Hurry up and wait
currently still in: Lake Worth, Florida

Over the weekend we watched the weather, and it looked as though a window for crossing to the Bahamas - the period of light southerlies and westerlies before a frontal passage - was nicely shaping up for Wednesday or so.  We hit the grocery store and West Marine, got our mail delivered to a local marina, and started getting excited about heading out.  And then we found a crack in our watermaker.

We didn't test our watermaker - a reverse-osmosis thingy that turns saltwater into fresh - until our offshore passage.  Part of this is because water is free and easy to obtain along the ICW, so we won't need it until the Bahamas, but the main reason is that the muddy, tannic waters of the ICW aren't good for the watermaker membrane.  We'd just replaced a part in it at the end of our previous cruise, so we figured it was a pretty good bet that it would work fine.  But when we fired it up in the middle of the second day, it leaked all over the place.  It was obvious where the leak was coming from, a fitting in the high-pressure Clark pump that's central to Spectra watermakers, so we decided to try tightening it up when we got to Florida, and then see if it worked okay or if we'd need to buy parts.

Well, on Friday Britt pulled out the leaky fitting and found it was badly corroded.  Worse, the place in the pump where it screwed in had a big crack. Cleaning up the fitting and slathering it with sealant before screwing it back in didn't solve the problem, so we phoned Spectra's tech support line, but I guess they must have knocked off early, because nobody was there.

On Monday we called again.  "Looks like you need a new Clark pump."  Fortunately, Spectra has a lifetime warranty on them.  (We've had various things go wrong with our watermaker over the years we've had it, and although clearly it's not as durable as we'd like, we have to say that Spectra's customer service has always been spectacularly good.) They gave us the number of their local dealer, but there was no answer when we called, so we called Spectra again and arranged for them to UPS a new pump to us. We sprang for two-day air, not wanting to wait around for any longer than we have to, but still, the pump's not going to arrive until tomorrow, and we're almost certain to miss our weather window.

There are quite a few things that need fixing, but that we're putting off until next cruise (when we will be smart and arrange for all the parts we need before arrival at the boat!): our wind indicator reads zero in anything short of a gale, our wind generator doesn't make nearly as much power as it used to, our refrigerator box really ought to have better insulation.  We could put off the watermaker repair too, but we wouldn't be able to do the kind of Bahamas cruising we enjoy.  We'd have to limit our showers - which isn't fun when you're snorkeling daily - and stay close to the inhabited islands where we can get more water, instead of spending long stretches of time in the remoter areas.  Hopefully another weather window will open up soon, and we'll be on our way.

- posted by S/V Windom @ 4/03/2007 [link]