It is a windy day aboard Zanshin, this morning there are gusts of over 30knots in the protected anchorage at Falmouth, which means that “out there” the conditions are going to be much stronger. I’ll hunker down and try to fix things aboard Zanshin despite the rolling motion and hunting at anchor.
First job was the foot-operated switch to turn on the guest shower sump pump. It is a very thing tube and the switch is operated by air pressure and that turns on a 15-second relay which, in turn, operates the pump. The pressure switch is located in the back of the compartment under the sink and, not surprisingly, is difficult to access. I finally got it out and discovered that it was still partially working but that the pressure system had collapsed and didn’t trigger the relay. I’ll put in a manual switch next to the light switch to replace that and leave the foot operated switch in place but won’t repair it.
I then took the pump of the guest head apart and found the leak, luckily I had a spare rubber gasket handy and fixed that. But then my woes began – there’s a groove for the O-ring and neither the old nor the new O-ring would seat completely and stick! As I have to turn the pump assembly upside-down to get it to fit I am having enormous difficulties with this simple last step. I’ve tried grease and Vaseline to get the O-ring to stick in place with little success. I might go get an adhesive and glue the da**ed thing into place.
An hour later I hit upon what I’ll call the “other operation” 🙂 I used some scotch tape to hold the O-ring in place, then once it was seated and the 4 screws partially tightened I eased out the tape and the O-ring remained in the groove. What a hassle to get a simple piece attached.
I went ashore for happy hour and had two Pilsners from 2 six 8 and then walked to English Harbour. I had made a sandwich for lunch so wasn’t very hungry – not hungry enough for a whole pizza or dinner meal. But I remembered that the BLT at the AYC was tasty and small enough so I went there for an early dinner. Although only a couple of tables were taken, I sat down and waited for 15 minutes without being served, so I got up and left. But since I was now close to the dinghy I opted to return to the boat and threw the 2 remaining Merguez on the BBQ along with the remaining baked potato and made my own satisfying meal.