Rest and Maintenance

Today was a day to recover physically after a rather grueling week of sailing, three 'all nighters" and two days that lasted 30 hours!  We are not as young as we used to be and need a little recovery time.  Also, Astraea needed a little maintenance.

Despite the rigors of the trip Astraea had done quite well thus far.  This has really been a "shake down" cruise as she has not had much sailing on her since her last yard work and except for two trips from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay really not done any significant sailing since November.

One annoying problem was that the fresh water system had sprung a major leak while in Monterey.  Upon leaving Monterey I discovered that the tank that was "on line" with the water pump was totally empty.  I had just filled it in Monterey.  Also, when I turned on the electric pressurized water system, I could hear water running somewhere but could not find where.  I therefore decided to just leave the pressurized water off and use the back-up, the foot pump at the galley sink.  Really more of a nuisance than a serious problem.  That is unless I ended up losing all my fresh water!  However I had three cases of bottled water onboard so I was not that worried. 

Today I determined to find the source of the leak.  I removed all the deck boards in the cabin sole (the floor of the main cabin of the boat) to expose all the plumbing.  When I turned on the water pump I could hear water "gushing" and the bilge was filling with fresh water, but I could not find where it was coming from.  Finally I found the source of the leak and it was under the new hot water heater, which is in the bilge aft of the engine.  This was going to be a major undertaking.  For the next almost two hours I disconnected all the wiring and connections to the new hot water heater and lifted it out.  There was no piping below it.  Then I realized that the water supply line to the hot water heater had been missing before I took it out.  I fished around in the area under where the hot water heater had been located and found the disconnected fresh water hose.  The culprit!  However had I been a bit more observant I could have avoided the two hours of work to remove and reinstall the hot water heater.  I think my tired brain was not working up to speed or I would have noticed this.  The problem is now fixed and Astraea oce again has hot and cold running water!

Also climbed the mast and replaced the bulb in the 20 point light that had burned out.  Also did some cleaning and transferred fuel from tank #2 to tank #1.  

A long afternoon nap was followed by some titivating ship and organizing things again.  Had dinner at a local Thai restaurant and now ready to hit the rack early tonight.  Tomorrow is another day of rest and maintenance and then on Sunday it will be time to head for Catalina Island, last stop before San Diego.