Day 219 Back in Point Hudson again.

Blue came on deck during our trip back from from MacKays Bay.  It's the first time she has come up on deck while the engine was running.  She wandered around the deck without a care in the world.  Peering over the side and looking down into the water.  We kept a close watch over her stroll.  The boys stayed down below.  They had no interest in coming up.  She stayed up there until just before we arrived at Point Hudson.

We checked in with Sea Marine about what we had found wrong during the 12 days we were out.  They arrived at Zephyr this afternoon and started working on correcting the problems.  They fixed the stereo--stopped working.  Took off the grounding strap that rides on the propeller shaft and grounds the electrical systems on board.  It wouldn't stay in place and made lots of noise as it vibrated against the propeller shaft.  The sump pumps for the showers has been also fixed.  Now when you hit the switch for the stern pump, it actually pumps the stern sump instead of the one in the bow.

Now the anchor light has them all perplexed.  It had worked fine after it was installed.  We had let it work its magic for several days after it was installed.  It came with a photo cell that turns it on automatically at dusk and off at dawn.  A great feature so that if you are on shore at sundown, you don't have to rush back to the boat to turn it on.  Well, we checked it out while on the trip and found it didn't work.  We turned on our "running" lights instead while we were at anchor.  These are lights at the bow and stern on board.  Better to see us than not during the night at anchor.  The lights do work but a cigarette lighter makes more light than our anchor light.  It glows at the brightness of a dim star.  They have ordered a replacement for it and hope to have it some time next week.  No real rush as we will need to stay here during the diesel class I will be taking this next week.  

Today was clean up Zephyr, do laundry and run errands.  One of the reasons we returned was we were out of clean clothes.    It get quite chilly out there so you dress in layers.  This tends to go through clean clothes fast, especially long sleeved shirts.  I'm not sure I want to get to close to my long johns.  They are pretty ripe by now.

With laundry done, we took off on errands.  Lunch at Sea J's and then over to West Marine for some line and other things we needed.  Then down to a marine exchange.  This is a store that buys old boat equipment and resells it.  We traded some of the things we found on Zephyr for a wind scoop that we will be using a lot once we get South next year.  It fits in the hatches and helps pull fresh air inside Zephyr to keep her cooler.  Not a lot of  use for it this far North.

With the oil pressure switch going bad, I stopped at NAPA and bought the two that they had in stock.  One for now and one for later as needed.  It's already in a plastic bag stowed in the bilge.  I installed the new one tonight and will start the engine tomorrow to make sure it works properly.  

Our replacement fresh water pump arrived while we were gone.  The existing one that I installed back on May doesn't like to shut off once it reaches the pressure it is set at.  The manufacturer sent me a replacement.  I'll be installing it later next week.  While no water leaks from the pipes, every time it runs it uses lots of unnecessary amps from our batteries and that's not good when you are our cruising.  It needs to run, get to the right pressure and shut off.  I don't want it to keep turning it self on and off when it is not necessary.

Well, it's after midnight.  Bed time.

Have a great weekend.