New Water Maker taking shape

Ever since Parker Hannifin bought out Village Marine water makers we have been faced with ever increasing prices for the "proprietary" membranes - all the while the quality of the membranes has continued to decline and warranty has dropped from three years to one. After realizing that I was going to have to pay $600 for a new set of membranes I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and buy a commercial off the shelf pressure vessel and go with a standard Dow Filmtec membrane - the new pressure vessel and membrane cost less than just the replacement Village Marine "proprietary" membranes alone. As part of this process, since we have spare DC capacity on the boat, we decided to go ahead and purchase a new higher volume pressure pump and motor so that we could increase our water production capability from 8GPH to 13GPH.

We received our new EchoTec high pressure water pump and motor from Customs on Wednesday (29 December 2010). The St Lucian Customs guy was a jerk - just had to humor him. We were able to get everything without paying duty but did have to pay a broker to move the parts from FedEx to Rodney Bay Marina.

As soon as I got the pump out of the crate I verified that my existing high pressure hose from the pump to the pressure vessel/membrane would work (it does) so the rest of the installation should go well.

Yesterday morning after breakfast of pumpkin pie and coffee, Lesley and I started installing the new pump and motor. Turned out that the dimensions for the new pump and motor on the EchoTec website were wrong - the assembly is actually smaller than spec'd so it fit where the old pump assembly had been making installation a WHOLE lot easier. The DC motor was a little bit longer and the drive gear on the new pump was on the opposite side taking up just a bit more access area where I normally store engine spares. The plastic tub that I used for the spares would not clear the pump drive gear so bought two smaller tubs!



I had already run the new heavier gauge
wire (#2) for the new pump/motor but had not yet installed the terminal lug ends, motor relay, and power posts. Completed that and pulled out the old #6 wire and then pulled in a new #16 control wire from the power panel down to the motor relay. Still need to fabricate a cover for the relay and power posts.



After reconnecting the plumbing we started the new pump up and everything worked great. Flow rate was set at 8GPH (existing membrane recommended flow rate) and noted that the pressure was only about 600psi - should be great next season when we complete the replacement of the remaining Village Marine Tech "Proprietary parts".

St Lucia

We arrived at Soufriere, St Lucia on Tuesday afternoon 21 Nov and took a mooring off Malgretout. This is a nice mooring area at the base of the Petite Piton. We are the last sailboat on the left of this picture. We generally prefer to stop here as clearing in is easy, especially with implementation of the new eSEACLEAR entry notification system. All of our paperwork was filled out on-line and all I had to do was send arrival notification and once I walked into customs wait while paperwork was printed and sign. Then off to immigration which was also easily accomplished.




Once we got settled in we took a dink ride around the
area and could see damage that remained from
Hurricane Thomas that hit here late in Oct 2010.












Locals said that they had never seen so much rain.
Evidence of the destruction is still plainly visible.

Lunar Eclipse

We left Bequia yesterday morning at 0430 and when I go up on deck at about 0400 and started removing the anchor chain snubber and some other deck gear it seemed unusually dark. I mentioned to Lesley that the moon must have set and that the first part of our trip to St Lucia was going to be darker than we had planned. Lesley then mentioned that there was supposed to be an eclipse and so I went back on deck and started looking for the moon. Sure enough - a strange reddish orange orb was visible in the Western sky. As we departed the reddish orange color faded slowly but the moon was still darker than normal. As we crossed Bequia channel the shadow line from the earth slowly moved from the top of the moon to the bottom and was then gone.

Glad we got to see this event.

Now we are anchored off Malgretout, near Soufriere St Lucia and there is a tropical low, Invest 95, somewhere near Barbados giving us lots of rain with almost no breeze at all.

Close call today

As we approached Soufriere from Bequia today we had a container ship "Tropic Unity" approaching from our starboard aft quarter. I called the ship on 16 and they responded - Tropic unity this is Grainne - we are the sailboat on your port bow - what are your intentions? Several radio transmissions later we were forced to change course to avoid a collision. Throughout this conversation the "Tropic Unity" kept replying to the sailboat on his starboard bow! There was no sailboat on his starboard bow! We are convinced that the person at the helm was confused as to port and starboard. I called them back on the radio and asked the helmsman if he understood port and starboard but got no response! From the dialect of the person that I was speaking with he was not US, not a Caribbean Islander, was probably from the Pacific Island Nation of the Philippines! No excuse - just a very scary encounter - glad is was during the day!

Turtle Sanctuary

Friday morning we went to town to purchase a few vegetables and ended up walking about 3 miles to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary on Park Beach. It was a nice long walk but well worth it once we saw what these people are doing. In an attempt to help the odds of survival, young turtle hatchlings are captured and then raised in captivity until they are about 5 years old. The more mature turtles are then released back into the wild where their chances of survival to full maturity are somewhat improved.

http://turtles.bequia.net/index.htm

Watermaker Problems

Just before we left Florida in November I purchased 2 new Village Marine Tech water maker membranes. Immediately after installing them we determined that the water quality did not meet spec so have been dealing with the company in an attempt to resolve the problem. There have been lots of email exchanges - they ask questions and I answer - but no suggestions on remedy. Really getting tired of the company so making a move now to solve this on our own once and for all. Plan to post a writeup and photos of the solution as we progress.

Hanging out in Bequia

We've been hanging out in Bequia, enjoying the anchorage and the weather - especially after checking out the US weather as of late.

Have been redoing some of the boat exterior teak and had to replace the fresh water pump yesterday as it was not delivering normal pressure to all of the plumbing fixtures. Luckily we found the exact replacement here at "Piper Marine" so we are back in business. Looking like the pressure sensor was bad on the old pump so will rebuild the old pump this summer and use it for a future spare.

Lesley bought two maps of the Caribbean - one for Buzz (he knows who) and we picked up some wine, veggies, buns for dinner, etc. Fixing some Nurnberger wurst and fried potatoes for dinner.

Had a nice dinner ashore last night a L' Auberge - lobster bisque, grilled yellow fin tuna in a Pinot Noir reduction, green salad, and polenta provencale. Chef came out and talked with us and we told her how we enjoyed the lightly cooked tuna and the sauce.

Shower time!

Anchor float

I've been meaning to post a photo of the float that we use to mark the location of our anchor. We've found that very often out here people "THINK" they know where their anchor is! We don't think - we "KNOW" and we mark the anchor in part as a way to defend our turf! Really helps us chase off those who like to get just a bit too close.........


Lesley calls this Li'l Oscar

Salvage Diver

Several days ago I was replacing the zinc on the Nissan Outboard and I needed a small screw driver. I asked Lesley to get a small driver that I use for everything and pass it over. I had the OB in the dink and was holding it with one hand and trying to hold the boat with the other - told her to go ahead and throw it - I missed a catch and the screwdriver went swimming. So yesterday after returning to this spot and re anchoring we went swimming, checked the anchor etc. Lesley said she was going to look for the screwdriver - I said yeah right - like you have a snowballs chance in hell of finding it. Three dives later she found it.


The screw driver in not even 6inches long...........





Diver services available - contact Lesley................

Anchor practice

We arrived Admiralty Bay, Bequia on Saturday afternoon 27 Nov and anchored close to the spot we normally use. We backed down as normal to make sure tha anchor was set but for some reason we did not snorkel to check the anchor. Overnight we had real blustery conditions with rain and wind gusting to near 30 knots. Well, about 4:30 am I got up to check the neighborhood and noticed that we were not in the same spot that we had started out the night. I woke Lesley up and we started the engine just as a real heavy rain shower and high winds hit again. We got the anchor up and motored back out of the anchorage waiting for the rain to die down just a bit so that we could re anchor. We finally dropped anchor again at about 5:00am and after drying off we had coffee and just waited to see what would happen.

Everything was fine - fast forward to Monday afternoon - we were sitting on the boat when another squall hit and as we watched a boat in front of us "Restless" hailing port Osteville - no nationality flag - drifting back towards us dragging their anchor. No one was aboard and we did not cherish the thought of having them drag into us - so we picked up anchor and moved to the Southern anchorage off Princess Margaret Beach. We anchored in 10 ft of water and snorkeled to check the anchor which was well set. On the way back to the boat I spotted a lobster hole with 15 small lobsters all looking up at me!

This anchorage is rolly and after a rough night we were awake anyway - we had our morning coffee then hauled anchor and moved back to the North hoping that our previous spot was free. Luck held and "Restless" had moved up and reset their anchor and we re anchored (and snorkeled to check it). Restless then picked up anchor and sailed away and we had a great nights sleep!