Today we decided to take a chill day on the boat, expecting another rainy day but turned out beautifully actually. Still, nice to hang out in the sun and work on a couple of chores.

In the morning we take the laundry in, but before we do, I pump up the dinghy (250 pumps, it is very soft) and take a stab at maybe trying to fix the leak. I know it is (mostly) leaking from the valve, you can hear it when you put your ear to it and also I have read that 95% of dinghy leaks are from the valves. Over the past few months the amount of leakage has gone from zero through a little to a lot and I suspect always through the valve. Looked online for an Avon dealer in the Caribbean but so far no luck. My guess is that the valve is not closing properly – perhaps dirt or something on the inside end. So before pumping up, I blast some silicone lubricant spray down the valve hole, then pump it up.

Spoiler alert – it works very well. The dinghy hardly leaks at all. We’ll see if it lasts.

So we take the laundry in, I deal with some Fidelity issues in the morning (they are having trouble with SendFax over VPN) and then tackle a job I have been postponing. I am going to try and fix the Quick Chain Counter and remote operation switch at the back of the boat. If I can fix that then we can operate the windlass from the helm.

First step is to dissemble the windlass and check the magnet and sensor wires. I know the sensor wire is disconnected from the control panel (I can see it) and I thought that of the two sensor wires, one was cut completely out. I thought I might be able to access it from the top of the windlass. Turns out no, you can’t but the sensor magnet needed cleaning, and I cleaned and greased the windlass too so not a complete waste of time. Looking at the wiring diagram it’s possible the sensor being disconnected would stop the control panel from lighting up so I want to reconnect it first. Turns out the two wires are together and just need to be stripped a bit, then I can connect them to the wires going back to the control panel.

Hold on there sparky, not so fast. The only way I can strip that wire is to climb down into the chain locker. I’ve been in there before and it is not fun. But no option. This time I take off the handheld windlass controller and the latch for the chain locker cover so I don’t break them and they don’t cut me. It takes me two tries to figure out how to get in there and be comfortable enough to be able to do any work. Hopefully, I can get out again. I have to go in and out twice but manage to do it without getting beat up too badly. The wiring was tricky too but I Macgivered it alright for a test at least.

Start the engine, does it work? Nope. OK, that’s not the issue. I’m going to have to check the wiring underneath the forward bunk which is a pain but Christy reminds me she has taken all the sheets off to the laundry so much easier. I clean up my gear and Christy and I do other things.

While I was doing that, Christy was sanding and teak oiling the console table in the cockpit. Looks really good, though our 120 V tools do not work with our little converters and our 120V Inverter is blown so none of our 120V, high amp devices can be run. Can’t run the coffee maker, blender, air fryer or sander. The air fryer fried the 120V inverter …

Will get a new inverter in St. Maarten.