South Dock
19th January 2014
There were a few jobs that I wanted to get out of the way before Sumara is lifted into the yard. My poor Eberspacher had conked out after the Jan Mayen trip so I sent it off for servicing. Easier said than done because it is mounted in a totally inaccessible spot under the aft deck. This very small area also has the exhaust swan neck and various bilge pump pipes and sea cocks. Access is by wrapping your arm in through tiny locker hatches and everything is done by mirrors and taking snaps on the phone! Without my Festool work light I think I would have given up. In any case the newly serviced heater eventually went back in place using about 8,000 different tools and wearing Puggy gloves to stop the shards of razor sharp tubing slicing up my delicate mitts. I went below to start it up but nothing showed on the screen. I had a further mooch around checking the wires etc and when I was taking out the fuse I noticed the control panel lit up. I fiddled with it and cleaned up the fuse and it all worked well. I reckon it was probably the scruffy fuse that was the problem in the first place. Maybe I could have saved the £600.00 service fee but at least it should perform well during our Arctic trip this year. Also on my to do list was to service the cooker and move the pressure tank into Sumara’s forepeak. This will free up space under the cooker for pots and pans and keep all the paraffin tanks together. The tank is now mounted as is the new fuel filter. I’ve just got to service the cooker, polish it up and pipe it all in. Nice evening jobs for next week.


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