2015: In the Marina & Keeping Busy

Preveza Marina: (Part 1)

A view over Preveza Marina.  Yes, another trip up the mast. 
To work out why the mast head light is still flashing...

Preveza in splendid summer colour

Making Life Easy.  In 2014, we'd discovered a neat trick.  Having spent too much time on the hard in boatyards over the years, we experimented with the options Preveza offered.  We'd found & booked space in the Preveza Marina a week prior to haul out.  Aside from its perfect location at the quiet end of the town, we could make most of our "leaving the boat" preparations with quite a few more conveniences.  Haul out was made with only a couple of days (not weeks or months!) on the hard before flying out.  This experience turned out so well, we gave it a shot again at the start of the season - only in reverse.  Splash after a few days then put-put over to the marina.  Perfect.

Generator Would Not Start.  I tried and tried but it started only after a lot of attempts.   I thought this was probably because the generator had been idle for eight months or may be the glow plugs weren’t quite right.  The next day when I tried, the engine would not turn over properly.  I cleaned all the terminals I could access and the engine started but then wouldn’t turn off when I pushed the cut off switch.  Finally, I managed to stop the engine by removing a ‘plug’ on the circuit board.  Time to call in the professionals! 

So, called on Stefan (yet again!) and, after an hour and a half of tracing circuits, looking at wiring diagrams, playing with switches, trying to start the engine without success, we found that the cut off wire goes via a water temperature sensor  on the engine block before it connects with the cut off terminal block.  This wire terminal at the temperature sensor had simply fallen off and so there was an interrupted circuit.  Once Stefan re-joined the wires all was as it should be and everything worked.  I have stated before that while cruising you meet some of the nicest people in the world that work on boats and Stefan is one of those.  He was so mortified that he didn’t find the fault quicker that he made his bill (we thought!) ridiculously cheap. He is also one of those people who is more than happy to explain exactly what he is doing and why, so I always learn heaps from these guys. 

Oh look!  Our new neighbour is another Hunter

Anti-Siphon Valve Broken.  Well, not quite.  I had retightened the hose clamp near the engine water inlet pump, several times, but it still leaked from there, or so I thought.  When we stopped in a marina we pulled the cover off the engine and, after starting the engine, it was soon plainly obvious that the water leak was coming from the siphon break, which sits a couple of feet above the raw water inlet hose.  One of the plastic fittings of the anti-siphon valve had sheared and it was slowly but constantly dripping water down on to the raw water inlet hose and then running along the bottom of the hose to the water pump.  Duh!  But what a coincidence – it never occurred to me that it could be anything but the newly fitted water hose.  Anyway, the broken siphon valve was easily replaced and all works without any water leak.  I might add that Stefan assisted with this discovery and repair too.