to TONGA - Day 4 - Fridge Maintenance, fueling, and shooting stars

Hello!

I was gearing up to write about an uneventful day of sitting lazily in the cockpit with the engine running, less than 5 kts of wind, and minimal seastate, with the biggest decision being whether to read a book or a magazine, when Max asked shortly before lunch time if I could hear water running for our fridge. I couldn't. It turned out that the pump was leaking a little, and it wasn't pushing enough cooling water around the system to keep the refrigerant below its cutoff pressure so the fridge was cutting out while we were motoring.

This seems like a good moment to mention that our freezer is filled to capacity with several hundred dollars' worth of NZ beef, chicken, and pork, enough to do us until we reach Fiji and then some, and also to mention that it will be at least another 24 hours, if not longer before we will get sailing winds again (and the engine compartment will be cooler).

We had talked about getting a spare pump for our fridge while we were in NZ, but given some of the other pressures on our budget, and the fact that we could always rob the pump from our heating system (where we had used our spare fridge pump as our auxiliary pump), we had put it on the 'next season' list. Max was about to get out the vice-grips to break into the heating system when he remembered that we had a very rusty pump from our friends' boat, where he had removed their heating system back in New Caledonia. I had intended to stow it behind a cubby, but it had ended up in an open compartment instead, so I didn't even have to look very hard to find it!

We decided that as with all maintenance, fridge reparations would be best on full tummies (and I already had the meat and cheese out getting warm at room temperature), so we had sandwiches all around, and then Max and Johnathan went to work. As I went off-watch, he had just put power to the pump from the cubby and found that it worked (this is not a given for an aging piece of kit that has been in storage for a while, so it was a relief that it could create suction). By the time I surfaced in time to eat the dinner that Victoria had cooked, they had the fridge running happily again. We have decided to keep it in a manual mode for a few days so we can watch it, but it looks like we are back in business (thanks HONEY!)[Update fridge still working on the second manual run but takes some coaxing as appears engine room maybe is hotter than normal even with the engine temp itself normal. Max]

The other fun-cruise-line activity that occurred during my off-watch was refueling the aft tank from our jerry cans. We brought several jerry cans with us, filled with diesel (normally some would also be gasoline, but this time we maximized our ability to motor) and as we use up fuel from our internal tanks, we transfer diesel from the jerry cans. This used to be an especially onerous undertaking, as the fill hole is in the floor just aft of the binnacle, surrounded on all sides by the cockpit benches, and we had no easy way to make the transfer, but the purchase of a simple siphoning handpump has made all the difference. We still try to move fuel only in calm conditions, and to have a second pair of hands available to hold hoses and spouts steady, but it can now be accomplished without necessarily spilling any of our fuel on our cushions or floor [or me or Johnathan. Max]

This evening I grabbed to chance to 'make memories' with Johnathan and Benjamin, my night-time crew, both of whom have a fondness for hanging out down below playing video games. The sky was perfectly clear, and the outside temperature has warmed up to the point that we weren't shivering under quite so many layers anymore, so we took a couple of cockpit chairs and snuggled together on the aft deck 'watching for shooting stars' (which is actually Mom-code for sitting chatting and listening to the ideas that are never quite important enough to air during the busy day). It is so easy to live in five parallel solitudes, even on a small boat, now that everyone has independent books and games that occupy them. I realized that if I didn't initiate these moments, then they wouldn't happen by accident. We even saw a few shooting stars!

That's about all the news of the day. We are in the surreal situation of motoring across an absolutely placid Pacific, knowing that heavy weather is anticipated for this location early next week. We still have hundreds of miles to go before we are north of the expected system. All is well at the moment, but we are keeping an eye on the forecast and our diesel tanks, balancing the need to cover distance with fuel supplies. We think we have another day of motoring, and then hopefully we can start sailing again.

Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2018-06-06 2:16 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 29°05.64'S 179°55.46'E

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