12 – 2009 – Tahiti Boat Projects

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: We had a lot of off season/ambitious boat projects to do One of the biggest would be to remove, service and replace our 12KW generator into it’s micro sized space. This required a crane and a lot of manhandling. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: Just getting down to the main harbor inside the reef from the Marina is an adventure. We have to stop and call the Port Authority for permission to go by each side of the airport runway and enter the commercial port. Normally, the berth you see here has a cargo ship at it and we had to sneak in between expected arrivals. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: Patrick Chan ( a generator electrician to assist with our voltage issue) was on hand to receive the baby after Bruno’s guys would wrestle it out. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: The generator takes up 90% of the space where it lives and to get it in and out of here took 3+ hours each way and lots of TLC + Struggle. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: It was like a birth! Where you currently see the generator is where our 300 feet of anchor chain and line normally live. They are sitting on the hatch at the top of the photo. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: Here you can see the bottom of the sound cover, dripping oil. The oil was from my making a mess and prevented me from seeing anything around the unit. We would be removing the cover upon putting the generator back in as it was more “in the way” than an effective sound dampener given that the “micro space” does a pretty good job of keeping the noise down. Also…this baby gets HOT, real hot. So hot (in use) that you can’t touch it after it’s been on for 3 minutes. To then touch it, you have to wait at least 3 hours or you’ll get burned. Ain’t boating fun!…..:) Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: The unit is now going to be loaded in a truck and brought to Patrick’s shop. Little did I know at the time that this was a dirt yard out in the open. Rain would be a constant concern. Next time, I’ll look at the “facility” first…… Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: This was the bottom of the sound shield which we had to cut off to remove. Full of oil, it was making my life difficult to service the set. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: While the generator project was in full swing. I had to rebuild the electric toilet and replace the “in line” pump/motor. It was indeed a S*$@&^ job. Isn’t cruising fun? Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: When you do ANY project on a boat about 1/3rd the time is taking things apart and putting them back together that have NOTHING to do with the project itself. This is all the stuff that is stored under the FRONT of our bed next to where the little air conditioner lives. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: We decided to add a single room small air conditioning unit for long hot, no wind motoring trips. These are far more common than you might imagine. The “off watch” can’t get any sleep when it’s 90 in the cabin too. As we are producing plenty of electricity while motoring, we will be able to use it to power this neat little unit that I am installing under our bed. The problem is: Cindy put the 48 lb little guy in a suitcase an brought it all the way to Tahiti. We were missing some parts so I had to wait till friends Dan and Jill brought them down on their last diving trip. The unit then worked great…..FOR 19 HOURS. Then it died. I called the company in the US who said, “no problem, just send it back and we’ll give you another one”……UH….I’m in Tahiti!….Oh… I had to repack it back BOTH WAYS…..Good news is, it now works. Really well. The “off watch” will be very happy. (As long as it keeps working…welcome to boats. This means there is a 60/40 chance; at least to the good). Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: Thank goodness that we are now exercising every other day and I’ve lost 35 lbs. If if weren’t for that, I wouldn’t at all be smiling in this position. This is where I was for several hours! Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: This is what we affectionately call, “Scott’s Garage”. It’s our secondary guest cabin and looks just like a garage without a car and a convertible bed. This room looks like this oh about 1/2 the time! Everything happens here. Parts storage, battery charging (small ones), tools, electrical stuff, chemicals, etc, etc. I know…you all have a “garage” too. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: With sound cover removed and all cleaned up, we make an appointment, called the Port Authority for airport clearances (due to the height of our mast) and did the three hour tango getting the “Genny” back in her “micro space” all cleaned up and ready for ……. testing. Turns out we had a coolant leak and some other work ahead to fix long standing issues. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: This is our main guest cabin and Cindy stores a variety of stuff under here. Some accessible, but mostly…………NOT. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: The glamour of long distance boating……After 20 minutes of this, you get quite a “core” workout. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: This is Gille and Anton. We’ve had a problem with air in hydraulic steering lines and they spent the better part of a day in the on again/off again rain to replace the fluid and push out the air. Testing will occur in April before we go….hopefully sooner. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: This is a tedious and messy job. Hydraulic fluid is like playing with pretty colored OIL. Cindy just loves these days with endless guys tromping around the house doing “STUFF”…..If it only solved the problems more than 50-60% of the time…it would be great! Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: We have loved our AIS (automatic identification system) receiver. It’s like a transponder in an airplane. Problem is, it didn’t always work and we only had the “receive” model. We could see THEM, they couldn’t see US! This is the schematic block diagram of installing the NEW AIS system which does both. It WAS like pulling teeth, but we finally got it to work. And now…..THEY see US TOO. Very handy when meeting LARGE CARGO SHIPS at 2 a.m……anywhere. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: When we first arrived, we could not adapt our 220 volt power for US equipment to the French system. Despite it’s being identical in Volts and Hertz, they use THREE wires, we use FOUR wires. To get the “blessed” air conditioning to work, we needed to do some rewiring and fortunately found the right guy to do it. This new switch should get us through all the 220 volt (50 or 60 cycle) electrical systems from here west. BTW, they’re all that way out here. It’s the literal middle of Summer here now and think Palm Springs in August!!!!! Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: Here it’s 220 volts (216 at the moment), the big amps on the right are the air conditioning system (main one) cooling us off. Sometimes we feel a bit trapped on the boat as outside at noon is like walking around on toasty coals. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: Now where does the yellow one go? Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: This is unfortunately far more typical than we’d like to know. About this time, I’m on Skype internet telephone calling Mike Lonnes while he’s working (often doing something very similar) and saying: “Mike, where does the yellow one go again?”……”I’ll email you later, send me a photo”. Remember folks, this is our living room. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: Now ladies, imagine your husband did this to your dining room table…..OFTEN. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: I leave you with these two parting shots. First, the quite common, “this happens all the time and doesn’t get resolved on the first 4 attempts….3 days later” screen. As of this posting in February 2010, this one still isn’t fixed. April….I hope. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

: And lastly, a “Mission accomplished”, the generator is back in her micro space “big okay”. The big okay is what divers use so they can be seen at long distances to let everyone around know that “I’m Okay”. So,now we just have to find the coolant leak, test the voltage issues, etc. etc. etc. Did I mention that cruising is “Doing boat projects in exotic locations?” Did I mention that it NEVER EVER ENDS!…?……. Papeete, Tahiti – Society Islands – French Polynesia

SV Beach House

12 – 2009 – Tahiti Boat Projects