13. January 2025

Jungle Boatjobs

Boat projects hurricane season 2024 part 1

Our 2024 sailing season ends earlier than expected because Mabul breaks down every time we try to leave Panama. Well, I had put the Panama Canal on ice, but when trying to sail to the Bahamas, Mabul just soaked up the water in the anchor locker until it sloshed into the cabin. After I had repaired the damage in Cayos Albuquerque, I went straight back to the dry dock in Panama because of another problem, only to discover after four weeks of intensive work that the rudder bearing had significant play. Colombia? Nice try… Mabul wants to go back to dry dock. So she stays in Panama and I get to work on the boat projects for the hurricane season 2024.

Before I can and want to start work, I need to rest, relax and take a break from the boat. The work on the drive train in Bocas del Toro has drained me and was only a few days ago when we discovered the loose rudder. This finally gives me the rest and I think I recognize what an approaching burnout feels like. So off the boat, off to Jamaica by plane (the first time in two and a half years for me) and a vacation. A vacation from Mabul, a vacation from her problems and not thinking about what needs to be done when I get back on board.

Bobo gives us a crash course in the Jamaican lifestyle

We spend almost three weeks on the road in Jamaica, take part in a magic mushroom retreat, follow in Bob Marley’s footsteps through Kingston and hike in the Blue Mountains. Then we return to Mabul in the Turtle Cay Marina and enjoy our last days together before Karin leaves the boat for six months to work in Switzerland. Most of the tools stay in the bag and we discover the jungle with all its inhabitants, the marina is almost part of it. We enjoy pina smoothies on the beach and go for a swim. And then it’s time for Karin to leave. Suddenly I’m alone on board.

It’s quite strange at first, all alone on board. Especially with the prospect of being on board for another six months. There’s no more sharing of tasks, so I cook twice a day, do the dishes, the laundry and everything else. Eating alone is no fun in the long run. On the other hand, I have more than enough to do, so I’m sure I won’t get bored. What’s more, the flora and fauna here is simply incredible, the jungle actually starts at the marina. Hummingbirds, toucans, howler monkeys, sloths and many other animals are everywhere. And right next to the jungle is a secluded beach with mostly stunning water. So I will concentrate on the projects and time out from them.

The jungle starts inside the marina

After consolidating, sorting and prioritizing all the lists, the main projects emerge. The rudder bearings are worn and I need to replace them. The crack at the keel-to-hull transition is back and needs to be re-laminated. Both projects are only feasible when Mabul is on the hard. I’ll put that on the shelf for now, as I can do everything else here in the cozy Turtle Cay Marina in the water.

The windlass needs to be refurbished as it is leaking oil, squeaking and the chain sprocket is also defective. The diesel generator also needs a repair that cannot yet be estimated due to oil loss. To improve our energy balance, I install an additional solar panel, convert Starlink to a 12V supply and try to get the battery charger to work at full output. The defective wind instrument on the masthead needs to be replaced and a new bus cable pulled. I also want to replace the backstay, as there are signs of corrosion in the lower part. As part of this, I will put the entire standing rigging to the test and replace other components if necessary. In addition to these major jobs, there are over 100 side projects, which I won’t go into here so as not to scare off the last reader.

I can start the Starlink conversion, the replacement of the wind instrument and the attachment of the trim strips for the headsail track immediately, as everything I need is already on board. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to the other main projects. I need new parts for them, all of which I will order to Germany and bring back to Mabul after my planned home leave in the fall. However, I only know the symptoms of many projects so far and still need to figure out which causes need to be fixed. Only then will I know which parts to order.

Collared Toucans visit every evening

Off we go with the Starlink conversion. We have 2nd generation hardware with the supplied router. Unfortunately, this is intended for home use on a power socket, so our inverter has to be switched on, if Starlink is to supply us with Internet. So we generate 230V AC from our battery DC, only for the Starlink router to convert it back to DC to power itself and the satellite dish. This is not exactly efficient, as there are losses with every conversion. Fortunately, we are not the first to want to run Starlink on 12V DC, so there are countless instructions on the Internet. I chose the variant with my own router and a PoE injector. This way, the router supplied remains operational independently should the new system ever cause problems. The whole thing is done in one evening, the only thing that takes a bit of overcoming is cutting the expensive original cable. Now Starlink only draws 3.5 – 4.5 A directly from the battery. Before, it was 6 – 7A including the loss due to the running inverter. A considerable energy saving, especially when added up over the course of the day.

Next, I pick up the teak trims for the headsail tracks. This project is still a remnant of the deck project from Guatemala and it feels like I’ve already moved the 16 two-meter-long strips from A to B to A 100 times. Time for them to be cut, sanded and screwed to the deck so they are no longer in the way. A nice project, I like working with wood, especially after this fiberglass disaster in Bocas. It took me almost a whole week to get all the strips in place. Glued flat with Sika and fixed with five screws each, as the headsail tracks have a bend along their entire length. The result looks fantastic and will protect our toes from the hard aluminum rails in the future.

At least some teak returns to Mabul’s deck.

SV Aracanga is also planning to come to the Turtle Cay Marina in a few weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing Martin & Rikki and their two blondies Kira and Naja, we haven’t seen each other since the Rio Dulce. Martin wants to prepare Aracanga here for Patagonia and install a diesel water heater. It quickly becomes clear that we will help each other, just like in the Rio. So everything related to the wind instrument, rig and generator has to wait until Martin arrives.

Until then, I’ll be throwing myself into the many side projects, one after the other. First of all, I finally order the additional solar panel. It has to fit on the dodger and have as much power as possible. In the end, I don’t have much choice, with the given dimensions I end up with a maximum peak output of 250W. I could have bought a new 550W panel in Panama for 80 USD, the small 250W panel costs a whopping 249 USD and an additional 60 USD for shipping from Miami to Panama. Hooray.

As Mabul has been connected to shore power for weeks now, an old problem has re-emerged. According to the data sheet, our battery charger can provide 60A charging current, but only about 20A, i.e. a third, reaches the batteries. Even the display on the charger shows an output current of 20A, even though the batteries are half empty and the correct battery profile is set.
If you are connected to shore power in the marina, this is not a big problem. It just takes longer to charge the batteries once at the beginning, after that it no longer matters. The situation is different when our diesel generator is running, which supplies the battery charger with 230V AC. Then it’s all about charging the batteries as quickly as possible with as little diesel as possible.

Test with short, heavy battery cables

The fault diagnosis is actually completed within seconds when I realize how thin and long the cables are that lead to the battery. After all, 60A have to be fed through a four-meter-long cable. After a quick test, I replace the flimsy 6 mm² cables with ones with a 50 mm² cross-section. Of course, this is quicker than it looks, as many holes have to be drilled, cable lugs crimped and cables pulled. Once everything is connected, the charger delivers 60A in all situations according to its display, of which 56A still reaches the batteries. That’s good enough, because the additional costs for even thicker cables to squeeze out the last 4A would be high.

The first four weeks have been filled with boat projects and I’ve made good progress, have already got a lot of things underway and am on schedule for the first time ever. Aracanga will be arriving soon, and then I’ll have another three weeks of hard work. So it’s time to plan my home leave. I also want to go to Colombia for another three or four weeks to improve my Spanish. But first I’ll book a flight to Munich at the end of August. Then Karin will finally knows when I’m coming. She’s got a more than full schedule since she arrived in Switzerland. I’m planning to spend a total of six weeks in Bavaria and Switzerland. We’ll see what happens after that.

The arrival of Aracanga is already announced by a package. It contains parts for Aracanga and a few small parts for Mabul, which I had bought in Germany in the meantime. This means I can get on with the general overhaul of our windlass. It is currently leaking gear oil, the chain sprocket is completely worn out and, last but not least, it has started to squeak.

All bearings, oil seals and gaskets are replaced

Time to take the whole thing apart and replace all the wearing parts. The winch has a simple worm gear and is quickly dismantled. I remove the old (rusty) ball bearings, oil seals and O-rings. I then clean all the parts and quickly realize that the shaft is corroded exactly where the sealing surface of the oil seal is located. Fortunately, I had suspected this and was prepared. I press a Speedisleeve onto the corroded shaft and the repair is done. A Speedisleeve is a very thin-walled stainless steel sleeve with a press-fit collar. These are simply pressed onto shafts where the oil seal is located and provide a brand new, perfect sealing surface. Ingenious! Then reassemble everything and fill up with gear oil. First test: it’s tight. Then I lower and raise the anchor in the marina. And down and up. Dry.

Then the solar panel arrives from the USA. The next project can start. First check the size: it fits. Unfortunately, the dodger has a curved surface and so my planned plastic brackets don’t fit at all. I need aluminum U-profiles, which I screw to the corners of the panel and then glue the whole thing to the dodger with 4000 UV glue. Until the aluminum profile arrives, I take care of the electrical part. I have to run a cable through the fiberglass dodger below deck, from there into one of our electronics cabinets. Here I install an additional solar regulator and benefit from the already improved wiring of the battery charger. As I now have to drill into the dodger to pull the cables anyway, I also install a surveillance camera that we have been sailing through the Caribbean for a long time. It only needs a 12V supply, the rest runs via WiFi. Another week or so passes before all the cables are pulled, the new charge controller is installed and the surveillance camera is ready for use, but then all that’s missing are the mounting brackets for the solar panel.

Aracanga arrives at the Turtle Cay Marina

Then a new chapter in my boat projects for the hurricane season 2024 finally opens. SV Aracanga arrives at Turtle Cay Marina and moors three slips away from Mabul. I’m looking forward to having meals together and more variety in my rather monotonous marina life. First we enjoy the beach together and a sundowner, which ends with the usual technical discussions between Martin and me. After that, it’s clear what we want to do, so the next day we start a project that I’ve been postponing for a long time.

The old, faulty wind instrument from the late 80s has to go and I replace it with a state-of-the-art model with NMEA 2000 connection. This means that the wind data will go directly to our chart plotter and autopilot without having to go through our 80s B&G Hydra 2000 controller. There are hardly any spare parts available for these and I will gradually transfer old components to the modern system. The new instrument needs a special bus cable with a connector and has to be pulled in instead of the old cable. Our mast measures 19 meters in length and is full of lines and cables, so it won’t be easy.

I climb the mast, loaded with tools, a cordless screwdriver and an angle grinder, to remove the old instrument and clear space for the new one. The screws are so corroded that I cut everything off with the angle grinder and grind it flat. Of course, the new instrument also needs different holes in the masthead. Then, with Martin’s help, I pull a thin pull line with the old cable into the mast, from bottom to top, so that the cable always remains stretched in the mast. We then use this pull cord to pull the new cable, together with its bulky connectors, through the mast from top to bottom. Up to this point, everything has worked as planned, but now there’s a glitch. The remaining length at the top tells us that we’ve almost made it, but at the bottom you can pull as hard as you like, nothing moves.

Even with mirrors we have no chance of seeing what is going on inside the mast and what is causing the blockage and how much is really still missing…. Then I remember that Mike, who lives on another boat here, has a USB endoscope camera! Less than ten minutes later, Martin and I are crawling in front of our mast base and fiddling around with the pull line and camera. We quickly see where it’s stuck. Just 20 centimetres from the hole in the base of the mast, the cable has become entangled with another cable. It’s quickly fixed with a long screwdriver, and we have the new end of the cable in our hands!

Martin tries his luck with the camera

In the evening, I take care of the wiring below deck before I make my way to the masthead the next day for probably the tenth time. This time I fasten the new instrument and carefully seal all the connections and cables. Back in the cockpit, things get exciting, I switch on the chart plotter and am immediately relieved to see the new wind data coming in. The autopilot now also has reliable data to follow the wind direction again.

As Martin and I have spent a lot of time in Mabul’s rig over the last three days, we had a comprehensive four-eye rigging check for free. There is nothing to complain about, all the terminals on the mast look good, as do the shrouds and stays. After all, it’s only eight years old. We took the opportunity to dismantle the backstay, including its heavy antenna insulators, and replace it temporarily with a Dyneema line.

I am amazed when I try to save the insulators on the dock. They have wire rope screw connections and are therefore reusable. The problem is that one of them has a crack in the ceramic ring. Unbelievable. So that’s what I was always looking for when I had a stomach ache about our rig and therefore didn’t want to go to the Pacific yet. As the insulator must not be electrically conductive, the cracked ceramic ring is the only thing holding the mast to the stern. That could have ended very badly very soon, what a relief. After seeing the prices for new insulators and thinking about how often we have used our SSB radio, the decision has been made to dispense with new insulators and decommission the SSB in the age of Starlink. This means that the backstay is a single piece and no longer consists of more than three sections, which provides further safety.

Cracked backstay insulator

Then suddenly I’ve completed my entire “Before leaving on vacation” list, with just one small thing left to do: generator. It’s been leaking oil since Guatemala, or actually it always has. Together with Martin, I heave the 60 kilo part out of the engine compartment and put it in the cockpit. The engine block doesn’t have a classic oil pan, but the vertical front end, where all the components are attached, is designed as a cover. And it is precisely between this cover and the rest of the engine block that the engine oil leaks out. A new seal is already on board and I’m hoping for a quick repair, as my flight leaves in a few days’ time.

Before I open the housing, I first want to locate the leak precisely. To do this, I unscrew a sensor and attach a hose and air pump. Then Martin starts pumping diligently, increasing the pressure inside and the oil immediately comes gushing out. I mark the spot and am sure it’s the seal. Of course, everything turns out differently again.
As soon as I unscrew the cover, the extent of the problem is revealed. There is a crack right through the circumferential sealing surface, it can’t be tight! The crack goes so deep through the material that one of the engine mountings is likely to tear off soon. Repair impossible. At least a sustainable one…
So I order a new cover and all the parts I need to replace it, or so I think. Delivery time six weeks, they say. It all comes from China, they don’t have anything like that in stock. In the meantime, the generator goes into the cockpit locker and awaits my return with the longed-for parts.

Here the crack that goes almost all the way through the housing

A few days later I say goodbye to Aracanga, no idea when I will see the four of them again. By the time I get back, they’ll probably be through the Panama Canal and waiting for a weather window to Patagonia. Maybe I’ll see them again in the South Pacific, who knows… I leave Turtle Cay Marina in a taxi to Panama City and less than 24 hours later I’m in Munich. It’s the end of August and I’m cold.

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