Serendipity exiting
Serendipity exiting
Picture of Arnd

Arnd

2024-03-10 Maintenance day on Zanshin

Early Sunday

While drinking my first coffee of the day I checked my e-mails and did other online activities. When I’d made my second cup it was time to begin my shipboard maintenance tasks aboard Zanshin.

Second house battery bank
Second house battery bank

The first big task was to replace the 3 connecting cables in the second battery bank with the bus bars, then pack the box so that the batteries can’t move and tighten down the whole assembly.

8 of 14 batteries removed
8 of 14 batteries removed

I’ve now got 8 of the original dead batteries on the aft deck (the other 4 were already disposed of on Carriacou). When I get more energy, I’ll bring them down to the transom so that I bring them into IWW on Monday.

Serendipity passing by
Serendipity passing by

As I was working on the cables, I heard anchor chain noise and went to look. The beautiful Serendipity, which had just arrived the previous day, was departing again. They passed by quite close, but I’m no longer in the channel so I wasn’t worried as there was lots of room in the channel.

Afternoon

My maintenance work stopped for the day just a while ago. The automatic sensor on the bilge pump is no longer detecting water, so I thought I’d polish the sensor mechanism to see if that would bring it back to life. I found some steel wool but managed to separate one strand and essentially garotte one finger. I’ve bandaged the wound and cleaned up the sprayed blood – but I’m not going to work in the dirty bilge until the cut closes up. 

Soggy Dollar Bar view
Soggy Dollar Bar view

I went ashore after the last bridge opening (I’d used the MarineTraffic site to determine that no big yachts were waiting to enter) and was told I should give a Chinese restaurant called White Swan a try. It wasn’t a long walk and the food was tasty, although I don’t think I trust the signage that said “NO MSG”.